PERSPECTIVE - Finding Magical Doors: Notes on Borders, Race, and Belonging

by Sunil Bhatia I would like to begin by sharing with you some reflections on my summer reading.

I read a New York Times article about children who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border. Leitica, a petite, 12-year-old girl from Guatemala and her younger brother, Walter, were separated from their mother when they crossed the border without documents. These siblings were sent to a detention facility in Texas, which has a list of several rules that these young migrants must follow, “Do not misbehave. Do not sit on the floor. Do not share your food. Do not use nicknames.” The detention center also included this rule, “It is best not to cry. Doing so might hurt your case.” “Do not touch another child, even if that child is your hermanito or hermanita–your little brother or sister.”

Another child requested her lawyer mail a letter to her detained mother, with whom she had been separated for over three weeks. The girl wrote, “Mommy, I love you and adore you and miss you so much.” And then she pleaded: “Please, Mom, communicate. Please, Mom. I hope that you’re OK and remember, you are the best thing in my life.”

Leticia and her brother belong to over 65 million refugees and migrants worldwide who are displaced and are in harm’s way. After overcoming the perils of leaving home and embarking on an uncertain and often dangerous journey, they cross the border only to be treated as unwanted and inhuman others.

The story of Leticia and Walter haunted me.

I wondered when they would reunite with their mother.

Then I read the Pakistani author Mohsin Ahmed’s book, Exit West.  The story focuses on Saeed and Nadia, whose love story unfolds in a nameless city that is filled with refuges and is teetering on the edge of war. Saeed and Nadia’s courtship speeds up against backdrop of raids, rocket fire, truck bombs and the constant noise of helicopters and drones that hover over the city. Their city gradually becomes unlivable. The government collapses, the militia take over the city, and the threat of violence is around every corner.

Suddenly there are rumors in their city that there are doors that open up to other countries. These trickster doors are like black holes or rips in reality that transport people across to countries and spaces of relative safety in an instant. Saeed and Nadia escape their city through these magical doors that eventually takes them to Greece, London and then to California.

Forgive me for getting seduced by the magical realism of this gorgeously written novel. But all summer, I have been hoping, rather dreaming, that Leticia and her brother find a magical door that takes them out of the cold and grotesque reality of detention centers in Texas and reunites them with their mother.

I have been dreaming that all families separated by migration have access to those doors that takes them to places, where they are loved, and can live fulfilling lives.

Alas, we know, there are no such mystical doors.

But think again.

I believe the magical realism of supernatural doors in Ahmed’s novel is not only about physical borders and doors. It is really about opening up the reader’s imagination and making them connect with people who are different from us. The magical doors are a metaphor that represent our human abilities to imagine and empathize.

Ahmed shows us a future world that is on the move because the greater portion of humanity is ravaged by economic inequality, war, extreme poverty and climate change.

He tells us that there is a possibility that every one of us can become a refugee.

The author asks us to imagine: what if the College Green where we have assembled on today becomes a tent-city for us refugees next week? Would you close the doors on migrants and refugees if you knew that one day you too would become a migrant? Would you call migrants animals and rapists if your destiny was linked with their lives?

Our ability to imagine a different world than the one we have been given is our magical door. Some people are looking for actual doors that give them entry into new countries and spaces and some others are entering through a figurative door.

Sometimes both are needed for making sense of our life journeys.

My Journey Here

I found my magical door over 25 years ago when I made a journey that is very similar to the freshman Class of 2022.

I left my home from Pune, India, and travelled to the U.S. to become a graduate student at Clark University, a liberal arts school, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Like many international students from my era, I carried a suitcase with my precious belongings: photographs of my father and mother taken at a studio, farewell photos with my friends, Hindi film music, my best ever report card from 6th grade when I stood third in class, boxes of tea leaves, recipes, and small bags of turmeric, cumin, and coriander powder.

