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Release Date: 11/04/04 00:00:00
Sumerset, KY
Southern and Eastern Kentucky Summit
November 4, 2004
(Remarks as Prepared)
Thank you for your kind introduction Congressmen Rogers. It is great to be back in your district, back in Somerset, with the great leadership that represents Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley Corridor. Governor Fletcher, it is a pleasure to see you again. You and your homeland security team are doing a fantastic job – from getting grants quickly to your first responders to working to establish interoperable communications and information networks throughout the state. We appreciate your work.
You have some incredible members of Congress in this area. They are not only doing great work for Kentucky and Tennessee, they are doing great work for homeland security and our entire country and many thanks to all of you. At the Department of Homeland Security, we know that to protect our homeland, we must protect our hometowns – whether they are urban areas or rural; whether they are on the coasts…or in the heartland.
We protect our hometowns best when we leverage the resources of our communities throughout our great country. We protect our homeland best when everyone takes up the chisel of freedom to mold our common heritage into a common purpose – a common purpose to defeat those who seek to destroy our lives and our way of life. We’ve said many times that the federal government does not have a monopoly on good ideas. Our homeland security strategy is not a federal strategy; it is a national strategy. And this nation’s strength is in the ideas, energy and determination of all its citizens.
This summit and the Tennessee Valley Corridor’s mission and achievements are perfect examples of how these ideas, energy and determination can make our country stronger – in our economic well-being, our values and our security.
September 11, 2001 taught us that we needed to think differently about our nation’s security. Terrorism challenges us today in ways that our forefathers never could foresee.
And like those who have defended our country in the past, all of you have risen to the occasion. All of you recognize how collaboration, communication and coordination can harness and develop the technological innovations that will make us safer. We’re not yet safe. But we are safer today than we were yesterday, and the work of the Tennessee Valley Corridor and its private and public sector partners will make us safer still tomorrow.
The U.S. Department of Commerce recognizes the Tennessee Valley Corridor as the nation’s most outstanding economic development program in the nation. Now, we at the Department of Homeland Security are pleased to recognize the members of the Tennessee Valley Corridor as valued partners in the fight against those who seek to do us harm.
We appreciate your participation and your commitment to bringing your knowledge and energy to share best practices, develop innovative solutions, and build partnerships in our mission to stop terrorism. We also are pleased to congratulate Representative Rogers and all of you on establishing the National Institute for Hometown Security, and the Kentucky Homeland Security University Consortium.
These organizations will harness the ingenuity and resources of the region’s businesses, academic institutions and state and local partners. And thus Kentucky will more effectively develop technologies that will fortify our ability to protect the homeland from terrorists. And technology is critical to our protection. We saw some great products and services earlier, and we appreciate all the folks who are here to demonstrate how they can make us safer.
The Department is also developing and using technology in various forms to stay ahead of the terrorists. These tools range from biometric technology, to robots for search and rescue missions, to interoperable communications, to nuclear and radiological detectors. And with your help – with the work of your National Institute for Hometown Security and the University Consortium – we will continue to push the limits of technological development in the 21st century.
We will continue to enhance the cooperative and collaborative research that is an essential weapon in the fight against terrorism. Your organizations embody homeland security’s philosophy of shared leadership, shared responsibility and shared accountability – the integration of a nation – everyone pledged to freedom’s cause, everyone its protector.
Many thanks, Congressman Rogers, on your leadership in identifying needs in your district and countering them with these innovative responses. Many thanks, again to all of you for your efforts to enhance homeland security while enhancing economic security. You have recognized the challenges ahead and you have risen to the occasion with a common vision and purpose to think creatively – and to act boldly to help secure our country.
Thank you.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on 11/04/04 00:00:00.