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. An example: IIAre you from Portland?" Translation: IIWe don1t have any blacks in Eugene, do we?" Example: "00 you play sports?1I Translation: IIAll black people pass foot- balls, dunk basketballs, or run track.1I Example: IIHow did you happen to come to Eugene?" Translation: "Surely, no black was ever born at Sacred Heart Hospital." We must not only say that we are tolerant toward the racial, ethnic, and religious minorities who are among us, but the minorities themselves must affirm that we are. As mayor, I will meet regularly with minorities. As mayor, I will remind the city that the human rights commission is not the only board where minorities are to serve. As mayor, I will continually remind myself that prejudice, intolerance, and abuse do not spring from bad people, but instead from good people who do not understand one another. Finally, the mortar that holds our community together is the tax that we pay to run our city, our schools, our county, and our community college. But this mortar is only as strong as the feeling of our citizens that these taxes are fair and reasonable, that these taxes are being spent wisely, and that these taxes are buying something worthwhile. e Today as we plan our budget, we are being forced to make even harder choices as a result of the past annual loss of more than $4 million in Federal funds. To put that into perspective, those dollars would buy operation of a new City library, a 20-percent increase in our budget for City police protection, and staffing for wading pools in our City parks, and do this all within a bal- anced budget. As we determine the paths we must follow as a city, the road that leads to a solution for ensuring fiscal stability is one that we must travel to the end. Make no mistake: to live within existing revenues we will engage in tough debates over competing priorities that will demand difficult decisions. We must set priorities for services, finance our priorities adequately, and recognize we cannot do everything. I will work energetically with the council to develop priorities that can be funded within the revenues you provide for your city. All of these are opportunities. Opportunities to create a safe and caring community and to make us stronger, Opportunities to support a competitive economy and to help us prosper. Opportunities to create a vibrant downtown and to recapture the soul of our city. Opportunities to live together in tolerance, love, and respect and to be better for it. Opportunities to find a better way to pay for the lifestyle we want and to become a more unified community as a result. Tonight, I have set a direction for us to travel. During the campaign and since, I have met with numerous individuals and groups. This is the direc- tion I have heard you say you wanted to travel. Tonight, let us together get started. e I believe no one of us owns the whole truth, but each of us possess a part of it. As citizens of Eugene, we are what the President-elect might call a hundred-eight-thousand points of light. And I believe we can arrive at the State of the City Address Jeff Miller January 9, 1989 Page 5