Lenore Romney for Senator (1970)

I think the out of doors had a great deal to do with my upbringing because we lived near the mountains and we used to climb the mountain. We'd go into the canyons and we'd go by the streams and look at the wildflowers and the sunset on the lake and the mountains in the background and the snow, the birds, the Christmas of the blue air. This is one of the greatest assets that a person has, I think, to be able to conjure up beauty and to see it as a memory in childhood. Our walls Our laws, we mock them. Our ghettos shame us. Our skies and streams threaten us. Our dissents turn to bombs instead of ballots. Our families are torn apart. Our children, they seek escape in drugs. Never before has the voice and understanding of a concerned woman been so needed. that I did want to be a United States Senator. Why would a woman like me want to get into politics? I have my husband, my family. I have a nice life. But I became so concerned about the direction our country has been going in. About the old philosophy of that everything can be done with government and money, that I realized unless we are willing to stand up and be counted now, we're not going to change that direction. I think it's as simple as that. Lenore Romney, candidate for the United States Senate. You're invited to spend the next half hour getting to know her. You probably know Lenore Romney best as the wife of our former governor, as a vigorous campaigner, mother, grandmother, charmer. But people who have worked with her know her for so much more. We knew we always had a had a sure friend in Lenore. And often we'd get stuck with something and call on her and she would oftentimes get it done. To me, she functioned perfectly in cases where there was stress and particular work, you get last minute no notices. She was very good at last minute doings. So, we needed her for anything. Lenore has done so much in the cities. She knows the people. Um not just the um the business people, not just the doctors and the lawyers, but uh the people in the ghettos and the people who work with the problems of the ghetto. Does a wonderful job. My goodness, what a difference you Lenore Romney, a worker, yes. And those whose lives she has touched in other ways know her for an even rarer quality. I think Lenore Romney is one of the most genuine, sincere women I have ever known. Uh she has a closeness when you know her that nobody can come close to. She gave me so much when I I lived with her and helped me through so many problems. Uh she's not only bright, but I was also she's very attractive. And uh that, of course, attracted me to her. But then, uh going beyond that, uh she showed a uh a feeling of compassion. She's a very fine, a very warm, a very human person. She's concerned with people. And I think in these days to come, we're going to be more and more concerned with people, caring about people and how they live and what they think and what they do than ever before. Do we care enough to let people come up? We don't care how low they get. We let them go down to the lowest rung, but we have to find ways in which they can come up to any level to which they aspire. I want to remember my Lincoln. What he has said is so magnificent that if we treat a person as though he doesn't have a soul, as though he is in the land of the damned, why should we be surprised he returns and revenges? Lenore Romney, a very special woman. She grew up in Utah in a family that put its faith in the solid values. Father was the disciplinarian. He had to be, I guess, with his daughters. I mean, he was a very orderly person, so the two together made it a very uh unusual home because we had the discipline and the orderliness from father. And yet, from mother we learned the sensitivity. Look. Look, this is this is when Ma's and Barta graduated from high school, see? And Ma's got a scholarship award, because she was the best student in the Lenore Romney whizzed through a four-year course at George Washington University in only three years. Studied to be an actress, and then gave it up to marry the boy next door. And here's Ma, she was being given an honorary degree up at CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY. THERE'S MA'S AGAIN. YEAH, there's Ma's again. Surely did. And here's a story about when Ma's had a poetry program in Washington. And the her announcer was Arthur Godfrey. Here's a This is Ma's and me, and that's when we were married in Washington, and those are pretty dogwood trees in the background. Do you know what Tommy said? what did Tommy say? That was you when you were a little bit smaller. That's right. As a matter of fact, the young fellow she helped straighten me out, you know, when I was courting her. And every young fellow benefits from having a a a girl who has high standards and uh good goals. Of course, since then we've done things together. We've been real partners. For Lenore, the early years of the partnership were spent setting a straight course for four children. ago Lenore went out to make a speech at a to a high school group. And they asked her to talk on strengthening family life. And before she started to talk, a little girl raised her hand and said, "Mr. Romney, I'd like to ask you a question before you talk. How's your own family turning out?" Oh, yeah, a couple of years ago I didn't really have good character, and she's really a good teacher. What did she teach you? Well, I tell the truth and Hello, Ma. I'm supposed to do. We think she's really neat. She's had very different standards and rules. But the children have known what uh they could