The right to speak freely, the right to a free press, to practice a religion, to petition our government, to be secure at home, and the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This is freedom.
This is what your service gave America.
Your commitment is as storied as our nation’s history, from the banks of the Delaware to our western frontiers, from Normandy to the Rhineland, from Africa to Asia, from Beirut to Baghdad, you answered the call and served with honor.
We must never forget our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives we lost in places of which we had never heard and now we can never forget.
For this we are forever grateful.
We must demonstrate our gratitude, we must act on our obligation for all you have given us, and we must repay our debt to every service person who wore the military uniform.
You stood up for your country when your country needed you. Now it is time for your country to stand up for you.
Your country fails you when there are 800,000 claims pending before the Veterans Administration, when errors in military records number in the hundreds of thousands, or when our government fails to provide the resources to sustain our servicemen and women over the long term care.
You deserve the best medical care, the best education this country has to offer.
You deserve the support of your fellow Americans, and most of all you deserve the promise of America of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
God bless you, and God bless America.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:31 PM UTC []
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Senate Bill 108 or FASTER—the transportation omnibus bill you’ve heard so much about passed its first step in the legislative process today. That means we are one step closer to boosting our economy by investing in our transportation infrastructure, one step closer to creating thousands of jobs and thousands of paychecks, and one step closer to ensuring safe means of transporting people, goods, and services.
This legislation is critical to climbing out of the recession, and I look forward to continuing to work with members of both parties in the House and Senate to get this bill to the Governor’s desk.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog, Transportation at 11:23 PM UTC []
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We often romanticize Colorado as a rugged land of individualism, where cowboys on horseback roam across measureless mountain ranches. Over a century ago, the myth of men taming the wild frontier rose out of our Rockies, stretched across our eastern plains, and bloomed alongside our Columbines. Over time, this wistful idea of the West has thrived in Colorado’s identification.
In reality, we do still have cowboys and Indians, and a flourishing agricultural industry, but we also have active urban centers like Denver and Colorado Springs, high tech companies, and world class education opportunities. Perhaps this juxtaposition is best portrayed with the annual National Western Stock Show taking place adjacent to city skyscrapers. City folk welcome the cowboys, just as the rural residents welcome the city folk and travelers from around the world to relish the beauties of their resorts and ranches.
That’s one of the reasons I like 4-H Day so much: 4-H brings the hardy spirit of the outdoors to the Colorado that is, in reality, one big community. We honored 4-H in the Senate today. The voices of 4-H participants resonated throughout the Senate Chamber as they said their pledge: “I pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service, and my Health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.”
This club recognizes the importance of the individual—so often emphasized in the characterization of Coloradans—in making broad impacts to the society at large. It brings together the rural and the urban, the individual and the community. I was proud to honor the 4-H participants at the Capitol today, and I’m proud to serve the community that is Colorado.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:36 PM UTC []
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My Troops to Teachers bill passed unanimously out of committee on Wednesday. Here’s a video of Channel 9’s coverage: Lawmaker wants easier path from troops to teachers
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 12:16 PM UTC []
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Senator Joyce Foster delivered a prayer on the floor of the Senate this morning. I found it so moving that I couldn’t pass up sharing it with all of you.
A Prayer for Children
(Taken from a poem by Ina J. Hughes)
We pray for children
who put chocolate on fingers everywhere,
who like to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can’t bound in the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never go to the circus
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for the children
who bring us fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with the dog,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink.
And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can’t find any bread to steal,
whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for the children
who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums at the grocery store and pick at their food,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who get visits from the Tooth Fairy,
who don’t like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in synagogue,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
whose smiles can make us cry.
We pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep.
We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on and
for those who don’t get a second chance.
For those we smother…
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:23 PM UTC []
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It’s official. Barack Obama is our President.
I was so moved by President Obama’s speech, and I don’t believe I can convey his meaning any better than he did himself, so let’s be inspired by some of his most powerful points.
