The prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Jerry Oberg, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Senate page Lori Wiese.

     Roll Call: All members present except Sens. Putnam and Reedy who were excused.

     The Committee on Legislative Procedure respectfully reports that the Secretary of the Senate has had under consideration the Senate Journal of the eighth day.

     All errors, typographical or otherwise, are duly marked in the temporary journal for correction.

     And we hereby move the adoption of the report.

    "Section 1. That § 36-4-19 be amended to read as follows:

     36-4-19.   The Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners may, without examination, issue a license to any applicant holding a currently valid license or certificate issued to the applicant by the examining board of the District of Columbia, any state or territory of the United States, the National Board of Medical Examiners, the National Board of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, or any province of Canada, from which the license was obtained by a written examination given by the board, if the legal requirements of the examining board at the time it issued the license or certificate were not less than those of this state at the time the license is presented for registration.

     Section 2. That § 36-4-41 be amended to read as follows:

     36-4-41.   Any nonresident physician or osteopath who, while located outside this state, provides diagnostic or treatment services through electronic means to a person patient located in this state under a contract with a health care provider licensed under Title 36, a clinic located in this state that provides health services, a health maintenance organization, a preferred provider organization, or a health care facility licensed under chapter 34-12, is engaged in the practice of medicine or osteopathy in this state. No nonresident physician or osteopath who, while located outside this state, consults on an irregular basis with a licensee under this chapter who is located in this state, is engaged in the practice of medicine or osteopathy in this state. Consultation between a nonresident physician or osteopath and a licensee under this chapter is governed by §  36-2-9. "

Also MADAM PRESIDENT:

    The Committee on State Affairs respectfully reports that it has had under consideration SJR  1 and SB 68 which were deferred to the 36^th Legislative Day.

    "Section 5. That § 10-45-6.1 be amended to read as follows:

     10-45-6.1.   There Except as provided in section 1 of this Act, there is hereby imposed on amounts paid for local telephone services, toll telephone services, and teletypewriter services, a tax of four percent of the amount so paid. The taxes imposed by this section shall be paid by the person paying for the services. If a bill is rendered the taxpayer for local telephone service or toll telephone service, the amount on which the tax with respect to such services shall be based shall be the sum of all charges for such services included in the bill; except that if a person who renders the bill groups individual items for purposes of rendering the bill and computing the tax, then the amount on which the tax for each such group shall be based shall be the sum of all items within that group, and the tax on the remaining items not included in any such group shall be based on the charge for each item separately. If the tax imposed by this section with respect to toll telephone service is paid by inserting coins in coin operated telephones, the tax shall be computed to the nearest multiple of five cents, except that, where the tax is midway between multiples of five cents, the next higher multiple shall apply. The tax so paid shall be remitted at the same time as the sales tax imposed by this chapter. "

     And that as so amended said bill do pass.

Also MADAM PRESIDENT:

    The Committee on Taxation respectfully reports that it has had under consideration SB 60 which was deferred to the 36^th Legislative Day.

MADAM PRESIDENT:

    I have the honor to transmit herewith HCR 1004 which has been adopted by the House and your concurrence is respectfully requested.

        A RESOLUTION, Expressing the appreciation and gratitude of the Senate of the Seventy- seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota to Nikki Big Crow, Darcy Dunker, Ashley Eichstadt, Carrie Gonsor, Mariah Kennedy, Jeanette Nygaard, Shantel Penn, Heather Thompson, Hilary Van Asperen, Charly Warren, and Lori Wiese.

    WHEREAS, the above named served loyally as pages for the Senate of the Seventy-seventh Legislative Session; and

    WHEREAS, the members of the Seventy-seventh Senate express their most sincere appreciation to these young people for their service to the state; and

    WHEREAS, the members extend to these young people their wishes for every success in life:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Seventy-seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, that a personal copy of this resolution be duly certified and furnished to each page on this last day of service.

     Was read the first time and the President waived the committee referral.