expect. And but not any uncertainty as to what we expected of them or what they could expect of us. I know that with her own family background, she agrees with me that we should spend more time bringing up our children instead of buying them off. There were things we had to do and things we couldn't do. We had our 25 cent a week allowance. She was very strict about what she she thought we had to do and what we couldn't do. At the same time, uh she's brought into our family considerations the problems of others. She's always been so interested in people. And she's always wanted to help and to be part of their lives and and to have in some way have some influence and and I think all those people, when I think of growing up, there were there have always been certain ones that have turned to Mother, I feel, over the years for help. She's uh taken uh young girls who are having mental problems into into our home here and worked with them and helped straighten them out and got them back on their a level course and uh uh there isn't any question but that she has had a great ability that way. And she's been able to do it with older people, too, help them overcome their loneliness. And then she's worked with the minority groups in the inner city here to help them to organize so they can more effectively meet their needs. And they pick through and get to pajamas and shoes. Lenore Romney is a born doer, deeply involved in the human affairs of our time. She believes that the real strength of our society lies not in government power, but in people power and what each of us is able to contribute. And her own contributions as a community and civic leader bear out everything she believes. The community school project in Flint. I think this is one of the exciting creative programs that has come out of our state. They felt that there was a need for the mothers dads to be able to have a community center that would help them as well as their children and would help them know how to help their children. For instance, they found that some of the parents in the disadvantaged areas um didn't know how to read and write and so the children would not study and would not learn. They had the father look at a book for half an hour a day to help motivate his child and this worked. At the national level, Lenore Romney has held high and responsible positions as a director of the American Field Service and YWCA and recently as the first woman ever appointed Brotherhood Chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. As for political activity, she's taken the heat and come through some tough fights with flying colors. My husband had said if the new constitution doesn't come through, I can't do a job. So it was vital to me that we get efficiency. So I campaigned hard for that new constitution. I gave it all I had. I believed in it. You know, if you believe in something, you work awfully hard and then if you see it materialize, tremendous satisfaction. And then if you see people benefiting from it, you're glad you lived during that time. Concerned woman, humanitarian, fighter, and something more. Well, I'm tremendously impressed with the Lenore's fine intellect, her grasp of current burning problems. I've never known a woman who knew the issues as well. She can change mind, heart lot of people if she go on the air, if she make a speech in any place where she go, people love her because know she's very intelligent. George Romney once said to me, uh after the first several times he shared the platform with uh Lenore Romney, he said, "Any man's a fool that ever gets on the same platform with my wife." It gives me great pleasure right now to introduce the next junior senator from the state of Michigan, Lenore Romney. THAT WAS A DELIGHTFUL INTRODUCTION. IT reminded me of the fact that uh short time ago when I was talking with the press, they said, "Do you and your husband have any secrets?" And I said, "Yes." They said, "What are they?" A heart, a mind, a voice, and a will to help bring about the changes this country needs. I think the last 10 years have been about the most disastrous that our country has ever faced. We have had money piling in for bad programs. We have proliferated the programs from 34 to 435, and it seems to me that the people that have been the prime architects and the prime ones behind the administration during those years should not be in there to try and correct the abuses at this time. I think it's going to take new leadership. I think it's going to take new directions, and it's going to take reforms from key people who really care and who have different philosophies from those who have been in there. And I hope that you AGREE WITH I HOPE WHEN THIS IDEA FIRST CAME UP, I wasn't for it. Uh but as I thought about it, I I recognized the things that Lenore could contribute. And as I thought of that, uh I I decided that I'd go along with it even though it involves uh quite a adjustment in in our lives in a way and and a sacrifice on the part of both of us. As far as I'm concerned, she's a candidate on her own. I'm not involved in her campaign. I'm not going to do any more in her campaign than she wants me to do. And if there are things I can do that would be helpful that would won't detract from her effort, well, I find. But she's on her own. I remember my father used to say, "If not me, who? And if not now, when?" And this became a motto of mine way back when I had She's on her own with ideas of her own. Well, what kind of senator will Lenore Romney make? How does she qualify? And where does she stand? And I find that there is a permissive approach. I