My first week or rather the first year in this new world was disastrous. I was so fresh off the boat that when my American friends greeted me with, “How are you?” I poured my heart out and told them my life story. I had missed the cultural point that a greeting is just a means of making polite talk. Instead of talking about the weather, I told strangers how I missed home, my family, friends and the smells of Indian streets.

My life was downright pre-historic compared to the Class of 2022. Every week I would handwrite dozens of letters home to my friends and family telling them about my life in America. Then an Indian owl would travel thousands of miles to Worcester and drop letters from home in my mail box. Well, the Owl bit may be exaggerated.

I was not fleeing a war zone or poverty, but yet I experienced a displacement that comes from being uprooted from home. Crossing borders brought pain and anxiety about the world I had left behind and the future that was yet to unfold. With time, I found a way to settle in the new world of American university life. Life at the university was fulfilling, but when I left the campus to go back to my apartment I witnessed another America.

This was an America segregated from the campus by just one street. Coming into my neighborhood in South Main in Worcester was like crossing a border or entering another country. The homes were crumbling, the schools were failing, and the old factories and mills had been abandoned. The university warned us about the dangers of South Main and we were told to avoid walking at night as it was filled with “dangerous people.” These so-called dangerous people bore a resemblance to my people back home–they were mostly brown, immigrants, the invisible and the poor.

One day, during summer, I went to a local bar to play pool with friends. When I moved close to the pool table, one of the local white youth told me to leave with the following words: “We don’t play with no Puerto Ricans. They are not wanted here.” Being called Puerto Rican was not about mistaken identity–it was a racist gesture.

I sensed an impending threat of violence. I left the bar. That day I went from being an international student to an immigrant and a person of color.

This was an important turning point in my journey.

I felt humiliated and reflected on this and similar incidents that I had previously chosen to ignore. I was an outsider to the American racial formation so I had the privilege of disregarding racism. This is what racism does to people. It shames them, makes them feel inadequate, and silences them. The experience of racism creates doubt and makes you believe that your story could not be true.

I was a newcomer to racism. I was a newcomer to segregation.

African-Americans had been here long before me for centuries fighting racial terrorism and resisting racism. Their inner lives are an inspiring tribute to the enduring spirit of humanity. I soon realized my new home and university was once the home of the Nipmuc Indians. Their land was stolen, their lives were destroyed and their culture was frozen in history.

My racial awakening made one thing clear to me: Whiteness served as a powerful norm, but its power was rarely interrogated. When I overcame my fear and questioned whiteness, I was often met with indifference or anger. It was only much later in life, when I encountered the term “white supremacy” that I fully understood how deeply whiteness had become integrated into everyday living and structures of American society: courts, schools, law, medicine, media, higher education, and politics.

My racial consciousness taught me something deeper. Whiteness had largely reinforced a narrative that people of color had a deficient humanity, they did not belong in this country, and their stories did not matter in the media or the curriculum. When people from marginalized communities showed up in the books I was reading, they often served as caricatured props and tokens for advancing the cause of whiteness or as victims that needed to be saved.

The psychology I had encountered in my graduate school in India and the U.S. was largely built on colonial knowledge, universalistic principles and Eurocentric cultural assumptions about individuality and rationality. It was a psychology based on 5 percent of the human population but yet it had the power to speak on behalf on the 95 percent of humanity.

There was something wrong with this picture.

I did not find my story in the canons of psychology so I wanted to tell a different story of psychology. I challenged psychology’s claims of universalism and its refusal to acknowledge history, culture, and politics.

I failed several times to articulate my vision of psychology. But reading books, doing research, engaging in teaching, and having conversations with a community of learners became my enchanted doors.

To put it simply, I found the tools to make sense of my emotional and intellectual life.

My education in a liberal arts university was a gift. My research focused on understanding how migrants, who have never thought of their identity in racial terms, become people of color in the United States.

My biography in America became the basis of my research. My first book, American Karma, and my early publications, drew on anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks to challenge the universality of longstanding racial and ethnic assimilation models in psychology and human development.

Turning Point

9/11 marked another turning point in my career.

