Senate Journal: Page 2: Monday, January 10, 2000

  at home and is encouraging entrepreneurs in every nation.  Even more
  revolutionary
  are the breakthroughs in science and technology-our grandchildren may live
  in a time
  when cancer is cured, when multiple universes are discovered, and a decent
  life is
  within reach of even the poorest of God's creatures.  A recent survey by the
  Pew
  Research Center found that fully 70% of Americans are optimistic about
  America's
  future and 81% are optimistic about themselves and their families.  We may
  be on the
  verge of a truly Golden Age."

  And how will we here, in this historic place, lead Iowa to her proper role
  in this
  coming Golden Age?

  As we approached the last millennium, headlines proclaimed, "The United
  States is
  the Envy of the World."  The arrogance of this thinking, perhaps, prevented
  us from
  making the most of our potential during the last century.

  Historian John Keegan has said, "The history of the 20th century can be
  written
  through the biographies of six men:  Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Churchill,
  and
  Franklin Roosevelt.  The first four of these men were tyrants who dimmed the
  lamps of
  freedom and plunged the world into the bloodiest conflicts in all of human
  history."
  Indeed-leadership counts!

  So, the question is:  How can we do a better job of realizing the promise of
  the 21st
  century than we did of the 20th?

  We must nurture and elect more leaders of great stature.  Today, CEOs,
  entrepreneurs, and athletes often command more respect than politicians.  In
  the years
  ahead, men and women in public life provide inspiration, vision, and belief
  in a
  common purpose.

  Isn't that our hope?  No-it's our job!  How will we in this chamber,
  individually
  and collectively, provide that inspiration, vision, and common purpose?

  Again quoting David Gergen, "Our most important protections in this new
  world
  will be our old values.  Nothing we will learn on the Internet will give us
  deeper
  insights than the answers found in the desert 2000 years ago.  As
  Americans," (I would
  say, especially, as Iowans), "we owe an extraordinary debt to those
  generations who
  have brought us to the edge of this new promised land.  Their sacrifices not
  only
  brought us a good life, but through wars and hard times, kept our values
  alive.  These
  values are now the greatest gift we can pass on to the 21st century."

  Martin Luther King defined freedom in this way:  "Freedom is the capacity to
  deliberate on alternatives, the ability to think, to make rational decisions
  about one's
  life, and then have the capacity to accept responsibility for those
  decisions."

  Here and now, each of us has been elected a leader for our own constituency
  and for
  our state as a whole.  John Zenger has said, "There is no mythology or
  charisma that is
  necessary for leadership.  We know what leaders do:  They create shared
  values
  through communication.  They develop responsible followers.  They inspire
  lofty goal
  accomplishment.  They model appropriate behavior.  They focus attention on
  the
  important issues.  They connect their group to the outside world."

  No rocket science here-discipline and practice will get us where we want to
  be.

© 2000 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments about this site or page? sjourn@legis.iowa.gov.
Please remember that the person listed above does not vote on bills. Direct all comments concerning legislation to State Legislators.

Last update: Thu Jan 13 08:01:00 CST 2000
URL: /DOCS/GA/78GA/Session.2/SJournal/00000/00002.html
jhf