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Natalie Dean | Freelancer<\/span><\/p>\n Dennis Richardson, the current Oregon Secretary of State, visited Western\u2019s campus on Jan. 30 to promote local politics and expand education around state government issues.<\/span><\/p>\n Secretary Richardson spoke of his own political journey starting with his work for the Central Point City Council. Richardson noted in his speech one thing that he learned during his time there, \u201ccitizens do not come into their government office unless they have to. But when people came in, it was because something was amiss and they wanted their elected official to take action. It was an opportunity for common sense and ordinances to be balanced and resolve things citizens think are important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He continued by pointing out that, upon running for Secretary of State, the last Republican to serve in that position was Norma Paulus, who was elected 40 years prior. The cards were stacked against him, and Richardson explained, \u201cit was said that it couldn\u2019t be done. My advice is to focus on the principles you stand for and not focus on a party. I tell this to republicans, to anybody who asks me how to win (an election.) Have ideas on how to solve the problems that face the people, and run on that with the dedication to do what you said you would do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Later in the evening, Richardson posed an important question to the crowd, \u201cWhat do you want out of your life?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhen you die, people say nice things about you if they have something to say. Wouldn\u2019t it make sense to say \u2018when I leave this life, here\u2019s what I want to be remembered for.\u2019. I want to be known as a good man, a civil servant, an honest man, a person of integrity, a hard worker. These are all important to me, and I\u2019m trying to live up to it, because it\u2019s not going to happen otherwise. So, what do you want to be remembered for?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Richardson spoke on one current Oregon issue: the foster care system. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe time for talk has passed, the time for action is now. Those that think it\u2019s a broken system will not be surprised,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have auditors who have been on the job for over 10 years, and they said this was the most difficult audit they had done … But these are issues that must be addressed if we are going to change the system and serve our most vulnerable population, which are the children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Secretary Richardson finished the speech by answering a final question from the crowd: how can college students become involved and educated in local politics? He urged folks to vote and seek out education, to reach out to local legislators and to ask questions. He encouraged all students to be actively engaged and in turn, create the world they would want their own children to live and thrive in.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at ndean17@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Natalie Dean | Freelancer Dennis Richardson, the current Oregon Secretary of State, visited Western\u2019s campus on Jan. 30 to promote local politics and expand education around state government issues. Secretary Richardson spoke of his own political journey starting with his work for the Central Point City Council. Richardson noted in his speech one thing that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}