Gubernatorial Address: Massachusetts, 1971

Metadata	Value
Governor	Francis W. Sargent
State	Massachusetts
Year	1971
Delivery Date	January 06, 1971
Governor's Party	Republican
GPID	af520b64cdc61f55bcafafd764bc28d6
Primary Source URL	Link
Raw Extracted Text URL	Link

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In his 1971 inaugural address, Governor Francis W. Sargent of Massachusetts called for an end to despair and cynicism, urging his constituents to face the state's challenges with courage and hope. He outlined plans to reorganize state government, rebuild the economy, reform the tax structure, and improve health care and welfare systems. Sargent also emphasized the importance of environmental protection and the need to adapt to technological advancements. He concluded by invoking the legacy of John F. Kennedy, urging his audience to answer Kennedy's call for courage, judgment, integrity, and dedication in governance.

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The Commonwealth of Massachusetts GOVERNOR FRANCIS W. SARGENT THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1971 INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY SENATE Delivered Before a Joint Convention of the General Court No. 1 STATE HOUSE, BOSTON - The following is the complete text of 1971.] the Inaugural Address of Governor Francis W. Sargent before a Joint Convention of the General Court given at noon today: INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR FRANCIS W. SARGENT THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1971 “I am sworn Governor today. “I have been Lieutenant Governor, then Acting Governor. Now, as Governor, I begin - and yet continue. “I begin with purpose and I continue with resolve - it is a time for these. “History’s habit is to see life’s suffering and to warn of doom - and we are victim of that habit now: it holds us and its hold on us is relentless. We condemn our times; we languish in cynicism; we forecast calamity. “The affliction is universal. “The young - this gifted generation in search of identity and commitment. The old - this proud generation in search of achieve- ment’s rewards. And - those no longer young, not yet old this troubled generation in search of satisfaction, of peace. “All searchers in vain today. All caught in this depth of dis- content. “I am here today to say - enough. “We must be done with despair. We must call an end to a mood of melancholy that poisons a nation’s spirit. We must stop this wringing of the hands. SENATE - No. 1. The Commonwealth of Mansachusetts 3 4 “I would restore our faith. I would renew our confidence. I would stir our spirit, so that, once again, we may be proud - and know a time when the future is welcomed and not feared. “Let it be said here - and let it be heard across the land. “It is time to raise our eyes again. “It is time to dare to speak again - of hope. “We will not find our way without hope, without faith, without trust - in ourselves, each other, and our society. “I do not call for mindless optimism, a turning away from reality; blindness, however resolute, will not help us. “I call, instead, for courage. “Courage to see what is true - then courage to change, not curse, it. “Let us see not merely the troubles but the hopes; not merely the dangers but the goals; not merely the problems - “But the opportunities. “Let us say not that we might, but that we must - not that we cannot, but that we can - not that we will not, but that we will. “Dare with me to speak again - of hope. “Today, in this month of beginnings - here, in this Chamber of great traditions, let us begin - and let us continue. “Unemployment and the economy, taxation, health education and welfare, auto insurance, drugs and crime, transportation, housing, and environment “Problems, everyone - crushing, seemingly hopeless, and yet in everyone, surpassing opportunity to begin, to continue “Let me say how “I will shortly name ten officers to form a Cabinet of our state government. They will be the most able, the most dedicated, the most gifted that I can find. Their political party, their political activity, their political accomplishment will count for nothing. Their talent will count for everything. SENATE-No. - 1. [Jan. 1971.] “With them, we will reorganize the state government that is our vehicle. With you and me, they will draw together all of the plans of all of the agencies that are our government. Later, they will give to me - and I to you - their plans to merge some agencies, eliminate others, until this government is a working machine of service for society. “While they begin, we shall continue - continue the task of repairing our civil service system, so that, finally, it is a service and not a handicap, so that finally it will help and not hurt in our quest for the young and the talented, the highly-skilled and the disadvantaged, - willing to do the public’s work. “But what of the problems “Look now - at the opportunities, not merely the problems. “Our economy is in critical condition, national policies to thwart inflation and to move America from defense to domestic