If you want some illuminating reading....check out The Oregonian's series about how Oregon's weak campaign finance laws are making a mockery of our state's reputation for a clean environment. There's a link to one particularly damning episode right here:
You know, reading that, there's no need to wonder what Governor Tom McCall would say. He warned about this, in words that burn:
"…Oregon is demure and lovely, and it ought to play a little hard to get. And I think you'll be just as sick as I am if you find it is nothing but a hungry hussy, throwing herself at every stinking smokestack that's offered."
Tom McCall. The anniversary of his birth is on Friday, March 22. That was officially declared Tom McCall Day a few years ago, when Governor Brown signed a bill to that effect, and I have a plea and a challenge to every educator and legislator and media person who may be reading this: don't let Tom McCall Day pass without notice. We may rightly focus on the corruption that infests our national spirit, but let's not forget that what's happening on the state and local level touches our lives and our children far more directly.
As Tom McCall told Studs Terkel, "Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better." McCall was such a hero. Let's observe his day. Friday, March 22.
A little more from Governor McCall in this video.
Thank you!