     Yeas 32, Nays 0, Excused 3, Absent 0

     Yeas:
Albers; Apa; Bogue; Brosz; Brown (Arnold); Cradduck; Daugaard; de Hueck; Dennert; Diedrich (Larry); Diedtrich (Elmer); Drake; Duxbury; Everist; Greenfield; Hagen; Ham; Hutmacher; Kleven; Koskan; Madden; McCracken; McIntyre; Moore; Munson; Olson (Ed); Staggers; Sutton (Dan); Symens; Vitter; Volesky; Whiting

     Excused:
Koetzle; Putnam; Reedy

     So the bill having received an affirmative vote of a majority of the members-elect, the President declared the bill passed and the title was agreed to.

     Yeas 32, Nays 0, Excused 3, Absent 0

     Yeas:
Albers; Apa; Bogue; Brosz; Brown (Arnold); Cradduck; Daugaard; de Hueck; Dennert; Diedrich (Larry); Diedtrich (Elmer); Drake; Duxbury; Everist; Greenfield; Hagen; Ham; Hutmacher; Kleven; Koskan; Madden; McCracken; McIntyre; Moore; Munson; Olson (Ed); Staggers; Sutton (Dan); Symens; Vitter; Volesky; Whiting

     Excused:
Koetzle; Putnam; Reedy

     So the bill having received an affirmative vote of a majority of the members-elect, the President declared the bill passed and the title was agreed to.

     Yeas 32, Nays 0, Excused 3, Absent 0

     Yeas:
Albers; Apa; Bogue; Brosz; Brown (Arnold); Cradduck; Daugaard; de Hueck; Dennert; Diedrich (Larry); Diedtrich (Elmer); Drake; Duxbury; Everist; Greenfield; Hagen; Ham; Hutmacher; Kleven; Koskan; Madden; McCracken; McIntyre; Moore; Munson; Olson (Ed); Staggers; Sutton (Dan); Symens; Vitter; Volesky; Whiting

     Excused:
Koetzle; Putnam; Reedy

     So the bill having received an affirmative vote of a majority of the members-elect, the President declared the bill passed and the title was agreed to.

     Was read the second time.

     So the bill having received an affirmative vote of a majority of the members-elect, the President declared the bill passed and the title was agreed to.

     Excused:
Putnam; Reedy

     So the bill not having received an affirmative vote of a majority of the members-elect, the President declared the bill lost.

     Was read the first time and referred to the Committee on Commerce.

    Pursuant to the Joint Select Committee Report found on page 11 of the Senate Journal, the following is Governor William J. Janklow's State of the State Address:

One, you always put taxpayers first.

Two, we have a responsibility in government to provide for the public education of our citizens.

And four, we have an absolute responsibility to care for people who can't care for themselves. We get into fights at times as to at what point should people start taking care of themselves or at what point should they be fully responsible for themselves, but we never get into a fight where we're taking care of people who truly can't help themselves.

We get into arguments about what ought to be against the law, and if it is against the law, what should be the penalty, and if you get a penalty, for how long should you be penalized. But none of us argue that we need a system whereby we can maintain the protectoral integrity of the people and the property within this state.

Finally, do we truly put taxpayers first, recognizing how important that truly is? There is no such thing as government money. There is no such thing as federal money or state money. Money is paid by human beings. No corporation pays taxes. They get their money from people. No business pays taxes. It gets its money from people and the owners. Individuals who earn pay taxes, and it is the earnings that they have that give them the ability to go out and make the purchases and make our economy move.

Way back when I was running for Governor eight years ago, my opponent and I both said that we would cut property taxes 30 percent. Every member of the other party, my friends that are Democrats, picked up the pledge and said they would cut property taxes 30 percent. Every member of my party made a public pledge. We would cut property taxes 30 percent, and we worked hard to deliver on that after the election was over.

people, one or the other. Because, the reality of the situation is, you can see by the blue lines on that chart what taxes were in property tax collections going back to 1983. You can see the huge rises that started to take place in '92, '93, '94, '95 that brought about a citizens' revolt. When Jim Beddow and I were running for Governor years ago, at every single debate, every single question by the media, every public appearance, the first question always was, What are you going to do about property taxes? That was always the dominant issue. As a matter of fact, we had an election that year where our people voted on a constitutional referendum that had been created by initiative. That constitutional referendum, rolling back over about $300 million to $500 million of taxes, lost by less than 1600 votes. In a statewide election, only 1600 votes separated the victory from the loss on the various sides on that issue. That's how angry our people were at property taxes.

