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.

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, Head Start and similar programs for children at an early age are beginning to show results. Our Corrections system is a disgrace – almost 17,000 inmates at over $80,000 per inmate to punish and then re-introduce to society a far worse criminal than when orginally sentenced.

We must begin to restrict this pipeline to prison and welfare at the pre-adolescent stage. Punishment after the disease is established is very expensive and fruitless. We do have the science to seperate the criminal from the illness. Portugal began the process in 2001, the police departments were initially opposed and two years later they became univeral supporters of the concept: “We can now concentrate on crime, it’s why i came to this profession.” Lisbon police veteran.