| Remarks by Governor Kulongoski |
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| March 15, 2005 |
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Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza Dedication
Thank you Bill for your introduction – and your many years of friendship. I also want to acknowledge and thank Mayor Piercy, Bill’s fellow Lane County Commissioners; Former Eugene Mayor, Jim Torry; Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken; Laura Olson, Larry Perry and all the members of the Wayne Morse Historical Park Corporation Board; and the wonderful artist Gabriel Ponzanelli.
I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize my friend Monroe Sweetland – who I see in the audience – and Aaron Jones for his wonderful comments about his friend Wayne Morse.
Finally, my thanks go out to the many friends and admirers of Senator Wayne Morse who are here today. You come from many places and many walks of life. Some of you worked with Wayne Morse and knew him well. Others simply – and deeply – value what he stood for. But all of us share a common love and admiration for Wayne Morse – and recognition that Oregon would be a much different place without him.
I know that creating this free speech plaza was a labor of love for this community.
I also know that it took many years – and countless hours – of hard work. So to each of you – I express my heartfelt appreciation for building this plaza as a tribute to the man who bears its name – and for making this day possible.
As most of you know, Wayne Morse died unexpectedly in 1974 while fighting to win back his seat in the United States Senate. Although I was a young labor lawyer and state legislator from Lane County at the time, I must have made some positive impression on him because one day he gave me a kitten that was born at the farm.
The kitten’s name was Sancho – like the faithful and levelheaded companion of Don Quixote. Given the name – I assumed that the kitten would likewise be, calm levelheaded, and easy to get along with. But Sancho didn’t take after his fictional namesake – he took after his real first owner.
Sancho was an orange-stripped tabby. He looked like a miniature tiger and was the most cantankerous, stubborn and irascible cat that you’d ever want to meet. On top of all that – Sancho would filibuster. The only way I could get him to pipe down was to give him what he wanted.
But none of this mattered. I loved Sancho because his orange stripes reminded me of the cantankerous patriot and visionary who gave him to me: Wayne Morse –The Tiger of the Senate. Senator Morse was hero of mine then. And he is a hero of mine still.
I’d like to read you something President Kennedy wrote in his book Profiles in Courage: “The Republican Party when I entered Congress was big enough to hold both Robert Taft and Wayne Morse. And the Democratic side of the Senate, in which I now serve, can happily embrace both Harry Byrd and . . .Wayne Morse.”
In those two short sentences, we understand why we are dedicating this free speech plaza to Wayne Morse. Party mattered to Wayne Morse. But principle mattered much more. As a Republican, Senator Morse broke with the nominee of his party in the middle of the 1952 presidential election. And 12 years later, as a Democrat, he broke with the President Johnson – casting one of only two votes against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
Throughout his long political career, Senator Morse followed the dictates of his conscience. But he wasn’t just a fighter for free speech – he was a practitioner. Wayne Morse understood that the right of free speech is meaningless if citizens remain silent in the face of injustice. So he believed in dissent and practiced it regularly – to the great annoyance of the powerful, and the great benefit of Oregon and the American people.
Because of Senator Morse’s legendary battles on behalf of civil rights and civil liberties – and against the Vietnam War, we sometimes overlook what I consider to be his most important contribution to free speech: Making education a national priority.
In the 1972 case, Wisconsin v. Yoder, the United States Supreme Court said, “[E]ducation is necessary to prepare citizens to participate effectively and intelligently in our open political system." In other words, the right of free expression – the lifeblood of our democracy – depends on an educated citizenry. No one understood this connection better than Wayne Morse, which is why no one fought harder to improve education – including post-secondary education –than Wayne Morse.
In the Senate, he was literally known as Mr. Education. Working with Congresswoman Edith Green – also from Oregon – Wayne Morse won passage of a series of education bills that President Johnson collectively called a “legislative miracle.”
The list includes: The Vocational Education Act; the Higher Education Facilities Act; the National Defense Education Act Amendments of 1964 – which dramatically increased the number of graduate fellowships; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – a landmark piece of legislation that led to broad federal support for public education; and the Higher Education Act of 1965 – that, among other things, authorized low interest student loans and created the Teachers Corps.
This remarkable package of laws is one of Wayne Morse’s greatest legacies – not only to education, but also to the ideals of free thought, democratic debate, and the rule of law. He wanted young people to have the best education possible because he knew that educated citizens think critically – and act independently. Wayne Morse literally made the right of free speech stronger by educating Americans – better.
This plaza will help keep alive the message of Wayne Morse – that we must both protect and exercise our fundamental right of free speech. But I believe we must also keep alive his message that there is nothing more important to our nation’s future than making sure that the door to educational opportunity stays open. That is why three months ago I called for a Marshall Plan for education, including post-secondary education – where every qualified young person in this country has the right and opportunity to continue his or her education at a community college or university.
For most of our nation’s history, post-secondary education was considered a privilege – to be enjoyed by the wealthy. But after World War II, we made higher education affordable and accessible for millions of returning veterans. This national commitment to higher education continued in the 1960s – thanks to the leadership of Wayne Morse and many others in both parties.
Unfortunately, we are slipping back into our old ways – viewing post-secondary education as a privilege of the well to-do. This is both economically shortsighted – and morally wrong. So I challenge you to stand with me and demand that our leaders in Washington make a major new investment in community colleges and universities. That they provide Americans with a pre-K through 20 education system that gives us the opportunity to be the best educated, best trained and best skilled citizenry in the world.
Wayne Morse was bold. Wayne Morse took risks. And yes, this is the time for us to follow in the footsteps of Wayne Morse. He understood the difference education made in his life – just as I understand the difference it has made in mine. He also understood that education is a public good that pays dividends in the form of a stronger economy – and healthier democracy. That is why he fought tenaciously for education at all levels – and why we must do the same.
So while we honor the life and vision of Wayne Morse by opening this plaza and unveiling Gabriel’s sculpture, I hope this dedication is the beginning – not the end – of our celebration of a true Oregon and American hero. That we take his passion for tolerance, justice and civil rights – and make it our own. That we take his courage to speak for unpopular causes and against conventional wisdom – and make it our own. That we take his abiding belief in an educational landscape that every citizen has a right to enter and lay claim to – and we make it our own. And that we take his legacy of public service – and we do more than make it our own.
We must build on the legacy of Wayne Morse – inspired by his deeds and memory, and committed to handing tomorrow’s free thinkers an even better Oregon and America than he handed to us.
Thank you.
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