So, you can see that it took us more than four years. It took us several years, but we were able to achieve that 30 percent rollback for homeowners and agriculture property. What you see in the yellow are the payments that have been made the last six years into the funding of the schools. That's money that would have been paid by property taxpayers had we had the old system still in place. We kept our word. We kept our bond with the public.

We've wired 622 public school buildings, all the private school buildings that wanted to be wired, every public university, every private university, and every public library. There is no question we are ready for the next millennium, the one that we're in, with respect to the technology base that's in place.

There is not a state in the Union that has a course for teachers, their classroom educators, that goes to 200 hours to learn how to utilize technology. Forty percent of all the classroom teachers in this state, 40 percent, four out of every ten drawing a paycheck for being teachers or educators, have been through that TTL course that has a minimum of 200 hours of instruction in how to utilize technology to enhance learning.

content standards, the students are going to be able to pass the tests. But, more important than passing the test, they'll have the fundamental knowledge in the subject matter that they have to have to get ahead in life, to go to the next grade, to go to the next phase of their life.

We all talked about the importance of reading, so out of it came this program. We couldn't afford to do Reading Recovery and Sylvan Learning and some of the specialized, expensive courses. So, we put good minds together from Sioux Falls College, the University of South Dakota, SDSU, several of our schools. We put people together in the public school systems and the Department of Education. They came up with a curriculum that you folks funded at our request. Last year, it was so successful, a year ago now, that we asked you to expand the program. By popular demand, it was asked, don't take it to the first and second. Take it to the first, second, and third grades, and let's accelerate it and get it done quicker.

US WEST gave us a donation of $17 million, every penny of it. As a matter of fact, the agreement that I negotiated with them provided that in all the non-US WEST territory_the territory that's covered by the private telephone companies, the municipal telephone companies, the co-op telephone companies like ours at Splitrock in Brandon_they would get the same benefit in their schools as all the other schools. US WEST agreed to that. It was a $17 million investment in what we call the Vtel program.

The state pays for all the networking in South Dakota. I am not aware of anyplace else in America where all the network costs amongst and between the schools for the utilization of technology are taken on as a state burden.

Then, in the last eight years, we've put, over and above the legislative funding, $12 million additional dollars into the purchase of equipment, specialized equipment, to make our tech schools at Sioux Falls and Watertown and Mitchell and Rapid City the best equipped tech schools in the nation for the subjects they teach. Really, it has been phenomenally successful.

mess. It's exactly what we have in some families. So, moving forward on this has really been an exciting venture.

The early intervention of juvenile offenders program that you've heard us talk about before, we've had, as of today_I had them get these statistics this morning. Eight thousand four hundred sixty-eight young boys and girls, teenagers, basically, that have gotten themselves into trouble with minor violations of alcohol or drugs have not had to go through the court system, who have been able to be diverted utilizing the resources of the court system and the state's attorney's office. A decision was made not to formalize anything. And when I say 8468, that's the successful ones that, at this point, have not been back in trouble_a phenomenally good program.

We tested 24,700 for high blood pressure. And listen to this. A third of them, 34 percent is what the number was, but over 8000 of them had elevated blood pressure, and we referred them to their doctors. Just think of what we were able to accomplish.

That organ donor program where we got your permission to have people sign up for being organ donors on their driver's licenses_the legislation lets me, if I want to make that decision, to formalize it. It can't be reversed after I am gone or as I am leaving, either way, if I make that decision. Fifty-four thousand eight hundred South Dakotans have responded and identified themselves formally as organ donors to give life to somebody else. Think about that. What could be a greater gift than, as you leave, to give somebody the stuff, the parts, the organs you are not going to ever again need, be it a heart or a lung or a kidney or a pancreas or a liver or a bowel or a stomach or Lord knows what, the cornea or tissue from the skin as these medical things advance.

