Chief Justice Abrahamson, Governor Earl, Governor Schreiber, Attorney General Van Hollen, Lieutenant Governor Lawton, Supreme Court Justices, Constitutional Officers and other elected officials, members of the Legislature, tribal leaders, General Wilkening, and fellow citizens of Wisconsin.
Today, I have the honor of being sworn in for a second term as your Governor … and to continue to serve the state that has always been my home.
I take this oath sustained and supported by my wonderful family – Gus, Gabe, Asiah, my sisters Mary, Catey and Anne, and of course, Jessica.
Like most families, we’ve seen our ups and downs over the past year.
We said goodbye to my mother after a long battle with Parkinson’s. She was a remarkable woman, and I miss her deeply. We also had a marriage, and welcomed a daughter-in-law, Carrie, into the family.
To every member of my family, whether you’re with us in person or with us in spirit, I owe you my heartfelt thanks, especially to Jessica, whose commitment to our family and all the children in Wisconsin can never be matched.
Most of all, I want to thank the wonderful people of this state, who have put their faith in me – and I am determined to affirm that faith.
I know governors are being sworn in across the country. Many are my good friends. All are rightly proud of their states. But I am the most fortunate. I am the only one who gets to be sworn in as the Governor of Wisconsin, the greatest state in the union.
And nowhere is that greatness more evident than in the hearts of our men and women in uniform. People can disagree over policy, but here in Wisconsin we stand united in our support for these heroes and their families.
I want to recognize the members of the Wisconsin National Guard band who have done such a great job supporting our troops all over the state.
Finally, let me thank our Pastor Monsignor Ken Fiedler and my dear friend Pastor Archie Ivy, who has welcomed Jessica and me to New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on many occasions, for invoking God’s blessings.
And we are truly blessed.
Yesterday, I traveled to the four corners of this incredible state - from the waters of Lake Michigan at sunrise to the shores of Lake Superior, to the bluffs of the Mississippi to the Rock River at sunset.
I saw the great beauty of our land, and I was struck by the responsibility placed in me as governor, to conserve our pristine woodlands and waterways, and to ensure that Wisconsin's government lives up to Wisconsin's values.
From the native people, to the waves of immigrants over the centuries, to the Laotian Hmong refugees who arrived in recent years after decades in resettlement camps – in Wisconsin, people of differing backgrounds have found opportunities born of basic shared values. Hard work, sense of community, concern for others and commitment to educating future generations.
These are our values. This is who we are.
Armed with these values, the people of Wisconsin have never failed to meet the challenges of their time. They settled a vast new frontier, established a state, developed a farm and industrial economy, toughed out the Depression, went off to war and came home to build a manufacturing powerhouse. Each generation, in its own time, has answered the call. And they left behind a better, stronger, more prosperous state than they found.
My fellow citizens, this is our time.
It is a time when the world is changing as never before … new technologies, new industries, new medical breakthroughs, new fiscal realities, new competition from around the globe, and new international challenges from our over-reliance on foreign fossil fuels.
The opportunities before us in the changing world of 2007 could not be imagined a century or even a decade ago.
As public servants, we are given a short but sacred chance to serve the state we love. And it is my firm goal that four years from now – and four decades from now – people will look back at these years and say: in a changing and challenging time, we came together to seize the boundless opportunities before us.
Faced with an explosion of new technology, we’ll embrace the change, build new industries, and create thousands of new jobs for our citizens.
Faced with a global energy and climate crisis, we’ll lead the way with new energy sources that will one day replace the oil fields of the Mideast with the farmfields of the Midwest.
Faced with a strong challenge from overseas, we’ll upgrade our manufacturing base … so that it is not just a chapter in our history books but a vibrant, growing, job-producing heart of our economy.
Faced with the devastating effects of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and juvenile diabetes, we’ll invest in stem cell research that could one day bring cures – and save millions of lives around the world.
Even as the world around us changes as never before, we’ll stay true to traditional Wisconsin values – like faith and family and hard work – that have always been our hallmark. We’ll succeed not by abandoning those values, but by applying them to the challenges of our time.
Together, we’ll build a future where everyone has a place, a role to play.
A future of tolerance and understanding for our fellow citizens, where differences are celebrated and not exploited, where we’re working together for the common good of all.
One Future … where Wisconsin not only remains the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family … but where Wisconsin supplies the ideas and innovation to make the world better, too.
United by common values, common purpose, common sense, and respect for one another … we can achieve that future. And my fellow citizens, together, we will.
Ultimately, our destiny lies with the youngest generation.
We are joined here by members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wisconsin. I want to thank them for being here.
I am proud to have these kids standing behind me today. But for the next four years, I’m going to be standing behind them and their dreams.
We need to make sure they are ready to compete in a global marketplace.
We need to create the jobs of the future, so that when these young people look for opportunity, they’ll find it at home.
We need to open the doors of education to all … by upholding the promise of the Wisconsin Covenant. The Wisconsin Covenant … we’ll make sure that every student willing to work hard and make the grade has a place in one of our great Universities or technical colleges and a financial package to meet their needs.
I make this commitment not simply because I believe it is good policy, but because it is deeply rooted in who I am and the values I grew up with.
