Strickland Shares Values He Will Bring to Governor's Office

Strickland Shares Values He Will Bring to Governor's Office

Speech to the Columbus Metropolitan Club
August 22nd, 2005

When you were growing up, did anyone here imagine that this is the kind of government Ohio would end up with? When you were a young person didn't you hold an almost pure, optimistic faith in your heart that no matter where America's future went that Ohio would be leading the way? Do you remember that unshakable feeling of confidence you had when your mind turned to the future?

That's the essence of hope.

And, friends, that hope and faith in the future is all we need to begin turning our state around. And I'm here to tell you I think we can get back to that place. I want to be governor to revive our economy, to make our schools among the best in the nation and to restore honor and integrity to Ohio's government.

Over the course of the coming months I will be laying out my specific proposals to restore Ohio's greatness.But before I can do that, I believe it is important to talk with the people of Ohio about the content of my faith and values and how they will inform the decisions I will make as governor, whether those decisions relate to the ethics of my administration or the policies I will pursue.

Like many Ohioans, my values are the product of two primary influences: the Church and mom. Where I grew up in southern Ohio, church was more than just where you went to hear a sermon on Sunday, it was the center of the community, a place of fellowship and laughter and good food.

My mother was good beyond description. Her generous spirit of kindness, her unending gift of love to us nine kids showed us how to stand up for each other and look out for those around us.

She and dad raised us in very tough times.

One of my earliest memories is of a fire that destroyed our home. I vividly remember my sister carrying me out of the burning house in the middle of the night. We were all safe, but the house and everything in it was lost. My folks had nothing. No shoes, no clothes, no insurance. Nothing, save nine kids. Dad ended up taking the old chicken shack and created a place where could live until he converted our barn into a permanent home.

But through all the hardship we faced growing up, my mother never showed a hint of bitterness, never once felt sorry for herself, and never gave up on us. What she did was accept the struggle and faced each day with kindness, warmth and love.

That moral grounding has charted the course of my life. From my early years in the ministry, to caring for neglected and abused children, to treating the mentally ill, to serving in the United States Congress, the thread that connects my life is a desire to lift up, support and, in some way, to share the burden of others. I don't think that makes me noble. I'm just doing what I was taught.

And now I'm running for governor because my past experiences give me faith in the power of the human spirit and the conviction that things can be better for all Ohioans. (And believe me; if you learn anything from living in a chicken shack, it's that things can get better).

Now, I understand that faith is an easy word to misunderstand. Faith doesn't simply mean to factually believe in a particular occurrence. It means to live and breathe the reality of one's personal and or religious convictions. According to my personal understanding of the Christian faith, it means to follow the example of Jesus into a life of service to others.

It is a moral necessity for me to make this teaching the central organizing principle of what I do.

Does this mean that I'm always successful? No. But I want this to be the direction of my heart, and as a public official my vision for Ohio will be rooted in my conviction—my deep-abiding faithful conviction—that we are all part of the same human family with shared responsibilities, and that the government's relationship to its citizens is always best when it is rooted in servanthood.

This is not to say that the government has a proper role in taking sides in religious disputes. Nor does it mean that divisive social disagreements can be settled in the public square. There are complex issues and competing points of view which exist even among churches, mosques and synagogues. Part of the glory of a free society is the ability to look beyond our disagreements and embrace the values and recognize the needs that bind us together as one people.

One of the most common questions you get asked when you enter into a campaign for public office is: how do you define your personal ideology? Over the years, I have been proud of my stance as an independent member of Congress. I didn't run for office to tow anyone's political agenda. I went to Congress to try to advance the cause of justice as best I saw it.

Because of my voting history, I'm often described as a populist, and I perhaps that's as good a definition as any. But I can't help but feel that all the labels we use these days are wearing a little thin. They've become a substitute for critical thinking. And they easily distort an individual's values, convictions and beliefs. All of us are a lot more complicated than a single word or simple phrase can capture.

For me, the goal is not to be a liberal Democrat or a conservative Democrat. For me, the goal is to be a Golden Rule Democrat.

Being a Golden Rule Democrat means you do your best to treat other people the way you yourself would want to be treated. In a political context, it means working for a government rooted in sound judgment, having a thirst for justice and committed to serving its people.

Values define us. Values sustain us. Values nurture us. But the next time some politician, including me, starts preaching to you a sermon on values, look us in the eye and ask us point blank: Do your values include doing everything in your power to make sure that my hard work translates into a decent living for my family, that we have access to affordable health care, that I can offer my kids a solid, affordable education as far as their abilities will take them? Or are you, in fact, selling me, my family and my community out to give your big contributors special breaks and are you turning our hard-earned tax dollars over to people who lose or steal them?