think that a child has to know that there are guidelines. Instead of just saying, "You do anything that's meaningful and do your own thing." You can't do that. I brought out the fact that a 14-year-old girl had been stabbed by 14 boys and mutilated. Is this inherently evil or isn't it? There are certain things in our society that we have to decide we will not tolerate. Leaders should be people much like herself that do have a strong moral persuasion. She has a great deal of of physical stamina. And this is very important because a person who's going to be a senator has to be a person who gets out amongst the people and and gets a feel of what the people's problems are. to be here. America's on the brink of everything she ever wanted. She almost can educate everyone. She almost can see that there is no poverty or hunger. But not quite. It's going to take our involvement. We say we have nothing to do about it in this renewal that we are just pawns of institutions. How ridiculous. We've never had more ability to be effective. She's very stimulating and very active and she has a wonderful wholesome point of view which I think only she could provide among 99 other senators. We're upset because our youngsters are taking drugs and that they're blotting out the most magnificent thing they have, their personalities, their opportunity to live and glow and and contribute. Blotting that out, they might as well be dead if they're not going to be alive. Lenore Romney is a concerned human being. She cares. Energetic and dynamic and intelligent and independent and willing to work and uh has such an ability to motivate other people and to lead. She's spent her entire life in the public arena at both the state and the federal level and I think uh uh with that kind of insight along with having raised a family that that she understands, I think, many of the pressures and feelings that families have today in this country. I want to see that inflation is stopped. Now, this might sound mundane, but I know what it means to the housewife. I know what it means to the retiree. She'd stand right along with Margaret Chase Smith who has been an outstanding senator. She's one of the most knowledgeable people in the country on military affairs, for instance. She has the same penetrating mind and grasp of issues, the ability to concentrate hard and understand the nature of a problem and then very importantly take that problem and make other people understand the solution that must be found for it. I believe there must be some wage price cost guidelines. I don't believe that the workers themselves should bear the brunt or the uh the businessman or the consumers. And the consumers So many of our senators sometimes become so caught up in the political situation that uh that their answer is made politically before the issue is even brought up. Why uh you could come out with a new bill and uh and you could decide right down the line how everyone's going to vote, mostly on their political background and which party they're for. But she isn't so allied to a political ideological ideology or a political side of the of the spectrum that she can't analyze the situation and and and vote in it and work in it completely candidly. It is important that you understand that it is your opportunity as well as your obligation to read everything about the new proposals, to know whether you agree with them or not. Yes, the automobile industry is at fault. Yes, the paper industry. Yes, the atomic testing and all of the rest of it. But we've dumped our beer cans, we have bought the detergents that can't be dissolved. We have been part of the problem and still are. You know, it was Pogo who said we have met the enemy and he is us. She values uh a lot of our traditional institutions but has a forward look. And I think uh I think she's eminently qualified. The very things that you think of when you think of Lenore Romney, integrity, zeal, energy, a sense of commitment, a feeling that things can be better, a desire to put them right. by sitting on their meetings and then discussed it at sometimes with a lack of insight and courage to come out for the things they believed in. I GOT SICK. WHEN HE WAS GOVERNOR AND WE GO TO THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCES, THE women were told to go to the fashion shows and to tour the art galleries. Where was I? I was on the floor WITH THE CONFERENCE. WHO ELSE WOULD HAD THAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE? Who else has sat in on the president's cabinet meetings and listened to the discussions and heard Dr. DeBakey tell about the scientific problem? Well, conversant with the problems of equal opportunity, denial of equal opportunity. She spent much of her lifetime with these problems and she has a very strong feeling for them. A lot of people think that this is a political thing. I'll be with the Romneys. And now listen, now this is much deeper than that. It's more or less you just found a friend and you keep them. And I'm convinced with the background of understanding which she has at the state level and and in Washington that she will perform outstandingly as the next United States Senator from Michigan. The faith in our government is is is is not there anymore. It is eroding because the government I I'm not I can't generalize and and say everyone, but someone is getting money that they don't deserve. You're absolutely right. I couldn't agree with you more. We are throwing more and more money into bad programs. I heard Dr. Arthur Burns, who was the president's economic advisor. He said that if we put everything