REFORMATION OHIO LAUNCH, OCTOBER 14, 2005: SEC. OF STATE KEN BLACKWELL

REFORMATION OHIO LAUNCH
OHIO STATEHOUSE
OCTOBER 14, 2005
KEN BLACKWELL, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE
unofficial transcript

ROD PARSLEY:
Well, Secretary Ken Blackwell…. (applause, whistles) is no stranger to those of us in Ohio. We’re proud of his hard work in the 2004 election and his courageous support on Issue 1 which defined marriage in the State of Ohio as the union of one man and one woman. (applause) It was this lone principled and courageous statewide office holder who stood in the gap and made up the hedge across the length and breadth of the great Buckeye state, and every person here owes him a debt of great gratitude. He’s a man of great conviction, consistently standing for family, life, marriage and faith throughout his public service. In his role as Secretary of State in Ohio he not only oversees the election process but encourages an increase in voter registration by all parties. I just wanted to insert something there, but thought better of it. Ken encourages voter registration. I just don’t know what part of Reformation Ohio local and statewide office holders would not want to embrace. (applause) I don’t understand elected officials that don’t want to see 400,000 people register to vote. Why, that makes me a little nervous. (applause)

Ken is currently leading in all the polls for the nomination to represent his party in the upcoming governor’s race. We’re delighted that he would take time out of his busy schedule, but as he always does come and say hello to people of faith and values.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell”

(applause)

KEN BLACKWELL:
Thank you pastor. My fellow Ohioans, the human condition is not a spectator sport. If we want to reform Ohio, if we want more effective schools, if we want more responsive government, we can’t sit on the sidelines. We must register and we must vote.

In 1963, Martin Luther King penned a letter—a now famous letter entitled A Letter from a Birmingham Jail. This letter was directed to the Body of Christ in particular, and the faith community in general. He said that we had a choice to make. We had to decide which we would be: a thermometer that would just take the temperature of our culture or whether we would be a thermostat to help to define and guide and shape the mores of our culture. Because he understood that we have two destinies. We could be a people or person that is made by history or we can be a people or person that helps to make history. Reformation Ohio is about history making times. (Yeah) Reforming the culture. Choosing to be a thermostat. Our government is a government that is for, of, and by the people. (Yeah) We are a government that governs only with the consent of the governed. The governed cannot have voice in the process if you don’t register and vote. (That’s right!) My mission this morning is a simple mission of endorsing the effort to register 400,000 new voters (applause) because in doing this, we make a statement and that statement is simply this: that we understand that it is time to stand up, time to speak up, it is time to pay up, and we refuse to give up or back up or shut up (applause, cheers) to make a better word for us.

Thank you very much!

(applause, cheers)