Owens speaks at Chadron State

During Owens’ 45-minute presentation to an audience of about 100 at Chadron State’s Memorial Hall, he said that in order for democracy to work, finding the facts is critical.

Owens, a Republican who became Colorado’s 40th governor in January 1999, cited a number of examples in which he perceives popular opinion and messages from the media to be contrary to the truth.

He noted that the blame for the current federal deficit is often attributed to President George Bush’s tax cuts, while those cuts in reality account for only 20-25 percent of the deficit and increased spending makes up 70-75 percent of the $521 billion shortfall.

Citing another example, he said that while most people believe that forested acres have decreased with development, there are actually more forested acres and more trees in the United States than in 1900.

Owens said, “In this democracy, it’s important to know where we come from, and where we’re headed.” He said contrary to some popular ideas, profound improvements have been made in many facets of American life during the past 40 years, including the standard of living, crime rate, teen pregnancy, abortion, black poverty, health care, and air and water quality.

“The United States’ air quality is far better now than any time since 1860 or 1870,” Owens said.

In 1970 Denver was in violiation of today’s clean air standards 170 days compared to just one day last year, he said. He also noted that in 1972, only 36 percent of U.S. streams and rivers were considered safe for swimming, while 91 percent are considered safe today.

Owens, who is often touted as one of the nation’s emerging conservative leaders, also defended Bush’s stance on the war in Iraq, declaring that Saddam Hussein was as bad of a person as Adolf Hitler and that the world is a safer place without him in power.

“If President Bush is wrong on this, and these terrorists weren’t actually much of a threat, then, in fact, we’ve liberated a country of 35 million people, and it was a despotic, fascist dictatorship as bad as any we’ve seen this century.”

Responding to a question from Chadron State President Tom Krepel, Owens spoke about Colorado’s proposed Academic Bill of Rights which would bar professors from raising controversial topics in their classes at state colleges unless the subject is related to the course. Professors also would be barred from creating a "hostile environment" and would be required to grade students based on their knowledge of the class subject, not their political beliefs.

Owens described the bill, which is being debated by the Colorado Legislature, as “pretty innocuous,” but said it “won’t pass, because it’s just too controversial.”

Owens said the bill stems from a notion that most college faculty members are left wing, a belief that he holds to be true. He said as a student he witnessed negative bias from professors for his conservative stance, once being called a CIA agent in front of the class.

The governor also responded to a student question about the decrease of state support for public higher education.

Owens said colleges and universities must prove a need for funding.

“Always make sure that you don’t equate dollars to progress,” Owens advised the student. “Sometimes more dollars can impede the progress, because it keeps you from reforming the system.”

Owens said that many schools have not had budget cuts, because the decrease in state funding “has been more than made up” with tuition increases.

“The only number that really matters is how many dollars does Chadron State have compared to last year,” Owens said.

Like Nebraska and nearly all the other states, Colorado has had a sharp decline in revenue the past two years, and higher education has been forced to take significant cuts. Fort Lewis College at Durango took the biggest hit last year, when its state appropriation was reduced from $10.6 million to $7.5 million, or approximately 30 percent, and the institution was forced to leave 41 positions unfilled.

Owens was the second in Chadron State College’s Distinguished Speakers Series. Owens’ round-trip flight to Chadron was sponsored by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a nonprofit, wholesale power supply cooperative based in Westminster, Colo.