Prayer: Day 2 of State Shutdown

Prayer by Representative Craig V. Hickman before the Maine House of Representatives on Day 2 of the State Shutdown - July 2, 2017

I stand before you today with a heavy heart. This is the People’s House and by our actions in this chamber last night, we have failed the people miserably. I simply cannot wrap my mind around the utter and senseless chaos and destruction we have brought to the lives of not only our state workers and their families, but to the families and children all across the state who will not be able to pay their bills, who will not know from where their next meal will come. I think of the economic disaster this shutdown will bring about. We have inflicted immeasurable pain and suffering on too many people and we didn’t have to do it. And so, this morning, I ask all of us to take a moment of silence to say a prayer for those who will needlessly suffer and to say a prayer for ourselves as we ponder our actions in this chamber and forge a way forward for the people of the state that we represent. 

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Brilliantly blessed are those who know.

Brilliantly blessed are those who forgive themselves, for they will be able to forgive all others their greatest wrongdoings.

Brilliantly blessed are those who walk with courage through the depths of their own sorrow, for they will walk also through the greatest joy and their Spirits will grow exponentially; for them, a healing will come.

Brilliantly blessed are those who share what they have with those who have not, for their generosity will be rewarded with even more to share.

Brilliantly blessed are those who seek perfection not in people or things, but in the process of Loving itself, for they shall possess clarity of insight.

Brilliantly blessed are those who walk with courage through the depths of their own fear, for they will Love from the bottom of their hearts.

Brilliantly blessed are those who belong to the trees and the animals, for their voices will grow plants like the sun and their kindness will kill the anger of strangers.

Brilliantly blessed are those who strive to create unity out of vast diversity, for they will experience Heaven on earth.

Floor Speech: Enactment of Biennial Budget

Remarks of Representative Craig V. Hickman on Enactment of the Biennial Budget - June 30, 2017

Madam Speaker, women and men of the House, this morning I was disturbed by the stench of a steaming pile of manure that I considered this biennial budget to be and had every intention of voting against it. 

This afternoon, however, at lunch with my beloved, a metaphor originating in the dawn of this nation fell from his mouth and never left my mind: if we don’t pass this budget, he said, we will burn down the plantation. Madam Speaker, no matter how much I abhor the situation that is upon us tonight, no matter how much I despise the process by which we arrived here, no matter how much I detest that the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box just last November will not be honored, I simply cannot participate in such destruction.

I am a farmer, Madam Speaker. Farmers build soil, we do not destroy it. And so if I know nothing else, I know this: a steaming pile of manure will eventually break down, and with the addition of a few amendments, it will turn into a pile of black gold that smells as earthy and sweet as the forest floor, a pile of black gold out of which the best food in the world will grow. And that, Madam Speaker, at the root, is what all of this is about—making sure that the people of this great state, especially those who serve the public as civil servants, will still be able to put food on their tables.

It’s as simple as that.

We cannot shut down state government.

We just can’t.  

And so tonight, Madam Speaker, women of men of this House, we must vote to keep these doors open, we must vote to keep state government up and running, and we must vote to make sure that people can feed themselves and their families. Food is life. Everybody who wants to live needs to eat. 

Food is life. 

The time is nigh. 

Let us all come together, at last, and enact this budget forthwith.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.