House Journal: Page 14: Monday, January 13, 2003
Speaker Rants, Majority Leader Gipp, Minority Leader Myers and members of the
Eightieth General Assembly greetings and congratulations on your election to the Iowa
House of Representatives. As respected members of your community and having the
majority vote of your peers you deserve the respect and honor due a person who has
made the personal sacrifice to run for public office. You are among a select few who
have been chosen throughout this states past 158 years of history to represent the
people.
By virtue of your position and the powers given that position by our constitution
and the Iowa Code you have the right and authority to pass laws. By force of law you
can require a person to turn over a portion of their earnings to the state. You have the
authority to tax. In addition by your vote you can deprive someone of his or her
freedom. People can be put in prison because of what we do here. Your impact on
business and industry and the workers they employ can mean the difference between
success and failure. In certain limited cases your actions and leadership can change
the course of this states' history forever. Though you have only one vote out of a
hundred, it is one vote.
People will, from now on, look up to you as someone with answers. As time passes
you will become recognized in public places and will be given special attention
consistent with the position you now hold. Your mail is now arriving in greater
quantities and with the title of Honorable before your name. You are indeed important
people and you deserve special recognition.
On the other hand many people right now do not even know we are here today.
Many of our constituents don’t realize when the legislature convenes or what the term
"General Assembly" means. As time passes people will forget that you even won an
election. Often our actions as members of this law making body are not noticed for
weeks or months until the rules are written to implement what we have done. For
many Iowans our presence here and the work we do goes on completely unnoticed.
In a way this assembly is like the rudder of a large ship. We are under water and
out of sight. As a law making body just like a ships rudder we are an important part of
the ship of state. Our actions will determine if the ship navigates safe waters or
crashes on the rocks. We are few in number just like a rudder is small compared to the
size of the rest of the vessel. But our size is not as important as our function. What we
do is vital to the well being of the passengers on board this ship of state. If we are
working in harmony with the rest of the components of the ship things go well.
However, if the rudder of a ship is out of synch with the rest of the operation then
confusion and trouble result.
I think the comparison is further appropriate in that our presence and importance
should for the most part go unnoticed. As I said earlier you are deserving of special
recognition. But just like the rudder of a ship is seldom seen so too should we be
content to do our work without looking for special attention. As the Bible says in Luke
18:14, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will
be exalted". Most of what we do here in the next few months should be to support an
environment where the people of this state can grow and prosper. Government does
not make the real accomplishments in life. Progress and success are the result of the
hard work and discipline of our citizens. It comes from ordinary people, who get up
every morning and go into the market place, assume risk, make investments and work
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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