JOHN D. CHERRY, LT. GOVERNOR
Remarks: Inauguration 2003
January 1 - 12:30 p.m.

Thank you

Governor Granholm, Secretary of State Land, Attorney General Cox, former Governors Engler and Blanchard, our families, our friends, and the people of Michigan: it is an honor to stand here today at the beginning of a New Year and the beginning of a New Day in Michigan.

It is a new day for our families who have been struggling with the economic realities that confront us at the beginning of the 21st Century. Struggling to meet their mortgage, put their kids through college and save for retirement.

It is a new day for our public schools - those centers of learning that give all children equal access to the American dream. Our public schools are the backbone of this state's great education system, and we will value those schools and those educators who light the fire within our children to learn, to dream, and to reach for the stars.

It is a new day for those praying that their babies don't get sick because they have no insurance to help them pay the doctor's bill. And it is a new day for those doctors and nurses who have been toiling away, doing much more with much less for far too long.

However, for every initiative and plan we have, we also have challenges. Challenges brought on by a weak national economy that strains the capacity of our State to reach out with a helping hand to Michigan families that struggle with the resulting economic stress.

Michigan has faced challenges since its very beginning. Even before it was a state, we were challenged by the perceptions others had of this wilderness we now call home.

Veterans of the War of 1812 who saw what was then the Northwest Territory said the Michigan Territory was nothing more than a very large swamp and completely uninhabitable-- "good for disease, and not much else." It would take years for pioneers to settle here.

How far we have come, my friends.

Michigan and her people, marked by determination and the ability to adapt, to persevere, and to overcome, have always pulled through. We have had an impact on our nation and the world. We had the industrial strength to pull the country out of the Great Depression and the manufacturing might to win a World War.

We've diversified our economy, and are no longer completely and singularly reliant on the auto industry.

We've won awards for our blazing rates of new business creation - a tribute to Governors Jim Blanchard and John Engler and their sheer will to make Michigan an economic powerhouse. We say Thank you.

And Governor Engler. I know I speak for Governor Granholm when I say we intend to refer often to your blueprint for economic development to keep Michigan's place in the forefront of new business creation and expansion.

For generations, people have come to Michigan to make it their home. They have come from places as far away as Poland and from as close as Canada. They have brought with them their customs and traditions, which have been beautifully woven into the social fabric of our state. I don't know many places where on any given Sunday in the summer time, you can enjoy a pierogi at one ethnic festival, and in the next town over you can watch a parade in your wooden shoes.

People from around the world came here, to this state that was still largely a wilderness, to make their home. To engage in that great American dream of owning and working a piece of land, of opening a little store, or of getting a good-paying job in a factory.

They came here to raise their families in peace, away from persecution and oppression. And they still do to this day.

The Governor and I share a simple goal for the next several years - to make Michigan the best place in the country to raise a family.

Today, we ask for your help in accomplishing this goal.

We face many challenges in the coming year. But, to us, every challenge is an opportunity. It's a way to forge change. It's a way to use adversity as a catalyst, not a tool for defeat.

We ask for your help, your patience, and your participation.

Your help in sharing the sacrifice until we can get our fiscal house in order and grow the economy. Just like a nation in war, our state's people must pull together to help overcome this together.

Your patience because this first year or two will be difficult. Tough sledding, as they say in the Upper Peninsula. We have enormous fiscal challenges that will cause us to hit the pause button on some of the plans and programs that we promised. We must deal with the state budget first, and then get to work on our initiatives to protect our families and educate our children.

Your participation is needed because this is a government created by you, maintained by you and working for you. This doesn't work without you. We spent the last several months inviting you to the table, and just because times are tough doesn't mean that we don't want you there. Conversely, we need you there.

On a far more personal note, I would like to wrap up by thanking my family-my wife Pam and our children Meghan and John--for agreeing to face these challenges with me. Thanking them for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your Lieutenant Governor. Their sacrifice is immeasurable. Without their love and support I would not be standing here today.

Michigan is a great place to live. Let's make it even greater by working together to overcome our challenges and drive our state's future success by protecting our families and educating our children.

Thank you and God Bless Michigan!