Immediately after 9/11, I was conducting ethnographic research for my first book. During an interview, a Sikh man, who worked as a high-level scientist for a local company, told me that he had not stepped outside for a week. He was afraid of being a target of a hate crime, so his wife did the groceries.

When I arrived at his home, he was in the middle of a family meeting discussing whether he and his son should cut their hair, beard, and if they should stop wearing their turban because it brought unwanted attention.

I did research on the changing notions of cultural citizenship and racial identity formation driven in large part by Islamophobia. I examined how the Sikh American community with their turbans, beards and their “brown identities” had become suspect in the larger American public space. They were framed as outsiders and turned into targets of racial profiling, scrutiny, and hate speech.

Since then I have continued my quest to radically transform my field. In my latest book, Decolonizing Psychology, I write about the shaping of Indian youth identities within the context of globalization, colonization, and neoliberalism. By focusing on the lives of youth in the Global South, I challenge Euro-American scientific psychology to recognize its own limits and to become more inclusive, reflexive and relevant to the majority of humanity.

Looking back, I can tell you that I am standing up here and sharing my story with you because I had access to a liberal arts education. Yes, that education gave me a livelihood, but what is even more remarkable is that it gave me meaning and purpose in life. Every major milestone in my career was achieved because I had support from colleagues, family, and community.

For over two decades now, my classroom has become my dwelling and my research is my imaginary homeland, and it is from these spaces my students and I together go out searching for those magical doors.

Your Journey Begins

Class of 2022, I know that like my own journey you too will cross several imaginary, physical, and conceptual, borders and you will experience many crucial turning points in your education. Your story, your journey and your discovery will be different than mine.

You have arrived on this campus to commence a new term and a new stage of life, but your racial, ancestral, sexual and cultural histories that brought you here are complex and diverse. For some of you, this College reminds you of home. You may feel you belong here. You have found your place. For some others, you may feel out of place and even out of your mind.

Use your time here at the College to make sense of your identity and the structures that shape your evolving self. Try to connect your story to people like Saeed, Nadia and Leticia and other people you have not yet met. Those characters don’t just live in fiction, detention centers, and brochures. You will find that brown, black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or allied, heterosexual, cisgender, native, white, Asian, biracial, immigrants, international, local, and first-generation, members live in this community. You will meet them in your classrooms or at Harkness, Windham, Coffee-Grounds and Harris.

Your journey here is not a solo expedition. Rather you will be building community with these diverse members and you will collectively work towards transforming this institution. The word “liberal” in liberal arts is derived from the Latin word “liberalis,” which means to be free or a free-thinking person. The right to dissent and protest in the in the pursuit of learning to become a critical and free thinker is at the heart of a liberal arts education.

James Baldwin, an African American novelist and social critic, reminds us that the true “nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety.” So, if your belonging in the community feels like an illusion or makes you feel unsafe, he says, go ahead and use nonviolent means to disturb the peace to make it equitable and inclusive.

Think about this for a moment, Class of 2022. You have already witnessed in your lifetime such powerful attempts to break the illusion of safety: The resistance offered by the birth of Black Lives Matter, the rise of the MeToo movement, the constitutional rights accorded to same-sex or gay marriage and the example of solidarity shown by the native people of Standing Rock in the face of oppression. The people behind these nonviolent movements were imagining a different world and a different community than the one they have been given. Their struggle for justice and belonging opened up new magical doors so others could step in, rise up, feel loved, and know that their lives matter equally in this society.

What these big and small stories of social change tell us that a liberal arts education is more than employability and building a career. It is about cultivating humility, empathy, creating community, and practicing what Sikh American civil rights activist Valerie Kaur calls “revolutionary love.” She says, “Revolutionary love is the choice to enter into labor for others who do not look like us, for our opponents who hurt us and for ourselves.”

I believe cultivating critical thinking along with the capacity for revolutionary love is one of the most important projects of a liberal arts education.

