May 27, 2003
Group Names Kitzhaber 2003 'Great Defender' and Launches Campaign to 'Engage Oregon'
This evening, before a packed house at the Hollywood Theatre, the New Progressive Network awarded Governor John Kitzhaber its 2003 Great Defender Award.
The event was the official launch of the Network's "Engage Oregon" campaign, designed to draw Oregonians into an elaborate grassroots conversation about the future of the state.
Kitzhaber underscored the nature of the problem facing democratic governance in 21st century Oregon by drawing upon a metaphor from his background in medicine.
Oregon's former governor described three situations which regularly confront doctor and patient.
If a patient seeks help for a bacterial infection, the doctor can prescribe medication to address the problem. The solution rests with the doctor and his prescription.
If a patient seeks help for high blood pressure, the doctor can prescribe medication to help the patient manage it, but unless the patient takes responsibility for quitting smoking, eating right, and exercising, the patient will never become healthy.
If a patient seeks help for some form of cancer, all the doctor can do is help the patient take steps to live with a situation neither of them can fix.
We tend, Kitzhaber said to think of our problems and our interaction with government in addressing them, as if they are of the first type described above. In reality, he argued, they are far more likely to more closely resemble the second type (and, sometimes, the third).
As conceived by the New Progressive Network, the Engage Oregon campaign is intended to create a statewide conversation which will lead Oregonians to discover -- or create -- the structures and processes necessary to deal with challenges of the second type in the proper fashion.
In other words, while at the most basic level it is crucially important to be electorally active, the problems and opportunities facing us must be addressed by the people of Oregon themselves -- reinvigorated into active political (and social) committees.
In other words, engaged.
To fulfill its mission to engage, educate, and elect, the New Progressive network will spend this Summer helping Oregonians organize "engagements" where they live and where they work, to "generate much needed dialogue, and to listen to ideas."
The culmination of this concerted effort will be the 2003 Zephyr Forum, to be held November 13-16 at the Hood River Inn in, of course, Hood River, Oregon.
To learn more about the New Progressive Network, the Engage Oregon campaign, or the Zephyr Forum, visit the group's website or call 503-233-3018.
Comments (2)
Susan Gerritz on 09 Jun 2003
Dear Govenor Kitzhaber,
I wish to thank you and the Progressive Network for the wisdom, vision and inspiration that was shared at the Hollywood Theater event. You have put a shine back on my idealism. A state where the govenor dances with his son, among the people at an Oregon Zoo concert, is the kind of state I wish to live in.
Sincerely,
Susan
Susan Gerritz on 09 Jun 2003
Dear Govenor Kitzhaber,
I wish to thank you and the Progressive Network for the wisdom, vision and inspiration that was shared at the Hollywood Theater event. You have put a shine back on my idealism. A state where the govenor dances with his son, among the people at an Oregon Zoo concert, is the kind of state I wish to live in.
Sincerely,
Susan