Let me be clear: Any so-called called value system that does not reward hard work and help families face the challenges of today's life has no real value.

Under the Republicans in Columbus and Washington, we've seen our economy outsourced, off-shored and fractured beyond recognition. Our schools are stressed and stretched past their limits, basic government services—from repairing roads to keeping children and seniors healthy—whittle away, fall by the wayside or just downsized into oblivion. And we've seen our great state buried under an avalanche scandal and corruption. Pay to Play. Coingate. MDL. The list goes on.

Are those Republican values in action? Or are Ohio's values - your values - under assault?

It's necessary to say this because it seems, as far as the general culture and the press is concerned, one side of the political spectrum is deeply religious and deeply affected by moral values and the other side is not. I'm here to say that's a lie that the truth won't abide.

The United States is one of the most religious nations in the world, and Ohio is certainly among the most religious states in the nation. The truth is that many of our citizens are motivated by religious faith and deeply held values, but we do have differences in outlook and different priorities that arise from our own personal journeys.

In America, everyone has the right to their own opinions, but no one has a right to their own facts. And the truth is that there are millions of Ohioans who take their faith and personal values very seriously, who live it as the most central reality of their lives, and who aren't members of the Republican Party or the political religious right.

It's demeaning to tell someone who is focused on social justice, on the mission of bringing food to the hungry or medical care to the ailing that they don't have values simply because they don't subscribe to a particular political agenda.

As a Democrat, it pains me that my party is unfairly characterized. Why this mistaken perception? I think it's partly because of propaganda from certain political operatives who see an advantage in using religion and faith as political wedge issues. But I also believe that progressive people of faith have stayed silent for too long. As my friend Congressman Jim Clyburn says: Democrats are walking the walk, it's time for them to talk the talk.

It's important to talk the talk because the public needs to know that neither party has ownership over religious or moral values. With joy and wonder, we must and should respect people of every religious tradition and people with no religious tradition.

And as governor I will encourage all Ohioans to celebrate the diversity of this great state. Is it possible for people who hold deeply held religious or moral beliefs to have different opinions about the morality of abortion? Clearly, it is. Is it possible for people who hold deeply held religious or moral beliefs to have different opinions about stem cell research? It is. No one should argue that.

But we are doing a disservice to our state and nation if we believe that those are the only moral issues worth discussing.

Let me to you about another moral issue in need of discussion:

Last year I met a young Methodist minister who's in charge of a food pantry in Steubenville, who works to provide the most basic nourishment to desperate children and their families.

I talked with him during the last presidential campaign and he said:

"Congressman I am really angry that we have two people running for president who seem to be spending all their time arguing about something that happened 30 years ago - the Vietnam War, when we have people right here in Steubenville, Ohio, that are going without the food they need.

He then told me of an elderly woman he recently saw in the food line at his pantry. He described her as having white hair, wearing a modest raincoat and clutching an umbrella.

He said: "Congressman, she could have been your mother, she could have been my mother, she could have been anyone's mother."

He said he noticed tears were streaming down her face and so he went to her, put his arm around her and said, "Can I help you?" "I'm ashamed," she said, "I'm ashamed that I have to come here for food because when my husband was alive we contributed money to this ministry. And now I can't get through the month without coming here for help."

Friends, that woman's plight and the reality of hunger in Ohio is a moral issue and should trouble the soul and should stir the conscience of every political leader in our state. She shouldn't be ashamed. The leaders of this state—including me—should be ashamed that she and others are in this position.

For too long, the majority party in Ohio has ignored the big issues and has squandered precious time and power in pursuit of short-term political advantage. You could search high and low over the course of the last 14 years of one party rule in Ohio and find little genuine accomplishment for the people of our state.

We need a government that lives by the simple, but powerful principle of truth telling. The way politics are often covered on the national cable news networks you are sometimes left dizzy from the spin. It seems like every fact has an equal counter fact just waiting to spill out of the lips of the next partisan. But spin doesn't make something true.

Right now our governor is living through a personal nightmare resulting from his failure to disclose gifts and favors. When government is closed and dishonest with the people, bad things happen.

As governor, I will make truth telling not just a convenient promise, I'll see it as a sacred duty.

Today I renew my call for establishing a truly bipartisan commission - made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans - armed with subpoena power to investigate and hold public hearings on the scandals unfolding across our state. Minority Leader Chris Redfern and Senator Tom Roberts have introduced legislation to form such a committee and they have my whole-hearted support.

Some have resisted the idea of such a commission because they argue that the ongoing criminal investigations will serve the same purpose. They're wrong. Those investigations are focused - rightly - on narrow matters of illegality. I'm concerned with that and a lot more.