Engaging with this form of education can give you knowledge needed for writing poetry, fighting for social justice, carving out your belonging, countering fake news, studying abroad, learning a new language, becoming a teacher, psychologist, scientist, sociologist, engineer, historian, artist, dancer, or a philosopher.

That is all you will need to soar high.

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Sunil Bhatia is Professor of Human Development at Connecticut College in New London. This is an excerpt of the address he delivered at the college's Convocation at the start of the current academic year on August 27, 2018.

PERSPECTIVE: Remembering 12.14.12

This statement was read to the American people and the world at 3:15 PM on December 14, 2012 by President of the United States Barack Obama, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House.  This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller.  I offered Governor Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation, and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.

We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years.  And each time I learn the news I react not as a President, but as anybody else would -- as a parent.  And that was especially true today.  I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.

The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.  They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own.  Among the fallen were also teachers -- men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.

So our hearts are broken today -- for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost.  Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain.

As a country, we have been through this too many times.  Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago -- these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.  And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.

This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another.  But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight.  And they need all of us right now.  In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans.  And I will do everything in my power as President to help.

Because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need -- to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories but also in ours.

May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.

PERSPECTIVE: Nonprofits Are Under [Cyber] Attack - But They Don’t Have to be Easy Targets

by Amber Mata Nonprofits often tend to be targeted by cyber criminals due to a lack of resources to implement cybersecurity measures. They are just as susceptible to a data breach as for-profit organizations, if not more. However, they often don’t embrace the same level of changes that other organizations are making to implement a sophisticated cybersecurity program as there is a belief that they are not a target.

This is a dangerous assumption to make.

The reality is, nonprofit organizations collect incredibly sensitive information about its members and donors, which can include social security numbers, credit card information, and even medical information. It’s time for nonprofits to get serious about cybersecurity because without proper measures in place, one single breach could end their entire organization and its mission.

Why they should be concerned

Nonprofit websites that end in .org are often targets of hackers because they usually show up early in search results leading to high visibility. The higher the visibility, the greater the value of the target. A valuable target with little or no security is a no brainer target for cyber criminals.

Nonprofit organizations tend to handle volumes of sensitive data every day. Member records, donor information, confidential emails, and hundreds of other transactions pass through their gates. Without proper cybersecurity measures, an organization can easily be breached leaving the path to this sensitive information wide open to cyber criminals.

For an organization that relies heavily on grants and donors, a cybersecurity breach can be deadly. A breach can result in lost trust and confidence if donors fear their reputation or identity could take a hit. Even if a nonprofit organization does survive the reputational loss, the costs of settlements, notifying affected parties, and monitoring breached parties are sure to put a financial strain on the organization.

Where to begin

Get a game plan together – Start with a holistic approach looking from the outside, in. Preparation involves a risk assessment of the organization’s IT environment. Nonprofits should also consider taking a complete infrastructure inventory and review any regulatory requirements. It is important to create necessary policies and enforce them.

Always inform and train all volunteers and employees to properly embrace all updates. Initiate a plan to know what data is kept, where it is, how it is used, and who has access.

Secure all technology – The two best places to start with protecting technology is to always utilize multi factor authentication and always upgrade the latest patches to all software. Patches can ensure that the latest security measures are deployed to software and multi factor authentication can prevent remote attacks even if credentials become compromised. It is an easy and effective tool to implement, yet over 70% of nonprofits do not utilize.

It takes time – Security is not a destination it’s a way of life. It can take 18 to 24 months to raise an organization’s cybersecurity maturity by just one level. Establishing a proper and mature cybersecurity posture is an ongoing effort. Patience and dedication is definitely a requirement.

Doing nothing is absolutely not an option. Even if an organization hasn’t experienced a cyber breach to date, there’s no telling what tomorrow may bring. A lack of cybersecurity measures is like driving a car without insurance; it’s a big risk. Small organizations, for-profit and not-for-profit, are attractive targets but they don’t have be easy targets.