We hear very little today about the problems of doctors in rural areas. We've been very successful with that, again with a new program that we asked you to pass and you did. You worked with us on it and massaged it. And the program that we passed says no longer will we give you a free education. You go to med. school, you go to an appropriate community, and

when your loan payments become due every year, we'll make your loan payment. That program has worked very, very well.

This is a bragging point by me, but during the eight years that I've been here this time and the eight years before, over 50,000 miles of rural water pipes have been laid in the ground. That would circle the earth twice, plus. Over 50,000 miles have been laid in the ground.

In terms of roofing, for the last four years, I've had roofing crews for state office buildings. They have put on 68 roofs representing 3.2 million square feet, have put on all kinds, from the vulcanized roofs to the shingle roofs to the tar and gravel roofs. You name it. But our inmate crews, and these people are highly skilled when they get out of prison, but the savings to the taxpayers are in the tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars.

We have tuck-pointed 32 buildings including this one at 10 different sites, 32 different buildings in 10 different communities.

respect that they're shown, they respond like anybody. It is truly phenomenal how well they've done.

We've got them out there thinning forest now. We have a crew, as I speak, that is working for the US Forest Service, thinning in their forest. And then we've also got them working in Custer State Park. I really had a goal, by the time I left office, to try and get Custer State Park completely done. We probably won't make it. They say we won't make it, but we're not giving up yet. We've still got 11 months.

We've built 800 homes, 755 homes in this state, in the prison. Now, if it is 755, and we've got 750,000 people, that's one for every thousand. If we average two people in every home in this state, for every 500 people, we built a home. There is nothing that rivals this anyplace, anyplace. Nebraska just started this program. Their home costs twice as much as ours. They've just started this program, and theirs is $60,000.

They've repaired the state fair grounds.

They've responded to disasters.

They've maintained. Look at this building. Look at the grounds. We have marvelous crews that work for us that are full-time state employees, but they are augmented by the women inmates in this community.

We're rebuilding all the campgrounds on the Missouri River that we've gotten from the Corps of Engineers and also our own, utilizing inmate labor.

We have rebuilt 2717 bicycles since that program started a couple of years ago.

We have repaired 144 buses that are in all your communities or areas. Every area of South Dakota has one of those buses serving it, and 144 have been brought up to snuff, so to speak, by the prison labor.

We built 162 handicap ramps that go on people's houses that need assistance to get into their houses. The National Guard has been delivering them, but the inmates have built 162 of them.

We've rebuilt so many wheelchairs they told me they can't keep track of them. They said, "Governor, just say thousands and thousands and thousands of wheelchairs have been rebuilt by the prisoners in their programs."

In this last year, 2.3 million hours were done.

We could do more. We can do better, and I'll get on that in a little bit.

In the James River, trying to clean it up after the floods and snows came and caused all the dead trees and killed all those trees. We removed over 81,000 dead trees up and down the James River through the conservation districts and planted 160,000 others.

Think of this. Three and a half million tires have been picked up and hauled away. That's in the face of a program that's been going on for a decade where, when you trade in tires, if you don't want your old tires, they take them for a fee. They charge everybody a fee whether you take them or not, and yet we have still picked up 3.5 million.

We've picked up 10,000 batteries.

We've crushed and destroyed 3500 cars and trucks.

And 1496 buildings have been torn down or scooped off the ground or burned up or buried.

The pesticide containers_we picked up 94,000 that had 60,000 gallons of liquid in them that were dangerous.

On the top line, if you see Average Growth 1.5 percent, and on the next set down, if you see Average Growth 2.5 percent, what that really shows on those two charts is what will happen if, over and above the gross return of 6.85 or 7.85, the difference being what is called the average growth factor over and above the income factor. If it is only, only 1.5 percent growth, by the year 2010, we won't have our beginning $226 million in it. We're going to have, after the payouts, $261 million in it, and our people will get the $12 million plus the additional $1.4 million. Now, God willing, some of you will be around here in 2099. If you are and it grows at 1.5, you're going to have a billion dollars you're going to watch them fight over. Under the 2.5 percent growth scenario, it is three times that much. It would be $3 billion. That shows what compounding can do and the sensible methodology you followed to take the consistent $12 million payout, take a little bit more, and put the rest of it away into a growth factor.

assets to GCC Dakotah, Inc. referred to above presents fairly, in all material respects, the gain on sale of assets to GCC Dakotah, Inc. of South Dakota Cement on March 16, 2001, as determined by the Asset Purchase Agreement referred to in the first paragraph." And it's signed by McGladrey & Pullen.

