Senate Journal: Page 1: Monday, January 10, 2000

  FIRST CALENDAR DAY
  FIRST SESSION DAY

  Senate Chamber
  Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, January 10, 2000

  Pursuant to chapter two (2), sections two point one (2.1) and two
  point three (2.3), Code of Iowa, the 2000 Regular Session of the
  Seventy-eighth General Assembly convened at 10:02 a.m., and the
  Senate was called to order by President Mary E. Kramer.

  Prayer was offered by the Reverend Dr. Sam Massey, pastor of the
  Westminster Presbyterian Church, Des Moines, Iowa.

  OPENING REMARKS BY THE
  PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

  President Kramer addressed the Senate with the following
  remarks:

  Welcome back to this beautiful chamber.  It is historic and inspiring and
  brings us
  back each year with a fresh sense of what we might accomplish together.

  Much has been said and written about the issues facing our state in the year
  2000
  and beyond.  Our aging population; the loss of talented and productive young
  people;
  our declining school enrollment and performance; a difficult agricultural
  economy
  engrossed in massive change; a certain "separatism" among rural and urban
  areas of
  our state AND a certain apologist attitude-talk about who and what we are
  not.

  It's time to stop continually defining these issues and problems and look at
  what we
  can do and can become.

  David Gergen, writing in the current issue of US News & World Report says:
  "At
  no time in memory have Americans felt more optimistic about the future and
  with
  greater reason.  As the new century begins, we look back on one of the
  brightest
  decades in memory and forward to a future perhaps even more luminous."

  He continues:  "Three revolutions are sweeping the world and America leads
  the
  way in each...the Cold War has faded and democracy is surging-from 69
  democratic
  countries to 120 democratic countries in one decade.  This expansion of
  human freedom
  is accompanied by a revolution in capitalism that can create a booming
  economy here

© 2000 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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Last update: Thu Jan 13 08:01:00 CST 2000
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