A breach is inevitable if proper security is not implemented but proactive measures can minimize the effects and allow a clear path to an accomplished mission. Don’t become an easy target, it’s time to take cybersecurity seriously.

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Amber Mata is Marketing Manager at Kyber Security, with offices in Fairfield, Rocky Hill and Providence, RI.  Kyber Security provides cybersecurity and compliance for small firms up through enterprise businesses. Kyber Security is a partner in the The Alliance for Nonprofit Growth and Opportunity (TANGO), where this article first appeared.  TANGO creates partnerships between nonprofit and for-profit organizations to drive innovation, create cost savings, and deliver mission advancement.

PERSPECTIVE: Connecticut at the Start of this Decade

by M. Jodi Rell At the start of this decade, the beginning of her final year as Governor of Connecticut, M. Jodi Rell addressed a joint session of the House and Senate and delivered her State of the State address on February 3, 2010.   Her remarks that day:   

We gather today to mark the opening of the 2010 legislative session and we do so at a time of continued challenge, continued anxiety.

None of us need to be reminded of the unparalleled struggles that we have endured over the last 22 months.  Our nation has been in the grip of an economic crisis unlike any witnessed in generations.

The stark reality of our struggles is all too real.  Housing prices are down; unemployment is up.  The value of savings and retirement accounts are down; mortgage foreclosures are up.  The amount of debt at all levels of government is up.

Yes, the statistics are real – and our emotions are raw.  People are uncertain about the future.  They are frustrated and angry about the present.  And they have every right to be.

The people of Connecticut are looking to us to help them.  They are looking to us to lead.  They are looking to us to right our ship of state.

They don’t want to hear shallow lamentations of sympathy or understanding from their elected officials. They want action and assistance.  And they want an end to the theatrical histrionics of political press conferences and partisan pinball.  They want us to act like adults.

President Obama spoke eloquently about this last week in his State of the Union address.  He spoke of the nature and nastiness of politics in our nation’s capital.  Frankly, he could have been speaking of our own State Capitol here in Hartford.

I will echo his sentiment and be a bit more blunt:  we need to stop the game-playing and name-calling and constant bickering that has come to consume too many at the Capitol.   There is no room for such pettiness on the playground; there certainly shouldn’t be in the Legislature, the Governor’s Office or the courts either.

None of us are blameless in this regard.  All of us must accept our responsibilities to treat one another with respect and to listen, truly listen, to those whose views or proposals or policies may differ from our own.

In the end we may not agree with one another, but we should respect one another.  We need not speak glowingly of each other or of each other’s ideas, but we must speak civilly.  Let us replace acrimony with accommodation, let us set aside the difficulties and divisions of the last year and commit ourselves, truly commit ourselves, to working with one another.

For we have much to do – and our work begins in earnest today.

Thousands of trees will be felled for the hundreds of bills that will be filed on dozens of topics.  But our efforts, our energies, this session should be focused on just two core issues: creating jobs and balancing our state budget.

Too many people have lost their jobs and a lost job means a lost paycheck, lost security, lost dignity and lost hope for the future.  Families across our state are hurting and suffering and struggling.

We need to get to work to put the people of Connecticut back to work.  Today I am announcing new proposals that will allow us to spur job creation now and chart a course of economic vitality and growth for years to come.   The most critical problem facing businesses today, particularly the small and medium businesses that are our main engines of growth, is credit availability.  Employers need loans and financing to buy equipment and inventory, expand space or just to meet daily cash flow demands.   As we all know the credit crunch has crippled a great many employers.  Financing that was readily available in years past is difficult, if not impossible, to find.

This is a national problem but we need to find a Connecticut solution to it.

I am calling for the creation of the new Connecticut Credit Consortium - a $500 million dollar partnership between the state --and Connecticut banks to substantially boost credit availability. I propose canceling $100 million in old bond authorizations and instead use the funds for the Consortium.  Our $100 million dollars will leverage at least $400 million dollars from banks all across our state. That’s $500 million that will immediately be put to work to help businesses save and create jobs.  And here’s one key provision: $25 million of the state’s $100 million will be targeted strictly for small businesses for micro or small loans.

