
          ...'Our Day Has Come'
          By StaffStaff
          Vol. 10, No. 3, 1988, p. 10-11
          
          My fellow Mississippians: Our day has come, and what a glorious day
it is.
          This is our day of hope and destiny, and we are eager to be about
our business. My speech will be brief--for the labor we have to do is
long--and the future of this great state requires our deeds and not
our words.
          Yet, it is appropriate today to pause and think and talk about the
journey we are beginning. For today marks not only the beginning of a
new administration, but a new beginning for Mississippi.
          This is, most of all, a time to speak of change and in these days
and weeks and months and years ahead, it truly will be our time to do
the work of change. We do not take up this challenge with an illusion
that it will be easy or fast, that all the barriers which have blocked
our progress will yield overnight. We know the struggle will be long
and difficult. We bear the burdens of past shortcomings of promises
unkept, of possibilities untapped, of dreams so long deferred, so
often disappointed, that they almost seem to disappear.
          Yet, now our people, in both parties, in every age, have risen
up--to reach beyond things as they are, to renew the quest for what
Mississippi can become. Our purpose yours' and mine--is not to blame
or look back in regret. Our, cause--yours and mine--is not to break
with what is best in Mississippi, but at long last to fulfill it.

          Into that effort, we carry the blessings of this state--a
magnificent heritage, an abundant land, an ideal location, and most of
all a people as brave, as resilient, as honest and as hard-working as
any in American history.
          By all rights, Mississippi should be leading and not lagging. We
have all had the faith that one day this would happen. We have been
patient. We don't have to be patient any more, for our day has
come. That new day demands of us here, of all who hold public office,
a new standard. Every dollar that is misspent, every resource that is
misdirected, represents a road not built, a school book not bought, a
police officer not hired, a sick child not healed. Integrity is more
than an ideal--and the cost of corruption must be counted not only in
broken laws, but also in human hurts and broken hopes.
          A new day also demands a new and uncompromising drive for the very
best in education. In the elementary and secondary schools of this
state, in our colleges and universities, at this very moment students
are reading and writing and being graded. In the quality of all those
classrooms, our future is also being written; our prospects can be
read; and there today, we are deciding whether Mississippi will make
the grade tomorrow.
          We will not have first-rate schools if we give them second-rate
resources.
          We will not advance economically if we are stalled
educationally.
          To any who say, "We cannot afford the price of better schools in
Mississippi," we reply: Mississippi can't afford the cost of
ignorance, illiteracy and wasted talent.
          A new day in this state means a new prosperity for all our
people. For too long, we've only talked the talk; now, we must truly
walk the walk. And the path to our prosperity will be marked by the
milestones of our own efforts.
          What is at stake is more than our statistical standing or our
material well-being. Opportunity is basic to human dignity; hope is
basic to the human spirit. Good jobs with decent wages, with a chance
for individuals to prove themselves and improve the standard of their
life, is central to the character of our state and to the condition of
our families. None of us, none of us, wants to see the next generation
moving away, drifting out, looking for work far from home. All of us,
all of us, want Mississippi to be a place to live in, and not a place
to leave.
          Finally, a new day depends fundamentally on our resolve to banish
racism forever from the state of Mississippi. We know in our hearts
that the chains of prejudice have bound more than one group: they have
held us all back. A society divided against itself will not
prosper. And we know from history and from our own lives the anguish
and the frustration of racial injustice--and we can be proud that so
many among us have given so much in the belief that we shall
overcome.
          We share the faith that we are each God's children. After all the
years, let us hear anew His truth that we are all brothers and
sisters. That ideal is written into our laws, and now it must be woven
into the fabric of our lives.
          Mississippi is among the oldest states of the American union, the
20th to be admitted, almost a century and three-quarters ago. Long
time and turmoil, great achievement and heartache, have passed since
that date in 1817--and since my own ancestors moved to Choctaw County
less than 20 years later. Mississippi has been tempered and tested;
this land and its people have known hard passages and good times--and
we have given much.
          Long enough have we endured. Now it is our turn to lead. It is our
turn to gather the strength that is in us, in our spirit and our
yearnings, and claim our rightful share of the American promise.
          In this endeavor, let us work together--legislature and governor,
separate branches in common purpose, willing to put politics aside for
the sake of progress. Those of us, legislative and executive, who were
honored by election last year were not chosen to simply stay where we
are. If that is all we do, we will have failed and have forfeited the
confidence of those who voted for us. None of us believe we will
fail.
          My fellow Mississippians: To you, we promise a government equal to
your hopes. From you, we ask involvement and a determination to hold
this government to a higher standard. To our children, we promise to
fulfill the future by giving our all to the present. And to my father,
I promise I will do my best.
          History is something that should be controlled and not
controlling. We in our generation can make the history of
Mississippi. We are affected by the stream of events in other places,
in earlier eras. But, in the end, the only limitations we face are
those we put on ourselves.
          So let us welcome this new beginning with a prayer for strength,
with a pride in our people and with the courage to do what is
right.
          Our day has come, so help us God.
          
            This is the text of the recent inaugural speech of Ray
Mabus, the new governor of Mississippi and a member of the Southern
Regional Council.
          
        