"As we look at opportunities for state and for local people to participate in, I thank my stars that I came along at a time when I was able to participate, and I hope our next generations have the same opportunity and the education and the cultural advantages, which helped make the state of Washington the great state it is today.”

"I thought that our most admirable impulse of humankind is our desire to change things for the better. Lord knows we haven’t got it all figured out yet, but we keep trying. The impulse to make improvements is what motivated me to become active in civic affairs, and I’m really pleased and proud to be recognized for the small things I’ve done over the past 60 years.

Looking back, I’m confident that, besides my family, the one factor that made it possible for me to develop such abilities that I may have had, was the public education that I received in the state of Washington. My father left school in the eighth grade. I grew up in Bremerton in the Great Depression. Even so, I received an excellent public education, first rate all the way through law school. Without it, I could not have done any of the things that I’m being recognized for.

For kids nowadays, they don’t get that chance. I just learned this fact from my son, who is in the chamber with us today: Low-income young people are more likely to go to jail than to earn a four-year college degree. That is a gross violation of the values that make this country so great.

For the past decade, I’ve been working with my son and daughter-in-law to advance their foundation’s mission of guaranteeing that all students get the high-quality education they deserve. Our society as a whole should set the same goal.”