Part of Salem’s history is our being the Capitol City, and with that came our acceptance of the State Hospital, State Prison, Fairview Training Center, School for The Deaf, School For the Blind and many other services for Oregon’s special needs people.

We also have Oregon largest administrative work force.  I’ve worked with and known these people for 50 yrs. and I can’t think of an industry which would provide our community such a bright and diverse group.  Workers who are so solidly within the middle income group are very good parents and neighbors, coaches, cookie bakers,  and supports.  Salem is a very good place to live because of our heritage and because of our workforce.

I think our administrative work force is Salem’s 1st asset.  I think our leadership, our legislature, our government leaders, city and county and school board  leaders have been very weak for decades:   Not our best  people, seem to lack the skills of leadership – courage, intelligence, creativity, humility.

We can only hope to see people with these skills rise to leadership if we participate in this democratic process. Our apathy is why government functions so poorly.  We must vote, we must make some noise, we must make ourselves heard – write, yell, talk, but most of all – VOTE.

I am running for the House to raise awareness of addictive disease and it’s impact on every family in Oregon. 9 yrs. ago I lost a son to addiction – a suicide. 1 in 5 pre-adolescents has the disease response to their first experiments with substance abuse. This is where we must impact this epidemic of addictive disease. We must make this culture shift from criminal to medical.

We must begin with the Corrections Division where we provide treatment in 6 of 14 prisons in a population where substance abuse is identified in 75% of the population. Over $80,000 per inmate and we are not treating a treatable cause of criminal behavior. We must begin to offer children and their parents a medical option to this problem. Treatment works and is far less expensive and far more effective than punishment. Measure 11 is not why violent crime rates are less: Salem now has 2 dozen Oxford Houses and counting, 10 yrs ago there was one, these recovery houses are a phenonenon all over the country, supported entirely by the residents – as usual, government will be the last to know. Also, [Read more...]