Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick Delivers the State of the Commonwealth Address

Written by: Phil LaCombe on Jan 27, 2008 11:46 PM EST

At a rally in October of 2006, Deval Patrick’s campaign song “Proud” by Heather Small captivated my attention and my emotions. The song asks, “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” That day he spoke out against the biting attack ads put out by his opponent Kerry Healy before the November election. I and the rest of his many supporters felt proud to support for a candidate who ran a campaign of hope and change.

Last Thursday at the State of the Commonwealth address, Deval Patrick made the people of Massachusetts feel proud all over again. The Governor described his fight over the past year to make the American Story real again in the Commonwealth with an agenda of schools, jobs, and civic engagement.

Massachusetts in on the move, he affirms. Over 43 thousand children received the lifetime benefit of a strong academic start from pre-K and all-day kindergarten programs. With the millions of dollars added in science, technology, engineering and math grants, our students will have the skills they need to excel in tomorrow’s global economy. With the newly-inducted Commonwealth Corps, people young and old have a new way to give back to their communities.

The Massachusetts economy has moved from 48th in job creation under previous administrations to 15th in the nation last year. The governor launched new biofuels and green building standards. Clean technology is now one of the strongest growth industries in the Commonwealth. Under the Patrick administration, we made the largest investment in housing in 20 years. This state is on its way to being the first with universal health care—300,000 adults and children who were uninsured last year are insured today. Deval also fought to keep equal marriage rights in Massachusetts and won.

Governor Patrick, facing difficulties with a legislature that has resisted the kind of change our state demands, asserts that the cost of inaction is too high. Our legislature needs to pass his budget which commits more funding to public schools and higher education, to scientific research and renewable energy, and to technology infrastructure in the more rural parts of the state. His budget and his speech addressed a problem that many politicians today would not even acknowledge—he will commit a record amount of resources to ending homelessness.

I do believe that Governor Patrick continues to speak for the people. He challenges our senior officials in government, many who received the “one generation” transformation of the American Story, with granting opportunities to, as Deval says, “the countless others who still wait for their chance.” Deval delivered a heartfelt story about visiting a school in Dorchester, where an 11-year-old boy found a .44 caliber pistol in the neighborhood and brought it into the classroom. As he prepared for a community meeting to discuss ways to help, he collected his thoughts in the principal’s office when he realized he was being watched by a dozen or more little African-American boys and girls, “backpacks on, beaming, waving, all excited.” In their eyes he sees the excitement not for the history our Commonwealth made last year, but the history those kids have yet to make. Deval touched the hearts of everyone in the audience. A woman sitting next to me burst out in tears. We all have a stake in those kids’ futures, along with so many others.

Just as in that favorite campaign song of mine, Deval asked us to make a change. After he concluded his speech, he called upon the people of Massachusetts to march on the State House and voice our calls for change, because he knows that we share his impatience. I am sure that I will, along with many of the students from my Democracy for America group at Brandeis University, many of whom worked tirelessly for Deval’s campaign. The members of my group realize that progressive change doesn’t end at the ballot box, we must follow through to support people like Deval who champion our cause even after taking office. Deval Patrick continues to make us feel proud.

In Solidarity,

Phil LaCombe

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Location: MA