Maybe we don’t want to remember our rich immigrant heritage, but we should because  but it has made us the wonderful of state we are today.

Our excuses for lack of diversity don’t cut it.  There are many and I hear them all the time.

The one I love is the weather.  “No one will live here because of the weather.  They wouldn’t be happy.  It is too cold.”

I was in St. Paul Minnesota a couple weeks ago for the Minnesota v. UMaine hockey game after having been invited by former Minnesota Attorney General Hubert “Skip” Humphrey who had a free seat - in the Minnesota section!.  As we were driving around before the game - with me wearing my blue and white “Maine” hockey jersey - I told him about how I was struggling to draft the remarks I am giving tonight.

Skip told me about the Hmong people who have been living in Minnesota for 25 years.  From the Laotian mountains, they had supported us in the Vietnam war at the CIA’s urging and were left desperate as a result of our loss.

They moved all over the United States, but the largest groupings ended up eventually in Minnesota - hardly an environment that reminded them of home.

The trauma of their lives has been told elsewhere, but Minnesota realized that the arrival of these brave people was a good thing for their state.

Now, that view was not unanimous There have been years of very, very hard times with unemployment at times over 50%.  The families are very large.  There was crime.  There were burdens on the social structure.

There were huge cultural differences as the Hmong lack a written tradition.

But today there are 60,000 Hmong in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  There are 800 businesses. There is  Hmong Chamber of Commerce.  There is a Hmong Bar Assoc.  There are doctors.  There are dentists.

And there is a new St. Senator. - Mee Moua - who with her Brown and U. of Minn. Law degree - is a political leader in her state.

I talked to her this afternoon.  She told that in Minnesota - and around the country - that new entrants begin by moving into the most blighted areas of a community, but that within years their efforts result in a resurgence.  She urged me to visit University Avenue in St. Paul and Nicolet Avenue in Minneapolis to see for myself.  As a leader of her community, she is constantly being approached by Minnesota business anxious to connect with her constituents.

She told me that Hmong home ownership percentages now exceed that of most Minnesotans.

And to get there, she spoke of basic programs - Accessible adult education; strong bi-lingual traditions and respect for multiculturalism - and a small business tradition that is respected.

Maine has all of these things.

And the Homng call Minnesota home. And it is just as cold in Minnesota as it is in Maine.

Minnesota understands that its economic future is tied to promoting diversity.

So, what do we do here in Maine?

First, we admit the importance of diversity to our future.  And we talk about it.  My real goal tonight is not to find solutions so much as to talk about the issue that is right in front of us that we are ignoring.

Second, we start looking at the in-migration that is occurring in a few places in Maine and see it as a positive - no, essential - step to improving our state’s future.

We must see immigration as an opportunity instead of a burden for one or two municipalities.

We have to do better.

We roll up our sleeves and start making changes.

#1.  Maine has no one-stop place for new citizens when they arrive in our communities.  Whether they come from Pakistan or Croatia or from Miami or Des Moines, new arrivals are on their own.

In Portland, Catholic Charities of Maine does the best it can by operating a center focused primarily on refugees.  In the wake of the post Sept. 11^th immigration restrictions, however, even it may be forced to close for lack of governmental funding.  To my knowledge, no other Maine community offers a single place to go for new arrivals. 

I was very proud to read in today’s Lewiston paper that the Franco-American Heritage Center and St. Mary’s Hospital is throwing open its doors this week to Lewiston’s newest arrivals - the Somali population - for monthly meetings with long time residents.  The Board of the Franco-Heritage Center understands just how lonely and difficult it can be to arrive in Maine without the financial and language skills necessary to immediately adapt to a new home. 

I therefore call on our foundations to support the Catholic Charities and Franco-Heritage Center initiatives and to support the establishment of  “Welcome Centers” - the kind that exist all across America -  to alleviate the fears of those first weeks and months of anyone’s arrival to our State.

Right now, it wouldn’t be hard for a new arrivals in Maine to think that they are not welcome and that they “should go back where they came from….”

#2.   Our governmental structure currently places the initial burdens of settlement on the cities where newcomers arrive.  Our laws make those towns responsible.

I believe that the cities of Portland and Lewiston are doing a great job with the resources that that they have, and that other towns are doing nothing. Too many cling to their zoning laws and their budget print outs.  They say there are no jobs and no room in the schools and no housing.

