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I thank you all for the very warm welcome here today. We’re here today to call attention
to a project that John referred to as a resurfacing project fro about 10 miles along Route 146.
We are using 9 million… 9.9 million dollars of the over 400 million dollars in Federal
recovery act committee that is being provide to the Commonwealth. This is an important
project here today are for tomorrow. It’s important for today because of the jobs that
created that we need. We must have jobs if we’re going to build our way out of this
terrible terrible recession. But it’s important in the long term because as we rebuild an
infrastructure; our roads, our rails, our bridges, our public university and college
campuses, our broadband expansion, our infrastructure in general, that’s how we make a stronger
economic foundation, to secure our economic future. And so I am very pleased to make these
investments in Blackstone Valley and in particular on a part of the Transportation infrastructure
here in the Blackstone Valley that is absolutely essential here in this community. This would
not be possible were it not for the championship of Congressman Neil and his colleagues back
at Washington, who have helped to make these resources, and so many resources, available
to us all here in the Commonwealth. Thank you so much.
We’re going to ask the Congressman to come forward in just a minute, but there’s a
point I’m trying to make about the times we’re in and the recovery we know that’s
coming. And I want to make in because I’m in the presence of seniors who have seen the
ups and down of our economy and ups and downs in your own communities and lives. When I
was growing up with my grandparents in Chicago, most of that time we were on welfare. And
my grandmother refused to permit us to describing ourselves as poor. She said; say you’re
broke, because broke is temporary. And her’s was not just wishful thinking; her optimism
was tested by the depression and by Jim Crowe, and by all the ways in which society use to
limit the expectations of woman. And still in the teeth of that, she taught us to look
up and look forward because you are never going to move anywhere by standing still.
So I ask you as seniors in particular, and respectfully, to pass the word about he value
of optimism because we will come out of this. And you know it, as do I. And what we have
to do right now to secure that future is make the kinds of investments that we’re here
to call attention to today. So that we are as strong as possible when we come out. And
again, special thanks to Congressman Neil for making these resources available to you.