[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 14 (Thursday, February 14, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S845-S846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SHE FLIES WITH HER OWN WINGS

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, today I commemorate the 
anniversary of Oregon's statehood, which was secured this day in 1859. 
Oregon became the 33rd State to join the Union, and did so as a free 
State. At the time, there was no room for Oregon's new Senators in the 
Capitol, and construction immediately began on the Chamber we find 
ourselves in today. One hundred and forty-three years later, there 
seems to be plenty of room in the Congress for Oregon and the 17 States 
that followed her.
  From ``fifty-four forty or fight!'' to my State's current motto, 
``She flies with her own wings,'' Oregon has always been emblazoned 
with the spirit of independence. Inaugurated by the arrival of Lewis 
and Clark at Fort Clatsop in 1805, this spirit of self-determination 
brought forth the pioneers from across the plains and over the snowy 
peaks of the Rockies and into Oregon Country. It is the marrow of the 
pioneers with their axes who forged high into Oregon's forested 
mountains to fell the timber needed to build an empire, and the farmers 
in the emerald valleys who pulled their plows through the soil to grow 
the crops that feed a nation.
  The economy that grew from those natural resources stood strong for a 
century, during which time we learned to build fish hatcheries and to 
replant

[[Page S846]]

our trees to ensure a sustainable bounty from the land and the water. 
When the hydropower system was built on the Columbia River, rural 
Oregon was electrified and the agricultural products of the ``inland 
empire'' were launched into the world. It was at the dedication of 
Bonneville Dam in 1937 that President Roosevelt aptly described the 
growing challenge of balanced economic growth between urban and rural 
areas. He said that the healthiest growth of urban areas ``actually 
depends on the simultaneous healthy growth of every smaller community 
within a radius of hundreds of miles.''
  The current economic downturn in my state echoes Roosevelt's 
challenge. Whether it is in the Silicon Forest or the Doug Fir Forest, 
Oregon is learning that entire industries must no longer be pitted 
against one another, or rural economies exchanged for urban ones. We 
need them all, and we have to create an environment for them to 
flourish. Not long ago, Oregon was the Nation's leader in high-tech and 
timber. Now, Oregon leads the Nation in unemployment and hunger.
  The wings by which Oregon flies are heavily burdened, and much of the 
weight falls from the Federal Government. Congress has failed to 
produce a stimulus package to relieve small businesses, families and 
the unemployed. But federal failures like this are not new to Oregon. 
The government is still in default on its promise to timber communities 
affected by the Northwest Forest Plan. So, too, are answers due to 
farmers in the Klamath Basin whose livelihoods were held captive by 
shoddy science.
  Ironically, Oregon needs both ``more'' and ``less'' of the federal 
government. Oregon needs the federal government to be less burdensome 
to commerce, less capable of wiping out resource-based communities, and 
less eager to carry out grand political experiements on Oregon soil. 
But it also needs the government to be more honest in its dealings, 
more accountable for its actions, more targeted in its assistance, and 
more respectful of local approaches to local problems. It is only in 
such a world that Oregon's farmers and ranchers can truly thrive, her 
businesses flourish, and her economy survive. On the 143rd anniversary 
of Oregon's statehood, I know this because I know that no bird flies 
too high if she flies with her own wings.

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