Q) What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the University of Oregon?
It stands for academic excellence and depth and variety of programs. I’m an urban planner by training, and there are two urban planning schools in Oregon — Portland State University and the University, not to compare them — and you have quite a depth of academic excellence.
Q) What excites students about your campaign?
The campaign was kind of fueled by students. In May of 2001, I put on a world peace conference and brought six Nobel peace laureates to Portland and had a conference at PSU on world peace. I was able to put that on with 50 college students. The college has funded each of the laureates and had them all together one day. I also had quite a number of students at the University collect signatures for me. I would think that the students, the non voters, the young voters are the ones I really reached out to. Maybe they’re idealistic, but they’re not so jaded that they can’t see how government based on principle can work.
Q) Do you support the January income tax package? Tell us why?
I support it, but it’s not the best option. The best option would be a sales tax dedicated only to education. If that were on the ballot, then it could only be changed through constitutional amendment. The problem with not having a sales tax is that we lose the tourist dollar. We have a huge amount of people come to Portland for conventions and they drop a lot of money but we never tax it. So basically, we subsidize the tourists.
Q) If the January income tax package is not passed, what will you tell students who have to pay higher tuition?
Number one, if it doesn’t pass, then it’s time for a grassroots effort to take hold where we put a sales tax on the ballot dedicated only to education. Maybe the most potent way to pass a sales tax is to engage the college students in trying to get an effort like that going. They might well be the critical piece.
Q) What’s the biggest challenge in governing Oregon?
Lack of vision. Back in the ’70s when I first came to Oregon, we had a clear national identity and a clear identity within the state as well. It kind of stood for integrity in terms of environmental perspective. But it wasn’t just environmental; it had a reputation for doing the right thing. The citizens felt like they wanted to do the right thing and the rest of the country thought of it that way. Then, Gov. McCall was the facilitator of that vision.
Today we don’t have a vision; we don’t know what we stand for, so it’s hard to know where to go, and it’s hard to know what our priorities are. The first thing the governor should do is initiate a practice to create the vision by articulating it from the governor’s perspective but also working with people statewide.
Q) What will you do to make higher education more affordable?
Put a sales tax on the budget that’s dedicated only to higher education that would create a whole new income stream that would help put a lid if not lower our state tuition. The only other way we could do it is zero interest loans to students, but it has to be funded some way.
Q) How do you stimulate Oregon’s poor economy?
Without criticizing our existing governor — he’s had a horrible Legislature to work with that has neutralized a lot of his good ideas for the last eight years. There’s a reason we have the highest unemployment in the country. We are 50 out of 50, so we have to come to the conclusion that our state economic development organization has been a failure. The economy is down for all 50 states, but the fact that we’re 50 out of 50 means that our state economic planning goals and policies have failed us completely.
So instead of spending huge amounts of money on trade missions and trying to get foreign CEOs to come to Oregon when they will never pay taxes, compassion would say: Let’s try and make every adult Oregonian self-sufficient within the next four years. So our focus is not on a CEO sitting at a desk in Tokyo; we create a set of programs and focus on the individual Oregonian to give them the tools to be self-sufficient or work for someone else.
Q) What’s the most generous thing you’ve ever done?
I helped start a school and raised money to build a school for 100 street children in India. I’ve done quite a bit of humanitarian work in India — I’ve been there four times — so every time I go, there’s always a new project. I think helping the poor, especially in that country, where the poverty is numbing, has probably been my best work.
Q) Does money talk? If so, what does it say?
One of the reasons I ran for governor on a campaign for compassion is I don’t believe that our political process of electing people is very good today. It really wasn’t in the Constitution; it kind of just evolved. So today when you have power of money or influence, than more likely than not, you have a role in government.
That’s totally opposite of the way it should be. Power, money and influence doesn’t really give you a good leader. What gives you a good leader is compassion. Human beings that have compassion will be the best leaders.
We need to have a different campaign process that allows the pope to choose the best of our people to get into position of elected authority. I’m hopeful that it can be changed especially in Oregon. There’s kind of a magic in the people here.
Q) Who’s your political role model? Why?
Ghandi, the Dalai Lama or Jimmy Carter. I’ve met the Dalai Lama a number of times; he’s pretty amazing.
Q) How do you think you relate to students when you’re twice their age?
From my perspective, it seems to me it has to do with the spirit inside the person. If the person has a positive, upbeat spirit, I think that age, color, race, religion, even language isn’t relative, because you catch the magic in a sense. I’m 53, and I’ve never had trouble relating to students. I taught for 10 years at Marylhurst University, so I like students. It was easy to bring 50 student volunteers to help me with the peace conference, and all the laureates are over 50, and I heard several positive comments about the experience.
Q) What makes you the best choice for Oregon?
I think that I represent a view that says let’s change the political process from power, money and influence to the person that has the best qualities. Let’s begin to base government on not who has the most influence or money but who has compassion. How can we do the most good in the world right now for the most amount of people?
My perspective is really important because — irrelevant to whether I’m involved in the government after January — I think that position needs to be articulated. If it’s articulated enough, the people will ask that of their elected leaders, and then we’ll see them change in that direction.
Q) Is there anything you would like to add?
I’m forming a peace institute with a number of the Nobel peace laureates on my advisory board, and my next peace conference will probably be in Cypress at t he end of 2003. Also, every year, I have developed a curriculum in teaching peace in the middle and high schools and hope to have a student peace summit of spring 2003. The colleges need to have a voice for peace. World peace will happen in the universities, so the colleges and universities in the world have a very important role to play.