Allen's Oregon Trail End of the Walk Speech

This is the speech that I gave at Waterfront Park today.  No blog just the speech and a few pictures.  Thank you to everyone for making our idea, a reality.  Bringing Oregon together, one step at a time.

September 8, 2009 Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon.

Thank you so much for coming to help me celebrate the Finish Line of our Walk Across Oregon.  Baker City to Portland 400 miles, 37 days!  Bringing Oregon Together, one step at a time.

I want to thank my staff for executing this walk flawlessly on a very limited budget. We actually arrived ahead of schedule. 400 miles, 5 mountain passes, almost a hundred community meetings, unpredictable weather and challenging conditions and you still delivered ahead of time and on budget. That is the type of performance we need to take to Salem.

To all of my friends who walked with us, specifically to the members of the 15 mile club (those friends who made it 15 miles in a day), thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your spirit and enthusiasm made my walk a joy of body and soul.

I also want to specifically thank my wife Debbie who held our life and our campaign together as we trekked across the state.

Walking creates an intimacy that cannot exist in any other situation. The trappings of running for the highest office in the state create physical and mental barriers that preclude honest citizen-to-citizen exchanges.

Walking into a town in my sneakers, shorts, a tee shirt with my skinned knee broke down social barriers. People opened up to me in ways that they never would have if I had cruised into town in my freshly pressed shirt, cleanly scrubbed staff in tow.

We discussed concerns but we also talked about what an amazing place it is that we call home.

We have the greatest state in the nation. It is unparalleled in assets. We have:

- Natural resources

- Forests

- Rivers

- Lakes

- Farm land

- Ranch land

- Abundant renewable energy resources

- Sun

- Wind

- Water

- Multiple deep-water Pacific Ocean ports

- A diverse economy.

- A High Technology base in the Willamette Valley

- Heavy manufacturing

- Light manufacturing

- Abundant cost-effective and CO2-free energy

- Leadership in green buildings and public transportation

- A pioneering spirit infused in our culture dating back to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

With all of those assets, I ask you, how can Oregon, our Oregon, be among the national leaders in unemployment, homelessness and hunger?

I understand why Michigan is in trouble. I lived in Michigan. I worked for Ford. I do not understand how Oregon could even be mentioned in the same sentence as Michigan.

It is also not a recent aberration. We have been above the national average in unemployment 95 percent of the time for the last 25 years. We talk about sustainability but I am telling you sustainability needs to start with a vibrant economy based on the values that have drawn all of us here.

Without jobs, without careers with meaning for our citizens, all of our aspirations of sustainable economic leadership are hollow.

It is easy to be sustainable when there is no industry. It is easy to be sustainable when the entire state is a park. Anyone can do that. Our challenge is to show the world how to have economic prosperity and do it in harmony with our environment. That is a challenge worthy of Oregon.

400 miles, three pairs of shoes, 37 days, skinned knees, 10 pounds and three inches off of my waist, 792,000 steps, a hundred or more community meetings Why? What did I learn?

I learned about the weaving of values and experiences that form our communities. I learned about the stories of perspiration and inspiration that built our families, businesses and economy. But more than anything else, I learned about listening.

I can tell you that, before I began this trek, I believed that I was a good listener. I thought I was someone who could hear any point of view with an open heart and mind. I am sure that many of you here today also believe you are also good listeners.

I am here now, 400 miles and 37 days after I started this walk, to tell you that we are wrong. It took me 400 miles to learn to slow down and to really listen to the problems plaguing our state. It took 37 days to be able to comprehend what Oregonians have been dealing with for the last 25 years of politics as usual.

What I heard is people are worried.

They are worried that their businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy.  They are worried that banks continue to tighten credit. 

And they are worried that at the same time Salem passed tax increases during the worst economic recession since the great depression.

They are worried that the un-regulated actions of speculators and criminals on Wall Street have taken our financial system to the brink of bankruptcy.

They are worried that American can-do is being replaced by “What can you do for me?”

They are worried that un-checked government spending guarantees our children will be indentured servants to our national and state mortgage.

They are worried that there is nothing healthy or caring about a medical system where costs spiral out of control.

They are worried that, as the world sprints ahead of our educational system, our children are relegated to the intellectual bench.

They are worried that hard work with your hands is being replaced by hand-outs and hay bales are replaced with bail-outs.

They are worried that, as we argue about enhancing our environment, our forests are tinderboxes and we continue to burn fossils as if the price will never rise and the flame will never extinguish.

They are worried that our children will not be able to pursue the dream we had, the American dream; the same dream that drew my grandparents to America, the land where the streets were paved with gold.

I am running for Governor of our great state of Oregon not because we are all worried, but because I know and you know how to do something about it.

We know how to create an environment where jobs flourish.

We know the role of government is to provide the environment where jobs are created, not to create government jobs.

We know how to grow industries that create products that people aspire to own.

We know the foundation of our economy and our future is education.

But it takes much more than me.

It takes a community of Republicans, Independents, Democrats, workers, and managers - people who know how to create a job and compete in a global economy to step forward and get involved.

Supporters: we will run a strong and aggressive race for Governor that will make you proud.  We will give no quarter; concede no vote.  From the Pearl District of Multnomah County to the grasslands of Harney County.  We will work for very vote in every county - even if I have to walk back across this state again.

If you are hearing my message for the first time, I ask you to join us.

Oregon has an opportunity to break from the stale politics of the last quarter century and bring a new perspective to Salem.

The Salem insiders simply cannot see through the lenses darkened by the soot of 25 years of politics as usual. 

I ask you today - Are you willing to help?

Are you willing to lead?

Will you join with me to clean those lenses, to bring a new perspective to Salem and to raise the star of Oregon?