We are asking that we provide the same thing for pilots and people that work at airports for ID that they have for automobiles. You have to have a photo ID. Our pilots' licenses should require that people have a photo ID. It never came home more_this was in our hopper since about October, but this weekend brought it into perspective as clearly as anything can.

We need a system for updating who the local officials are. One of the things we found when in an emergency is we want to contact all the mayors, all the city water works directors, all the city commissioners, we have a lot of changeovers in South Dakota on a continuous basis. People quit, they leave office, whatever, and we don't always know about it. We need to know, if they've got one, their home phone number, their office phone number, their fax number, their cell phone number, their E-mail, because in emergencies, you've got a lot of people to get a hold of, especially now. These aren't isolated things where it is a town in crisis. It may be a whole region or a whole state in crisis, so we're going to have to update our laws on how we have the ability. We can file this stuff with the Secretary of State. Or, if we want it to be confidential_and there's a lot of reason to keep a lot of numbers confidential_they could be on file over at the Emergency and Disaster Office and only available to Emergency and Disaster officials and the Governor's emergency disaster staff. But we need to have the ability to reach these people.

We need to modernize our quarantine laws. That's one of the things we need to do. We have quarantine laws, but they were written for what I'll call God's acts of sickness. There was nothing where people would go around infecting other people deliberately, so we don't have the ability to really, really deal with that type of thing.

We had a person in South Dakota that's been arrested in federal court for having gone down to Florida with a 13-year-old girl that he met on the Internet and having spent a week with her. They're all over the place, out of state, in state. They're everyplace.

As a matter of fact, of those that they know about, 34 percent of the unwanted sexual solicitations were by adults, 48 percent were by minors, and 18 percent they don't know who they were.

Unwanted sexual exposure_one out of every four kids was exposed to bestiality or sodomy or sexual acts being done by human beings or human beings and others. One out of every four in this group, and 67 percent of them came at home.

I know you folks have ideas. We all have some. There's legislation that is model legislation that is being enacted around the country. The feds are active in this. The Attorney General's been active in this. We all need to come together and pass laws that just flat will give our people the ability to be able to deal with this. And I know the arguments will be over what to do, not should we do something.

municipalities, schools, and townships_it's started to go up. This year, it was $6 million. The cumulative impact is now $15 million.

schools that fit into each bracket, so opposite 200 you can see we have 52 schools that have 200 or less students.

going to seize the advantage politically. There is no hall of fame for cowards that won't address real problems. None. None.

But last year, during the legislative session, I had a private meeting with Representative Holbeck, and he and I were discussing this. He was telling me he thought I was in error in my feeling that the producers couldn't fix this problem, couldn't address it, because I had said, "Consumers need to do this." I said, "Lawyers and judges can't fix what's wrong with the court system, but the public can do it. Doctors and hospitals can't fix what's wrong with medical care, but the public can, and the teachers and school board officials and administrators can't fix what's wrong with education. The public can."

He said, "I disagree with you, and I'd like a chance to show you." So I told him I would provide some grant funding that was available to me, and he could pick the task force, and so he did.

So, we actually had two task forces, one of them made up of all citizens, some of who were formerly involved in education, and the other all educators of all phases. They are both about to issue their final reports. If they haven't, it will be just momentarily. I'm asking that the Legislature come together as a committee of the whole. We will find suitable facilities within the community because, frankly, if the members of both task forces come, it would be too crowded in here. I honestly believe it is worth the time early in the session to take the time to listen to what these citizens have to say, what they've done, the work they've put in, the analyses they've made, the conclusions they've reached, the recommendations that they have_ whether we agree or disagree with them. They've put a lot of time and effort into this. It's thoughtful effort. And I think that we really need to take a look at it, so I'm asking that we come together of your whole or just a group of you to look this over and listen to them.