that is being spent today for in poverty programs at the local, national, and state levels, if we put this all together that every poor family would be given $9,000 per year. Now, you know families aren't getting it, so it's being channeled in the wrong way. We're not getting our money's worth. People double talk and all that sort of thing, but as far as Lenore Romney is concerned, she's never has given any of that kind of stuff at all and when she speaks, it's from the heart. Now, how many times do we have to do this? How many times do how much power does the neighbor next door have to kill the murderer defensively? talking about killing. I don't believe we should kill anybody. I'm not for for Potential I'm for protecting No, protecting ourselves. But it is still violence in a sense. I agree with you. Okay, I just wanted that point made so I could stretch that, you know, I just wanted to say good because uh at the very time that we were against the war in Vietnam and the guerrilla warfare, we had guerrilla warfare here. And the democracy isn't going to work any place on earth unless we can make it work here. And it's up to all of us to see that it does work and we can't get it by violence. I don't know really what a senator has to do. But I know that anybody that knows God can make a good anything. You know. Well, it has to be an exceptional woman. I think it has to be a woman that knows what she's talking about and uh knows the problems of our country and from what I understand through the experience of Lady Romney, I think that she could handle them well. The only reason I want to get in there is to see that the human and social values that we enunciate are made real. I want an opportunity to swing for the things that I do believe in. Will you put that in writing? I would Have I done it here in the state? All right, have I done it in the state? I am working for these things. I don't have to put it in writing. My works what I've done is more important than what I say. I can't all of a sudden come into politics and expect people to vote for me. They have to know my record. They have to know what I've worked for. They have to know the volunteer projects I've initiated, human resource values, the strengthening the home, community schools in Flint. All of these things that mean so much to me. Power of persuasion is important and her point of view and her ability to persuade and influence people would be very important on the floor of the United States Senate. This is a job where people are constantly under stress and constantly under overview. And you can't afford to be flappable and Lenore is unflappable, you know, and they expect us to use our judgment. They expect us to listen. Lenore listens. They would expect her to reason and she reasons. They would expect her to know what the job involves, to love the people she represents, to have a good mix of heart and head. If Nora Romney has these things, she'd be a mighty fine US Senator and a great representative for the state OF MICHIGAN. ARE WE FOR LIFE OR ARE WE against it? We say we want to live. We say we want to survive. We've been afraid of the bomb, but the thing we really have to fear is man. The time has come when we can wait no longer to repair the damage already done, or we're through as a great nation. The peoples of the world won't listen to us if we can't make it work here. If you don't like what your legislators are doing, kick them out of office. They are put there because we put them there. We have to care individually and help each other and motivate each other on a one-to-one And I think we have to have some tools to combat crime and to stop this rising trend towards lawlessness. We can see that people who should be taken away from society are put away from society for a while, and then we must help rehabilitate them, but not bring them back on the streets to perpetrate their crimes over and over again. I believe that we have to be committed to certain ideals and to work for them. And I believe that we have we have a responsibility to understand the issues and to get in and fight for the things we believe in. Does that ANSWER YOUR QUESTION? I HAVE ONE QUESTION. WHERE DO YOU GET SO MUCH ENERGY? BECAUSE I CARE, AND THIS IS AT THE end of a day where I started in a daycare center before 9:00. I was then with senior citizens. I was at a campus session where I had a conference with youth throwing questions at me for 1 hour, as hard as they could and then the press let it started asking questions on their own, too. I barely got a bite to eat. Listen, let me tell you that if you care enough you really get on fire. And if it means enough, you're going to do whatever you can. I'm expendable. What happens to me isn't important. What happens to our country IS ALL IMPORTANT. UP, UP IN THE SKY where the little birds fly, down, down in their nest where the little birds rest. With the wing on the left, you see it? And the wing on the right, they sleep in their nest till the sun comes up bright. You all know it, don't you? Mother of four, grandmother of 15, devoted family, a full and varied life. Yet Lenore Romney chooses the rough road, the race against very difficult odds for a seat in the United States Senate. Why? I'll be a voice. I know I'm one voice, but everything starts with one, right? I believe there are millions that feel as I do. I think I can enlist their help. I believe maybe I can be useful. This may be a war in term and yet, I think every woman longs to be pertinent to her age. Never before has the voice and understanding of a concerned woman been so needed. Oh.