spending have thrown us off stride, and sent us stumbling into severe un- employment. “It is no pleasure to stretch a family dollar - and find it too short. It is no pleasure to build a professional career - and find it finished in a two-week notice. Where then can we find oppor- tunity in this crisis? “In the realities we are forced to face. “We will do what we might not have done by choice - rebuild the economy of our Commonwealth. “We will find work for the highly-skilled by helping turn their skills to the new industries of the decade ahead: pollution con- trol, health care, transportation, housing. “In research for the environment, for example, there is vital work to be done, as our national economy makes an inevitable conversion. And we are unique here: we have the talent and we have the will. In our great universities, many clustered within a few miles of where we gather, there is the source of new ideas, and new approaches. The state government can blend these - and be the catalyst for research into solution of the threat of the environ- ment. SENATE- - No. 1. 5 6 “I am formulating plans to do just that - and the doing can make Massachusetts a leader in the nation. “Technology, that double-edged sword, cuts away at some of our traditional industries. Progress passes them and telescoping time threatens to make them obsolete. We must struggle to pro- tect and preserve them where we can. And we must seek out, with renewed energy, the new industries that will supplement them. We must expand our work re-training programs to prepare our people for the coming of the new, for if we do not anticipate change, we will be its victims. “The opportunity is there within the problem - there to seize and capture, if we will. And we will. “So with another of our problems - the cost of government, taxation, public spending. “Communities edge toward insolvency, and families face finan- cial ruin to pay for the government we want today. We have patchworked the problem too long. “I shall submit a revenue reform plan recognizing the problem but realizing the opportunity to rebuild a tax structure that is today unfair and unrealistic. “It shall achieve three goals: relief for the struggling home- owner, revenue for the services of government; redesign of our system to attract new industry and foster economic growth. “We - this Legislature, the Master Tax Plan Commission, con- cerned citizens - all of us shall work together to turn this prob- lem into progress. “I do not promise lower taxes. I do promise equity and fairness and stimulation to our economy. I do not promise a better system in order to spend more of the people’s money. I do promise a louder no to demands for greater spending. “There are limits to what our citizens can pay. There must be limits to what our government can spend. And there will be. “Health and welfare are government’s work never done, for the poor and the ill we shall indeed have with us always. SENATE- - No. 1. [Jan. 1971.] “Here, most dramatically, is not a problem alone, but an op- portunity. Here, most broadly, is a place to begin and continue. “Americans assume good health care - falsely, too often. “For many it is too expensive to have, for many it is available in the wrong place or at the wrong time, and for many more it is not available at all. “We have the chance to make the false assumption a true reality. Washington must lead the way with a national health policy that improves the delivery of health service. Medicine must follow with new approaches to providing its skills. Health insurers must use their economic leverage to shape a more effective health system. “But this state government must act - and again we have the opportunity to lead, to offer a model for America in finding new ways of delivering health-care, training, needed health manpower, encouraging the wiser use of health resources. “With our unique medical capability here - we can break new ground - and break old rules, for controversy will not deter us, nor tradition hobble us. “I will propose the plans to make good these pledges. “In Massachusetts, the word “welfare” has come to mean the Public Welfare system. It is past due time to tighten, to scrutinize, to ride herd hard on programs designed to help the helpless but too often abused by the unscrupulous. “We have - and I will take - the opportunity to improve these systems and resolve their problems. “We will develop a strong, centralized Medicaid Unit within the Department of Public Welfare. We will make our new flat grant system work with the fairness and with economy that is built into it. We will double the staff of the Fraudulent Claims Board so that aid goes only where it belongs. And we will establish Community Service Centers for more effective administration of all our assistance programs. “Welfare may be our most difficult problem; dealing with it may be our greatest opportunity. SENATE - No. 1. 