    Now some people say, well, that isn't really going to education. It is paying for property tax relief. When we pay property tax relief, we are paying somebody else's bill that was paying for education before. We picked up that responsibility.

    Is it enough? No. It's not enough. I don't even argue that it's enough, at all. What I am saying, though, is, consistent with what we can afford, we put our money into education. Look at the phenomena_there is nothing in our budget. You can't find anything that has increased like that since 1979 in the government. It has gone up 900 percent. That's a nine times increase during that period of time.

    We live in a time, for some reason_and it's a lot better since September 11, because we're afraid_but people don't trust government. They just plain don't trust it. They don't trust the federal government and how it deals with the Black Hills National Forest. We can argue different sides of different issues on calling it environmentalism or public safety or whatever you want, but you're hard pressed to find anybody who deals with these forests that will tell you they are anything but unhealthy, unsafe, dangerous, and a tinderbox. The Southern Hills are almost burned up. I'll have a map on display for you in the rotunda that will show where the fires have been just the last two years_forget all the others, just the last two years' major fires_the Roger's Shack Fire, the Elk Mountain Fire, and the Jasper Fire. Look at the Southern Hills and see what you see about what's been destroyed. And 100 years from now, it won't be back to the great shape that it once was in.

    When these other fires start, we've got 100,000 people that live in or adjacent to the Black Hills National Forest. You'd better believe it is trouble.

    We're having immense problems with the Homestake Gold Mine deal. I can tell you there's nobody that hasn't busted their tails to get this done that's involved in it. Tom Daschle has been in it up to here. John Thune has been in it up to here. Tim Johnson has been in it up to here. I've been in it up to there. We have really worked hard. We've all tried to work together, but I can tell you. The legislation that passed is unacceptable to the people that would give us the mine. I frankly don't know, and I don't like to be the bearer of bad news. I understand the political consequences in that, but I am shooting straight with you all. We may not get it, because Homestake doesn't trust the government. They just don't trust them.

At one point in the discussions, I said to them, before we got to where we are at now, "What's the reason for the intensity of this feeling?"

Because, I can tell you, folks, there was a time when Homestake was a terrible citizen. They were. They used mercury in separating gold from ore, and arsenic and cyanide, lots of things that they didn't handle responsibly. They were put on the Superfund. I put them on the Superfund site when I was Governor before. I nominated them and they were accepted.

    He said, "Governor, let me tell you. It's like tar on a road. You reach out and you shake hands with the federal government. When you take your hand back, they're stuck to you. They never come off. We can't get them off, so we're not going to deal with them on it."

    The enormity of the loss to this state cannot be calculated. Forget the monetary side of it which is huge. The educational side is even far more important, really far more important.

To make a project successful, you need three things. You need management. You need labor. And, you need capital. Yes, you can cripple yourselves on any one of the three, but if you really want to be successful, you need good labor that's well taken care of. You need good management that takes care of its people and makes wise decisions. And, you need capital. You've got to have all three or you'll live on subsidies and grants forever and hope you make it. We need to take a look at that.

Look at the immense problem we're having with prairie dogs, lots of criticism on prairie dogs. But, I can tell you, my friends, if we do nothing, they are going to list it as an endangered species. These people that say, "It ain't going to bother me. I'll just fight them." The last time someone fought the federal government, it was called the Civil War. They lost. It sounds good on the news, but you lose. They are going to win when the law is on their side. And the US Supreme Court, whether we like it or not, has ruled the law is on their side on everything from spotted owls to you name it. There are things we can do, but, again, it's the distrust of people.

The deal we put together, people say, "I don't believe the feds that they are going to mean this." They want it in writing, so we're actually working on getting it in writing so that we can move forward with it.

Our wetlands, the same thing. They don't trust the government. How do you explain to farmers in Brookings County, Moody County, Dewell County, Grant County that their rules on what a wetland is should be different from somebody 100 feet or one foot away in Minnesota? How do you explain to a couple of farmers that own adjacent property in both

states that their wetland rules are different in two different states by the same federal government? They don't trust.