“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”
“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends—hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”
To those of you who voted for President Obama, it is easy to swell with excitement upon hearing these words from our new President. To those of you who did not vote for Obama for President, I ask that you remain open to the possibilities of this new leadership. In a time when we face economic hardship, let’s choose hope over fear. Let’s embrace this opportunity to meet our challenges with a new approach. Let’s stand together for the common good.
Click here for the full text of his speech.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 10:02 AM UTC []
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For those of you who are interested, I have a bill up in committee tomorrow. Last year, I sponsored a bill that provided financial incentives to students becoming math and science teachers. This year, I am offering an extension of that bill to make our veterans eligible for the same scholarships.
Fortunately, this bill, without a fiscal impact to the state’s budget, provides an opportunity to repay our veterans who sacrifice so much for all of us. If you are interested in observing the hearing or testifying on this bill, you can come to the Capitol tomorrow. We’ll be meeting in Senate Committee Room 354 right after the Senate adjourns—probably around 9:30am. If you can’t make it to the Capitol, you can always listen online.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:38 PM UTC []
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In thinking about the inequitable impacts on poor communities (mentioned in my post earlier today), I am reminded of an email I received about a year ago. It offers a touching perspective on wealth and poverty:
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog, and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us. They have friends to protect them.”
The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:27 PM UTC []
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We passed two great resolutions today. One supports health care for children, and the other recognizes World AIDS Day, which is actually the first of December.
Senate Joint Resolution 09-006, Concerning Support of the Federal Reauthorization of the State Child Health Insurance Plan, resulted in an unexpectedly heated debate. I’m afraid I set off the controversial portions of the conversation by suggesting that we, the 35 members of the state Senate, have an obligation to ensure that all kids have access to affordable health care. Unfortunately, this triggered a debate about universal health care, which somehow evolved into a debate about abortion…not quite sure how we got there. Ultimately, the resolution passed on a vote of 20-14.
The World AIDS Day resolution passed with 33 supporting votes. According to the Colorado AIDS Project, more than 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Two and a half million of them are children. 15,000 of them are Coloradans. With such staggering numbers as these, we must continue outreach and education efforts worldwide and right here at home.
There are a number of resources in Colorado that offer free testing and support for those who are infected and their families such as the Colorado AIDS Project and the Women’s Lighthouse Project. Tonight, the Colorado AIDS Project is having its Art for AIDS emerging artists reception from 6-9pm. It’s open to the public, and you can get discounted art while supporting a noble organization.
The majority of the HIV positive population lives in poverty-stricken nations, and as Senator Romer pointed out this morning, AIDS has killed more people in Africa than all of the wars there combined. I hope that we continue to strive for equality across the global community. I hope that one day, children on the savannahs of Swaziland will go to schools just like the children in the mountains of Colorado. If we expand educational opportunities everywhere, we can prevent epidemics like this hitting hardest in areas already rife with struggle.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 5:22 PM UTC []
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In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Senate President Peter Groff delivered gracious and eloquent remarks on the floor of the Senate today. It’s well worth listening to every minute.
Dr. King said, “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.” We have lifted ourselves above many racial barriers, in our state and in our nation, as evidenced by the men who hold the gavel in both houses of our legislature, and by the man who will soon be sworn in as President of the United States. I am moved by the progress we’ve made, but on this day especially, let us not forget that people in our country are still burdened by bigotry.
For example, let us not overlook the headlines coming from Oakland about the murder of a restrained black man by a white police officer on New Year’s Day this year. As Dr. King said, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
We have come far, but we still have work to do. Our constant struggle to make this a more perfect nation is one of the many things that make America great. To never be satisfied. To expose flaws in our social fabric so those flaws can be made right. As Barack Obama said in a speech at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, “This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.” That constant toil toward progress is perhaps America’s greatest triumph and our heaviest responsibility. I hope that you will join me in giving thanks today for citizens like Dr. King whose impassioned work has made our country all of the things it is today.
Posted by SenatorShaffer as Blog at 7:11 PM UTC []
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