House Journal: Page 59: Tuesday, January 14, 2003
call to action to all of us. A new Iowa economy should support resources necessary to
clean up our rivers and streams. By 2010 there should be no - I repeat no impaired
waters list in Iowa. By that year Iowans should be free to swim, fish, or use this great
natural resource as God intended.
Now to those who doubt such a goal is obtainable, I ask you to stand aside. Iowans
working together to achieve a common goal will succeed, but to succeed there must be
consensus. One hundred years ago Theodore Roosevelt brought interested parties
together in a summit dedicated to conservation. The time is right for a statewide
summit on water quality to eliminate the impaired waters list. So today I ask the
Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Farm Bureau, the Association of Business
and Industry, and the Iowa Environmental Council and other groups each to designate
a representative to work with me and representatives of the General Assembly, cities,
and counties to plan and hold such a summit to develop a conservation plan to restore
our waters.
Earlier I mentioned the role of the nonprofit sector to effect change. The vital role
of nonprofit organizations in our state must be clearly understood and actively
supported. Nonprofit organizations are often small and may need technical assistance
and help. All of us need to help them. I asked Willard "Sandy" Boyd, President
Emeritus of the University of Iowa, Director of the Iowa Nonprofit Resource Center,
and a great Iowan, to chair a task force to be appointed for this purpose, to lay out
strategies how we can strengthen nonprofits in our state.
My time with you is limited, so I cannot share thoughts about other important
aspects of Iowa life, from public safety to support for arts and culture. Please know
these are important in our effort to help build a better Iowa.
All will be needed in this effort.
Great values, great needs, great goals mandate from all of us, inside and outside
state government, great action. Many may question if it all can be done.
Theodore Roosevelt said it so well so long ago. "It is not the critic who counts; not
the person who points out how strong persons stumbled or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust, and sweat, and blood; who strives valiantly; who
errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions, and spends a life in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
knew neither victory nor defeat."
Ladies and Gentlemen of the General Assembly, let that be said of this generation
of Iowans who risked embracing change, fought to preserve our values, and nurtured
hope and opportunity for all.
God bless you. God bless our great State of Iowa, and the United States of America.
Governor Thomas J. Vilsack was escorted from the House chamber
by the committee previously appointed.
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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