Richard Celeste 1985 State of State Address

              FIGHTING BACK / REBUILDING TOGETHER
State of the State Address Delivered by
Governor Richard F. Celeste
January 16, 1985 Columbus, Ohio
Mr. Speaker.  Mr. President.  Mr. Lieutenant Governor. Distinguished members of the 116th General Assembly.  Mr. Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court.  Elected state officeholders.  Members of the Cabinet.  Family and friends.
Two hundred years ago, determined men and women began to carve settlements out of this land ... soon designated the Northwest Territory.  They fought.  They farmed.  They labored.  They raised cabins and barns.  They laid down roads.  They dug canals.  They built.  And they built.  And they built some more.
We were the heart of our young nation's first frontier, where the work was here for all who risked to do it.
We were the heart of our young nation's early public school movement ... where education was first free for all who sought it.
We were the heart of our growing nation's industrial revolution ... where the mills and yards were open to nearly all workers with a strong and willing back.
Generation after generation, Ohio set the pace for America's growth.  Generation after generation, Ohio fought against whatever obstacles stood in her path to leadership.
In recent years, however, Ohio has suffered.  At the heart of our nation's economic turmoil, we have been battered by fast-changing technological and global competition.  And a national recession became a depression in Ohio as we lost the vision and the vitality that had made Ohio great.
When I stood before you two years ago, more than 735,000 of our citizens were without jobs.  We owed Washington almost $2 billion for unemployment compensation funds.  And 38 of Ohio's schools districts were forced to borrow state funds just to keep their doors open.