You know, when they signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor. They had something worth fighting for, living for, and, if necessary, dying for. The legislation that we deal with, we're going to probably deal with 300, 400, 500, 600 bills this year. A couple hundred will pass. How many are worth fighting for and dying for? Those are the ones that are important. It's nice to debate what the state dessert is or fish. It really is. Or where we ought to put up a sign or five more miles of state highway, but is it going to make a difference? Is it going to make a difference?

We say success is being all you can be. Why isn't success being all the people around you can be? Wouldn't that be just as good a measurement? Let's make success what all the people around you are, all around us.

We get 35 days this year. That's what we've got. We've got 35 days to do something. Honestly, friends, if I started over here with Representative Eccarius, and I went over here to Representative Bartling, went all through the place, every one of you, if I asked you what the real issues are sitting in my office or in the hallway or in your car, we'd have the same five or six for everybody. Let's address them. Let's go fight them. Let's do it. No. Nobody has a patent on ideas, but let's do it. Let's, when you go home, say that we haven't ignored these things once again. We haven't pandered to interests that we think will help us in the next election, because it doesn't pay off.

Sometimes when people are a minority, they've earned it. Sometimes, when a majority becomes a minority, they've earned it. Sometimes, when you win an election, you've earned it. And, sometimes, when you lose an election, you've earned it.

But I've never met many taxpayers that hold it against you for having an idea and fighting for something you believe in. They don't penalize you for that in South Dakota, and I'm proof of that. They don't penalize you for fighting for what you believe in. I'm aware more than any of you of the criticisms that are laid on me. "He fights too hard." "He never gives up." "It's his way or no way." No, it isn't. It's going to be some way, though. I'm a person that, honest to God, believes if you've got a problem, you can only talk about it so long. Then you've got to do something about it. You have to act.

    A boy held up the folded flag,
    Cursed it and called it a dirty rag.
    An old man pushed through the angry crowd
    With a rusty shotgun shouldered proud.

    His uniform jacket was old and tight.
    He had polished each button shiny and bright.
    He crossed the stage with a soldier's grace
    Until he and that boy stood face to face.

    Freedom of speech, the old man said,
    Is worth dying for. Good men are dead
    So you can stand on this courthouse lawn
    And talk us down from dusk to dawn.

    But before any flag gets burned today,
    This old man is going to have his say.
    My father died on a foreign shore
    In a war they said would end all wars.

    But Tommy and I wasn't even full-grown
    Before we fought in a war of our own.
    And Tommy died on Iwo Jima's beach
    In the shadow of a hill he couldn't quite reach.

    Where five good men raised this flag so high
    That the whole world could see it fly.
    I got this bum leg that I still drag
    Fighting for that same old flag.

    Now there's but one shot in this old gun,
    So now it's time to decide which one.
    Which one of you will follow our lead
    To stand and die for what you believe?

    For sure as there's a rising sun,
    You'll burn in hell before this flag burns, son.
    Now this riot never came to pass.
    The crowd got quiet with their can of gas.

    So the battle of the flag was won that day
    By a tired old soldier with a rusty gun
    Who, for one last time, had to show to some
    This flag may fade, yet these colors don't run.

Next year, it belongs to one of these other people, as it appropriately should, but I am telling you. Bill Janklow_God gave him the ability to make a difference. But that same God gave every one of you the identical ability to make a difference.

We've got problems in this state. We can't solve them all. But when you go home in 35 days, we ought to be able to look the public in the eye_and, more importantly, we ought to be able to look the mirror in the eye_and say there's not a problem that I believe_in my heart and in my head_there's not a single problem that I know exists that I didn't try and do something about if the government can fix it.

I've been in hospital wards where I can tell you, you can't fix all people's problems. We're all mortal and we all know it. But I'm also telling every one of you, my friends, every single one of you. We have a responsibility, not just me. You and I together, individually and in groups, we have a responsibility to make a difference for the future of South Dakota.

I've always loved that challenge. So do you. We've got 35 days to deal with the problems we know exist that we can do something about. Let's go to work.

Thank you all.