There are many reasons for the mess our state finds ourselves in, those reasons range from incompetence to mismanagement to just plain poor judgment. Not all those actions are against the law, but all of them have had serious consequences for the Ohio taxpayer. If we're going to set things right we need to get everything out into the open, have everyone testify publicly, under oath. Only then can we begin to understand the extent of the scandal and what other actions might be need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

The Challenge of Micah 6:8

During my early years as a Congressman, I placed a plaque in my office with the following quote from the Hebrew Scriptures. It's from the book of Micah, chapter 6, verse 8:
"And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Throughout my public service I've tried to live by those simple, powerful words.

Doing Justice

When I was becoming politically aware we had leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy who challenged us not just to get the job done - not just to volunteer our time, but to actively and permanently commit ourselves to the creation of a just society.

In more recent years, we seem to have lost sight of the fact that the word "justice" has more than just a limited legal meaning. I take it to mean, in simple words, working to make the world the way it ought to be, knowing full well that we may never get there.

For example, I will be a governor who won't rest until everyone in Ohio in need of a good paying job can find one. Is that idealistic? Probably. But if Ohio's current political leadership has too much of anything today, it surely isn't idealism. What we desperately need is leadership willing to set our goals well above the horizon.

Loving Kindness

The first thing we learn as small children is "be nice to each other". In other words, care about the other person.

What a different world it would be if all of us could learn that lesson.

As a public leader, perhaps the best contribution I can make is to let that ethic guide my decisions. In plain terms, this means to pursue policies that promote the common good.

Of course, no one claims to support policies that don't promote the common good, but I think any objective look at the way state government operates these days will lead to the conclusion that it promotes the interests of just a very few, very wealthy, very connected group of people.

For many years, the people of Ohio have made it clear that they are hungry for leadership on two primary issues: economic growth and education reform.

Everyone knows those are the greatest challenges facing our state. Everyone knows that we can't keep young people from leaving the state if we don't revive our economy. And everyone knows that we can't revive our economy without fixing our ailing schools. Yet the action we see emanating from the statehouse is either a scramble to deflect growing scandals, moves to limit government's investment in our future or a focus on socially divisive issues.

As governor, I promise you that I will lead a grassroots movement to refocus the entire apparatus of our state government on two core issues: building a growing economy and making our schools among the best in the nation.

To Walk Humbly

The last part of this admonition has to do with something politicians find very difficult - putting aside our egos.

I know some of you might be skeptical: "A politician not thinking about themselves? Sure."

But, the truth is, we desperately need that kind of attitude back in Columbus. What we have now is clearly the opposite. There are a lot of reasons for the scandals engulfing our state, but none so prominent as the arrogance endemic to one party rule.

The Republicans have commanded unchecked power for so long that some of them seem to think they can get away with anything.

Which leads to a fair question: How would a Strickland administration be different and what kind of people would fill vital leadership roles.

Well, I'll tell you. I'll be looking for people who will work hard, who are competent and experienced in their fields. But I'm also looking for something more intangible, but just as important. I'm going to be looking for people with a "Peace Corps" spirit, people who want to work for Ohio, not to enrich themselves or further their careers, but because they have a genuine desire to help people.

Ohio's story is a story of hope. It is a story of the triumph of the American Revolution brought fully to life. It is the story of a state that has been battered, but never defeated. It is the story of a state carved out of the wilderness, a state imagined out of nothing, which now—even in our troubled hour—remains at the heart of America.

Ohio's future will reveal the story of a people who took the hard way and restored their state and their place in history. It will be your story. It will be my story.

When you look at the sweep of Ohio's history, you don't see an uncertain people in a directionless land - you see determination marked by vivid geography, dreams made into something you can touch. That's who Ohioan's are. We're practical people, rooted in the most incredible dreams. We ask ourselves impossible questions and then we dare to answer them with the extraordinary made real.

This is why I'm running to be governor of Ohio. Because, despite the grim picture many see here, I have nothing but hope for Ohio because I have nothing but faith in the people of Ohio.

There's nothing that's wrong with Ohio that can't be fixed by our hard work, our passion, our love and our ingenuity. I really believe that all that is standing between Ohio and a return to greatness is leadership that will step forward and give voice to the common dreams of Ohio families. What are those common dreams? An economy that thrives on individual creativity and the hard work in our character, schools that don't just compete but set the pace for the rest of the nation, and a state government free of corruption and hard at work meeting the needs of its people.

Why do I have such hope and faith? You can thank my mother for that.

Thank you and God bless this Great State of Ohio.

http://www.tedstrickland.com/news/59/strickland-shares-values-hell-bring-to-governors-office