My parents were raised and educated during the 1930s in Wausau and Oshkosh. Like so many others of their generation, they succeeded because – even in the depths of the Great Depression – the people of Wisconsin valued education, and were willing to invest what little they had in their children's future.
My parents were great champions of education. And if they were here today and I told them that this state, in 2007, with all our wealth, didn’t have the resources to educate our young people - from kindergarten through college - they would look at me like I had gone out of my mind.
Education is an enduring Wisconsin value. Our state is what it is today because each successive generation has upheld this value. As Governor, it is my deep determination that our generation will do the same.
We’ve come so far these past four years. We’ve cut the deficit, cut taxes for families and businesses, saved and expanded SeniorCare. We grew our exports and created 170,000 new jobs. But that was just the beginning.
200,000 workers got raises because we acted justly to lift the minimum wage. Future generations will have 160,000 more acres to fish, hunt and enjoy because we acted boldly to protect those lands. And they’ll have a chance at a good education, because even in difficult times, we acted wisely to protect our schools.
But much more remains to be done for the hardworking families of Wisconsin.
The rising price of health care is one of the great challenges of our time. It affects the healthy as well as the sick, the wealthy as well as the poor, Democrats as well as Republicans, and all of us must be part of solving it.
Too many of our citizens simply cannot afford care. Too many of our families live in fear that one illness could cause them to lose everything they worked so hard for.
This is not only an economic crisis, it’s a human crisis … and it demands action now.
One state can’t solve the problem all on its own … but one state – our state – can and will lead the way in health care reform.
We may not always agree on everything, but as a first step, let’s agree on this: in Wisconsin, every child should have access to affordable, comprehensive health care.
And let’s also agree that we should work to reduce the cost of health care for farmers and small business owners, and make health care premiums for hardworking families tax deductible.
We must continue our battle to protect our kids from the scourge of tobacco.
This is something I’ve worked hard on throughout my career in public life. If we can significantly reduce the odds a young person will take up smoking, I would consider that a high and lasting achievement.
Doing all of this won’t be easy. While we are determined to seize these opportunities, I am equally determined to continue on the fiscally responsible path we’ve begun. That’s another basic Wisconsin value – living within our means. It requires tough choices and tradeoffs. Families make these kinds of decisions every day … and we will do the same.
Finally, speaking of values, we need to make sure that this great state always lives up to its proud heritage of honesty and integrity in government. Three weeks ago, I was proud to join with Republicans and Democrats to announce an agreement on comprehensive ethics reform. Together, let’s pass this bill, and reaffirm the faith of the people of Wisconsin.
And this should be our model – working together … Democrats and Republicans … to meet Wisconsin’s challenges.
Let me conclude by telling you about my favorite day of the campaign – one that truly epitomizes what Wisconsin is really all about.
I spent it with my boyhood idol, a man who has become my friend – Hank Aaron. Like most boys and girls in Wisconsin during the era of the Milwaukee Braves, I grew up listening to the radio with my father waiting for the moment when Hank Aaron would come to bat.
Hank Aaron and I traveled from Milwaukee to Eau Claire where he began his professional career over 50 years ago.
And he told me his story.
He was a scared 18-year-old kid from Mobile, Alabama – never out of the South and never out of an African-American community. He grew up on a dirt street where his mother made him go in every night at 6 p.m. because there were no street lights and because the Ku Klux Klan went down the street every night just to let people know where they stood.
He arrived in Eau Claire, an entirely white world, and got a room at the local YMCA for a dollar a day. The only time he ventured out of that room was when he would walk the two miles to the baseball field, and every once in awhile, he told me he would sneak downstairs to play pool if no one was around.
He said he could hit, but he couldn’t field – people would scatter when he would throw to first base – but he was never booed in Eau Claire. Instead, game after game, they cheered him on. Families started inviting him into their homes for dinner.
He went on to Milwaukee to begin his major league career and played there until his early 30s. He had that same kind of support in Milwaukee.
He left Milwaukee 13 years later when the Braves wrongfully moved to Atlanta.
From the time he came to Eau Claire as a scared 18-year-old kid, to when he left Milwaukee, he had grown to be a man, and the greatest baseball player in the world. He went on to shatter records, endure and conquer prejudice. My boyhood hero was not only the greatest baseball player…he is even a better man…a man of courage, grace and kindness.
He said he never would have become that ballplayer or that man, if he hadn’t gotten his start in Wisconsin – surrounded by people who respected and supported him and gave him a chance through his hard work to develop his God-given talent.
That’s who we are. That’s what we do.
We share a deep and abiding conviction that while not every child can become the world’s greatest ballplayer, every child can be great.
With our help, they can be the best teachers, the best builders, the best scientists, the best mothers and fathers.
Just like Hank Aaron, every child in Wisconsin has been blessed with his or her own unique gifts. It is up to all of us to help them be realized. Our state must be a place where dreams can take flight, where all our young people can go as far as their talent and hard work will take them.
My friends, the future is bright, the path is clear, and the opportunities are at hand.
We are One Wisconsin with One Future.
God bless you and On Wisconsin.