As I have said before, small businesses are the chief job creators.  That is not in dispute.  And neither is their need for credit.  Their lifeline is credit – and that lifeline has been cut off.

Work with me to open up that lifeline to create jobs and pass into law the Connecticut Credit Consortium.  I also ask you to help in passing other proposals I am offering to reinvigorate our economy and create jobs.

The first one modifies the relatively new, but little used job creation tax credit.  It was aimed at large corporations but they are not availing themselves of it.  So I am proposing that we change it to benefit small businesses with twenty-five or fewer employees.

Because most small business are limited liability corporations - LLCs - and S corps, we will, under my proposal, allow, for the first time, a credit against an employer’s personal income tax liability.  The credit will be for $2,500 per year for three years for each new job created.  $10 million dollars is already in the budget for this proposal – and up to 4,000 new jobs could be created this year alone.

One area where we see a large number of new start-ups of small businesses is in green technology and clean, renewable energy.  Kermit the Frog had it wrong all these years, I’m afraid.  It is easy to be green.  Solar, fuel cells, wind turbines and geothermal – all hold the keys to economic and energy prosperity.

That is why I am proposing that we expand our sales tax exemption to include machines, equipment, tools, materials, supplies and fuels used in the renewable energy and green technology.

This is in addition to the work of my Electric Vehicle Council that is preparing the way for green business opportunities for the arrival of zero-emission, electric vehicles.  And there’s one more component we still need to address – and it’s a critically important component: our workforce.

We are recognized around the nation for the high quality and talent of our workforce.  The best and brightest are found right here in Connecticut.  But we need to do more to keep them here.  We want our children to be educated here and start their work life here and then raise their own families here.

And our companies will only succeed if they have the qualified, trained employees they need.  That is why I am proposing a new loan forgiveness program for students who stay and work in Connecticut after they graduate from college with a degree or certificate in green technology, renewable energy, life sciences or health information technology.

They will receive a $2,500 annual forgiveness for each of four years if they have a baccalaureate or higher degree or $2,500 a year for two years with an associate degree.  Join me into making this loan forgiveness program a reality.

And there’s something we can do – must do - for all businesses and for all of our citizens:  bring certainty and sanity to our state’s fiscal situation.  The protracted discussions and negotiations, along with the fevered partisan debate that characterized last year’s budget, cannot be repeated.  It was hardly state government’s finest moment.

Today marks a new session, a new start and a new effort to work together to honestly confront the undeniable realities of shrinking revenues and ever-rising costs.  A little more than seven months into a two year budget and we are already facing a $500 million dollar plus deficit.  A deficit due in large part to drastic reductions in the collection of the income tax and sales tax.  Why?  Because if you do not have a job you do not have any income on which to pay tax and you have no money to spend on items that carry a sales tax.  We have 94,000 people in this state who have lost their jobs since the recession began in March, 2008.   94,000.

The recovery will be long and painfully slow and there will be a "new normal" when it does take full effect.  We in state government need a "new normal" as well.  Because we have a state government that has outgrown the ability of our citizens to pay for it.  We need to recognize that not every service, not every program, not every function is absolutely essential.  We need to acknowledge that higher taxes are not the solution to our problems.

It’s common sense:  the taxes we already have on our books are not bringing in the revenue we thought they would, so why would new and higher taxes be the answer??  They’re not.

So I say no.  No on behalf of the 94,000 people who have lost their jobs.  No, on behalf of the businesses that are struggling to keep their doors open.  No, on behalf of all the families who struggle to make ends meet day in and day out.   We do need to say yes to some basic structural reforms, however.

People look at Washington and the spending spree they have been on of late.  They see weekly stories about borrowing a few hundred billion for this, a few hundred billion for that… and they react with horror.  They worry about the bill that will be handed to their children and grandchildren for all that borrowing.  We have our own concerns here in Connecticut since we have one of the highest debt rates in the country.  That’s why it is so critical that we tackle this year’s deficit head-on and honestly deal with it, not borrow to cover it.

