Anyone who has served on a school board, coached little league or served in public office understands how important it is to have support at home.

Missed suppers, evenings away from home; these are the sacrifices made by our families, so that we may serve. Please join me in thanking our families for their support.
I would like to welcome all who are here for the first time.

Our State House is a special place, steeped in history. By learning about and respecting our past, we can move forward to meet the challenges of today, and work to make a better tomorrow.

History also has an important personal message for me.

The history books tell it slightly differently.

But I like this story the way I heard it last November, from a gentlemen in Waterbury. It was November 3, 2002 — the anniversary of the Great Flood of 1927.

On that fateful evening 75 years earlier, Lieutenant Governor S. Hollister Jackson was on his way home, when his car became stranded, not 200 yards from his house at the corners of Nelson and Tremont Street in Barre — where Potash Brook was flooding out of control.

The Lieutenant Governor’s car was trapped by the rising flood waters.

As he got out of the car, someone offered him help to get out of the rushing torrent, and onto higher ground.

He refused .

And that’s the last they heard of him!

There is a lesson here: if someone offers me help, I will take it. I’ll even ask for it.

One person who really knows the history and traditions of the Senate, and has been here for more than 34 years, is Senator Bill Doyle. He has given me much good advice. Senator Doyle is a man of many talents: political historian, college professor, author, and Dean of the Vermont Senate.

Another person who has been very helpful is Senator Dick Mazza. He first came to serve in the House 30 years ago, and has been a Senator for 18 years. Senator Mazza told me he still gets a thrill every time he drives up to this Statehouse, and sees the golden dome.

He feels privileged to work for Vermonters here. Today while driving here and looking at the Dome, I felt the same way.

Standing on the threshold of this office, I reflect on an experience I had not long ago.

I had volunteered to play team cribbage with the fifth grade class at Thomas Fleming School in Essex Junction.

After the game, as we all sat around talking, the students asked me what Montpelier was like.

I told them, it’s like a lot of people putting puzzles together.

Everyone has a piece.

Our Governor will make recommendations about which puzzle to start on. If everyone shares their puzzle piece and works together, the solutions will come together.

These are not Republican or Democrat puzzles. These are Vermont puzzles. And Vermonters are counting on us to put these puzzles together.

The students also asked me what my job in this Chamber would be like.

In some ways, I told them, it is like flying an airplane.

Any time I get into the cockpit to fly with a new co-pilot, I always give the same briefing.

First, I stress from the start that flying is a team sport — and to work as a team, we need to communicate. In order for me to be responsive, I must know what the other pilot is thinking.

Next, I ask that my co-pilot be aggressive and assertive.

I say, if you have information, or can improve the situation — please, take action. Try to keep me informed about what you are doing, and I will do the same for you.

Finally, I explain that if you ever feel rushed, we will slow things down. But please, let me know. We have a very important job to do; let’s be safe, and let’s have fun doing it.

Just as I am serving in this building for the first time, so are seven new Senators: Senators White and Gander of Windham County, Senator Shepard of Bennington County, Senator Dunne of Windsor County, Senator Ayer of Addison County, Senator Miller of Chittenden County and Senator Collins of Franklin County. To you seven, it’s a thrill to be embarking on this adventure with you — and if you feel rushed, just say so.

Newcomers and veterans alike, we all ran on the same issues: growing more jobs, improving education, reforming health care, and addressing substance abuse in our state. Some might find this list overwhelming.

But a fighter pilot would just call this a “target rich environment”.

During a statewide campaign you meet thousands of Vermonters.

One Vermonter I talked with recently sent me a letter. I want to share part of it with you now.

“I lost my job at IBM,” he told me. “I am running out of unemployment insurance. I have family responsibilities in Vermont, so it is very difficult for me to leave.” He told me that 85% of single people between the age of 21 and 40 have left this state. He said,“I am very discouraged.”

I talked with him the other night, he is still discouraged.

I won’t introduce him, but this Vermonter is here among us today, in this Chamber, as my guest.

He is expecting us to make a difference.

If we each come to the table with our own piece of the puzzle, we can make a difference. The Governor has a plan to make a difference.

We are in this together.

Vermont’s school children also need our help.

William Butler Yeats once said, "Education is not the filling of a bucket. It is more like the lighting of a fire."

There are 100,000 students in our schools in this state. Day after day, our teachers are lighting those fires. They are dedicated professionals, who need our support. Second only to parents, they hold the keys to our state’s future.

General Omar Bradley said “Teachers are the real soldiers of Democracy. Others can defend it, but only teachers can make it work." We must both support our teachers, and encourage parents to become more involved with their child’s education.

My sister and brother-in-law, Kenny and Ginger Epstein, are both public school teachers.

Ginger is here with us today.

Vermont Commissioner of Education Raymond McNulty is also here today as my guest. Together, the Commissioner and I will be visiting schools all over our state in the coming year, to recognize the successes, and to look for innovative ways to improve our schools.

We are, indeed, all in this together. Each person’s piece of the puzzle has its special place.

Our state’s young people are also at the heart of another of our challenges, and that’s the drug abuse problem.

During the campaign, I met a young man who was having lunch in a restaurant in Bennington.

He is a student at Castleton State College.

He told me that day that he had lost four classmates to heroin, in just the past school year alone.
We must recognize the gravity of the substance abuse problem in our state. It is not someone else’s problem. It’s OUR problem.

Many of you know that I was sent to New York City in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, to help with disaster relief.

While there at Ground Zero, I met a young Vermont State Trooper. He, along with thousands of others, assisted in those recovery efforts , and he is also here today, in this great Chamber, as my guest.

He now serves here in Vermont to address a crisis here at home, which he tells me inflicts a heartbreak and devastation on our young people and their families which is very similar to what we witnessed in New York following September 11.

His job is with the Vermont Drug Task Force.

We must do everything within our power to end the epidemic of substance abuse.

Six months after the Sept. 11th attacks, Senator Jim Leddy and I attended a community forum, which focused on how we, as a community, should respond to the attacks. It involved more than one hundred people from all age groups.

The single most important message from this forum was the need for mentors in our communities. As terrible as those attacks were, older people helped by showing resolve, and showing that the U.S. has survived difficult times in the past and will do so again. Community based mentoring is very important, and I will champion it.

Building a better future for Vermont is not just a task for this Chamber alone, or for those who serve in this building alone, but for every community across our state.

Vermont is a small state that prides itself on its independence.

But we are also a state that understands that freedom has a price. The history that is enshrined in the cabinets just outside this Chamber, which contain the standards and blood-stained flags of the past, remind us of the price of freedom. Vermonters are currently serving in uniform around the world. We must support our troops that are working to safeguard peace.

For while we are Vermonters, we are also Americans.

We are in this together. And thanks to the lessons of history, I am eager to accept your ideas and your help in the days and weeks that lie ahead.

We can improve the climate and culture of this state to help to grow good jobs.

We can work to improve our schools, colleges and our University of Vermont.

We can confront the substance abuse problem in our state, and free our neighbors from its deadly grip.

We as a nation are committed to keeping the peace.

We are in this together.

Each of you Senators comes here today to serve the interests of your constituents, and to be their voice in Montpelier.

But my constituency is all of Vermont. Where conflicts arise, and compromise must be made, I pledge to you, and to the people of Vermont, that I will moderate the differences, and help find solutions that serve all, from Brattleboro to Derby Line, Springfield to Bennington.

As we begin our new biennium in the Vermont Senate, here to do the peoples’ business, please listen to the words of Mahatma Gandhi. He said:

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior.

Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits.

Keep your habits positive because your habits become your Values.

Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

We have a great destiny.

Thank you.