And not-too-deep, they really hope that no one comes there way.

This makes no sense.  

Once we see migration and immigration as a benefit to all of us, it is state government must take action.

That is why the next Governor and Legislature must make changes in the way we pay for education, housing, law enforcement and social services to spread the short term costs inherent with new arrivals.

Small formula shifts in existing state programs spread across statewide expenditures will make major changes for those communities who see a rising population base.

Because we all will all share the long term gains, we should all pay the short term costs.

#3.   My friends, our state needs to help those cities welcome the Bosnians, Somalians, Afgans, Latinos, Afro-Americans and any others who come this way.  The economic traditions of most of these peoples are that of small business and agriculture.

That is a Maine tradition as well and we should nurture it.

And I know that we can do it because in some things where Maine does things better than anywhere else….

In preparing for these remarks, I returned to the Maine Office of Attorney General to check on the progress of  initiatives that office has taken in the area of law enforcement and education.

I found that my old office has trained and certified over 300 Maine police officers as Civil Rights Officers.

I found that the core curriculum now contains a block of time on diversity training and hate crimes.

I found that they have build a data base that tracks hate crimes and where they occur and why.

I found that 188 Maine schools have civil rights teams - consisting of students, led by faculty and trained by statewide officials who contract with the Maine Office of Attorney General.

And we are the only state that does these things on such a comprehensive basis.

And I am proud to report that this statewide program is run by state funds - not municipal or school district - because the attorneys general who followed me understood that this is a statewide - not a “Portland” or “Lewiston” issue, and that the quality of all our lives is impacted by the civil rights standards of every Maine town and city.

And in preparing these remarks I talked to the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Program in Portland where a couple full time lawyers and many volunteers work tirelessly to represent our immigrant and refugee populations - funded by farseeing Maine foundations that understand that until and unless all citizens have their rights protected, none of us will have our rights protected.

So we can do it.

#4.  Many of our immigrants and refugees held professional positions in their native countries.  Our professional boards and agencies must learn to work with those professionals who come here who might have been educated in different ways.  These boards and agencies should be flexible and understand that there are many ways to practice what they do.

It isn’t as if we don’t need more professionals!  In the area of education,  50% of Maine teachers are over 45 and 10% are over 55.  As the ETEP program at USM has shown, immigrants who taught in their home countries can quickly qualify to do so here.  The entire University system could take the lead in that effort.

#5.  No one can understand the value of the American banking and legal system until we travel to another country.  New arrivals are therefore often fearful of fully participating in our economy because they do not know where to go for legal and financial assistance.  It is therefore important for the leaders of the Maine banking and legal community to compile a list of institutions and lawyers who have the technical expertise and the language skills to welcome new arrivals as full customers and clients so that they will be able to participate in the American experience.

#6. And our new Governor must lead on this issue.

It is being done in other places and we must do it here.

4 years ago Iowa - faced with many of the same demographics that we face - elected a new Governor - Tom Vilsack - who went out and put together a strategy.

He talked about the problem.

Leading citizens lent a hand….they set goals…began to put together strategies…

The strategy was attacked by conservatives - “English Language” initiative - and so-called liberals - unions who engaged in thinly veiled attacks on recent arrivals.

But the issue is before the people of their state.  They talk about it.  They debate it.  They reach out.  And numbers are slowly changing.

Indeed, when you now go the Official Web Site of the State of Iowa, the State of Iowa now proudly identify their most visited link as “Moving to Iowa!”

(Just for the fun of it, I went to our Official Web Site.  Its most promising link?  “Register your vehicle!”  It then talks about Tourism.)

Maine has to take a lead and begin the same process.  We have to really reach out to our kids - those who are here and those who have left - and we have to address diversity.

No matter what we do, there will be no miracles.  But hard work is a hallmark of our state.  We are a great and tolerant state. 

I have no doubt that we can move in the right direction if we but try.

Addendum:

(Big business certainly knows that.  They have formed the Business-Higher Education Forum.  Corporate officials fully understand that the U.S. must focus on diversity or face a decline in competitiveness.

The goal of the Forum - led by 25 major corporations and the Presidents of 36 Universities - is to circumvent court imposed restrictions on affirmative action.  Corporate America wants campuses to look like America so that their management structures will also look like America.)

New England’s entire work force will grow slower than other parts of the country.