7 8 “So it can be with other problems I have stressed - auto in- surance, drugs and crime, transportation, housing, the environ- ment - and the others unmentioned, but equally urgent “We shall continue the new beginning we have made in auto insurance. Despite court judgments, and cynical propaganda, mo- torists will still save millions with our new plan. “We will not turn back, though there will be efforts to force that. We will continue - correcting the new law where need be, improving the new system where we can - and working to re- vise property damage and collision coverage to complete the new beginning we have made. “We shall continue our war on drug abuse and on crime. We have granted a million dollars to 60 community-based, self-help drug treatment centers, a new beginning of special significance. The cost is high. The need is acute. We shall meet the need. “We shall continue to channel millions of federal dollars to local law enforcement and crime prevention programs - and we will begin new programs to spot potential criminals and help them before they break the law, to improve our correctional system, to modernize our Court system and to make it more effective. “We shall continue our new beginning in transportation. We shall create a balanced transportation system: not one that relies solely on highways, but one that incorporates the new opportunities in the new technology - high speed rail, new-concept air travel, an MBTA, under its new leadership, that will work effectively, with financial stability, and with the federal aid we seek and we must have. “We shall continue progress in housing, stressing the role of private enterprise in construction, eliminating stone-age methods for space-age needs, expanding our Housing for the Elderly Pro- gram and the loan programs of our Housing Finance Agency, filing legislation to allow open-systems methods of construction with factory-assembled parts, and seeking a statewide uniform building code to speed and economize in construction. “And we shall continue new beginnings in the fight for the SENATE - No. 1. [Jan. 1971.] framework of it all - the world we live in, the environment that is man’s home and hope. “Three points are most important: legislation that failed to pass last year to permit individuals to take to Court those who pollute our environment; creation of an Environmental Strike Force - lawyers who will follow the enforcement process from violation to prosecution all across the Commonwealth; and, this perhaps most important of all: building into every governmental decision a genuine concern for environmental values. We can no longer regard the environment in a vacuum; its protection must relate to every step this government takes. “And SO problems - all around us. “Opportunities - within every one. “Difficult times - for governing today is not easy: there is a special cynicism, a distrust reserved for government and it threatens our society profoundly. More - a new morality, changing social attitudes that government must hear, must explore, and must ultimately answer. “Problems, opportunities, difficult times - “And resolution today, to begin and continue. “Indeed, that is government defined - ‘beginning’ and ‘con- tinuing’. For while it is so that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives, all our tomorrows are rooted in all our yesterdays. “In this remarkable Commonwealth, our yesterdays are rich and proud and truly distinguished. It is our time now to continue what others have begun, and to make our beginnings for the to- morrows of those to come. And we must do it as one. We must do it together, politics and partisanship aside. “For pettiness will destroy us and high purpose is hope’s best chance; differences can serve us, but division will doom our noblest dreams. “Ten years ago - and ten days before he was sworn as President - on January 9, 1961, standing where I stand this day, John F. Kennedy addressed the General Court and noted what a gift Massachusetts has been to America’s greatness. SENATE - No. 1. 9 10 “He recalled the words of John Winthrop 300 years earlier when Winthrop forged the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These words: “We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill - the eyes of all people are upon us.” “So it remains today, but when the people look upon us, it must be with trust - for if it is not, hope will wither in them, and we will have failed. “Before he left this Chamber for a destiny so bright, so bitterly brief, John Kennedy asked four questions he said would measure success or failure for those who govern. They were these. “Were we men of courage? “Were we men of judgment? “Were we men of integrity? “Were we men of dedication? “We must answer those questions with the excellence of our acts. “Then, as we begin and continue, in this city upon a hill, as we turn from discontent to hope, as we call up courage to capture the promise of tomorrows we cannot know today - “It will be said of us “They saw their times whole - and reached out and made them their own - with faith, with confidence, with purpose and with resolve. “And we who followed, honor their achievement - and the rich- ness of their legacy.” SENATE - No. 1. FRANCIS W. SARGENT, Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts [Jan. 1971.