I am proposing that we put into place a new protection: any bond authorization that has been on the books for five years or more without being allocated by the State Bond Commission will automatically be canceled.  We have billions and billions of dollars of bonds that have been authorized by the legislature over the years.  Some, are for worthwhile statewide needs; many are not.  But all could bankrupt us and all are counted by credit rating agencies as liabilities.   If a project is not worthy enough to be approved after five or more years then we probably shouldn't bond for it and pay twenty years of interest on it.

And there is another financial Sword of Damocles hanging over the state’s head that we literally can no longer afford to ignore:  our unfunded state employee pension liabilities and unfunded retiree health care costs.  The tab for our unfunded pension liabilities is a staggering $9.3 billion.  The price tag for health care benefits for retired state employees is an almost incomprehensible $24.6 billion.  This mounting debt has been virtually ignored for decades. Ignorance may be bliss, according to the old adage, but that bliss carries a price - too high a price.

For that reason I am establishing a working group, with representatives from the Treasurer’s and Comptroller’s Offices, OPM, SEBAC, accountants, actuaries and others to propose short and long term plans for addressing our unfunded liabilities. Their first report will be due by July 1st.  I am also offering a proposal today that  contains an automatic requirement that half of any budget surplus declared by the Comptroller in her January or May report be automatically deposited into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

When I was sworn in as Governor on July 1, 2004 our Rainy Day Fund had a zero balance.  Zero.  I made it a priority to restore the fund, the state’s nest egg, and working with you, it was filled to its largest balance ever by 2008 – nearly $1.4 billion.  I am proud of that effort.  And it’s a good thing that we took that action because we are now in the midst of our "Rainy Day" – we’re using all of the Fund’s assets this year and next to balance our state budget.

But the Rainy Day Fund is a tempting, too tempting, target.  There is never a shortage of people who enjoy spending money and never a dearth of people who are asking for it.  Each dollar of surplus spent is one dollar less that can go into the Rainy Day Fund.  So, let’s reduce temptation and ensure that half of any surplus declared in January or May be automatically deposited into the Fund.  No diversions.  No short-sighted thinking.  No excuses.

We need to pass these proposals and to act now -- because the outlook for the future is fiscally challenging, to say the least.  Early revenue shortfall projections for the outyears are in the billions of dollars.

The Rainy Day Fund will be empty.  Federal stimulus grants will be gone.  All our outside funds will have been swept. And yet employee, insurance, heating, fuel and other costs will continue to increase appreciably.  Quite frankly, the dire circumstances we are facing today will pale in comparison to the challenges that will face the next Governor, the next Legislature.

Every action that we take this year, to finally get state spending under control will ease the budget pain that all will be feeling for the next few years.

So let me be clear about this:  I intend to do everything in my power in my remaining months in office to make the changes that are needed to break insatiable spending habits and to make state government affordable once again.

It would not be fair to my successor – or yours -  to simply ignore the fiscal problems that we have today and that we all know lie just ahead.  We must deal with our current problems this session and develop a plan of action for new leadership next session.

So today I am proposing something rather unique – and rather necessary.  Something that will build upon the important work begun by my administration and the legislature in streamlining state government.  I am calling for the establishment of a 24-member commission to examine our government, top to bottom, to achieve efficiencies, eliminate redundancies and waste and reduce the size and cost of state government.

Every institution, every structure, service, program and delivery mechanism will be evaluated.  And it will be done in a non-partisan manner by all 3 branches of government.  Six members will be appointed by me to represent the executive branch.  Six will be appointed by the Chief Justice to represent the judicial branch, and six each will be appointed by the Democratic and Republican leadership of the Legislature.  There will be three chairs, one from each branch of government. The commission will have until August 30th to conduct their work, the nature of which is clearly spelled out in my legislation.  It includes:  agency mergers or eliminations; administrative overhead; outdated functions or services and better utilization of information technology.  That’s step one.

Step two is a separate four-person board which is established on September 1st.  So as to take the politics out of the equation, all branches and both sides of the political aisle are again equally represented.  They will review the work and recommendations of the commission.  They will also hold hearings and automatically accept those recommendations unless 3 out of 4 members vote to amend or reject any specific recommendation.  Their work must be concluded by December 1st.  Those recommendations that are administrative in nature will be implemented by the Governor or Chief Justice, as appropriate.  The Legislature will have 45 days once the regular session starts next January to vote on the final recommendations – without amendment.

And every step taken will be done in open session, with all documents, phone calls, meeting notes and correspondence open for public inspection.  The timeline is tight because we want the recommendations ready for the next Governor, the next Legislature.  They will need the recommendations to grapple with the great fiscal challenges we will face.  We owe it to them – and to those who pay for our government – our taxpayers – and those who are served by our government.  Let the creation of this commission be one of the first bills you act upon so that its work can begin immediately.

And act quickly to fix and preserve the public financing law that so many of us championed and that takes special interest money out of campaigns.  Dozens and dozens of candidates are running right now under one set of rules.  It is very likely they may find themselves running under another set if we lose our court appeal.

Don’t let us return to the ways of the past.  We have cleaned up government and we have cleaned up campaigns.  Help me keep them clean. Act. Lead.  I'm not scolding. I'm not lecturing. I'm beseeching you: Act. Lead --

On campaign finance reform, job creation and balancing the state budget.   Those are the areas I have focused on and most of my proposals are paid for with existing funds.  This is not the year for a panoply of expensive new proposals on a wide range of issues.  We cannot afford them and the public is not crying out for them.

They want us to fix our economy, fix our state budget, jumpstart job creation and then stay out of their pockets as they start earning paychecks again.  And they want us to do this while engaging, not fighting, one another.   It’s not too much for them to ask.  They put their trust in us – their public trust by electing us to office.

I am honored by that trust and I am proud to be the 87th Governor of this great state.  I am proud of all that has been accomplished since I became Governor.   Ethics and campaign finance reform.  Civil unions. The Charter Oak program for the uninsured.  A new hospital at our veterans’ home. New charter and magnet schools.  Hundreds of new and refurbished rail cars, updated rail stations and new buses. Thousands of acres of farmland and open space preserved. Dozens of dairy farmers kept in business. College campuses that have been transformed. The list goes on – and it will be added to before I leave office next January.

There is no time for reflection, however, for much work remains ahead, and much history is yet to be written.  You know, 2010 marks the 375th year of our great state.  We are planning a number of festivities to celebrate all the people and events that have made Connecticut such a special place.

375 years of incredible history, with remarkable people and achievements.   We begin the next chapter, the next 375 years of our history, today.   I foresee a bright future for our state, but we must first meet the many challenges of today.  We will continue to lead the nation in commerce, science, education, culture and so much more.   We will rebuild our economy.  We will create jobs.  And we will put our state back on firm financial footing if we work hard and confront our problems with courage and common sense.

Our foundations are strong, our commitment resolute. The State of our State is challenged but hopeful.   Extraordinary times call upon us to do our best.  To accept challenges and triumph over them.  And triumph we shall, if we work together, with respect and civility.

Before I conclude I would ask that we keep in mind some of our state’s newest heroes – the more than 600 members of the CT National Guard, who are heading to Afghanistan this week, for their deployment to that dangerous country.  They are part of the largest deployment of Connecticut soldiers to ever serve overseas.  I ask that you keep them and their families in your hearts and in your prayers.

I thank you for the honor of serving as your Governor and I ask you to join me as I say:  God Bless the Great State of Connecticut.

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M. Jodi Rell served as a State Representative (1985-1995), Lieutenant Governor (1995-2004) and Governor of Connecticut (2004-2011).  She was the second woman and first Republican woman to serve as governor of the state.