My head is spinning like a tornado as I return home to Nashua, New Hampshire, from Hartford, Connecticut. Tally Klimas and I have just attended a spectacular presentation. They call it the U.S. Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Mens Program. It is a dramatically staged presentation, with all the theatrical gimmicks, about the accomplishments of the ten honorees chosen each year, all of whose success has come before they reached the age of thirty-five. I thought, Im twenty-nine and Ive accomplished nothing. Look what each of these people, through will, purpose, dedication, and hard work, has accomplished in his life. I have done nothing other than running a small, halfway successful business. I need to settle down like they did, study their results, and see if its true that young men like me can change the world. This will be the motivating force in my life.
I listed a microcosm of the honorees achievements in my mind:
J. Howard Edmundson, governor of Oklahoma at age thirty-three; Homer Babbage, assistant commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education and president of the University of Connecticut; Congressman Robert Griffin, of Michigan, who helped write the Griffin-Landrum Labor Relations Act. Congressman Dan Innoyue, who lost an arm in World War II and then was elected to Congress; Osborn Elliot, the editor of Newsweek. There were a couple of others who, despite physical infirmities of great magnitude, have been successes in their fields.
It was quite an event. The centerpiece of the program is the Hands Trophy. One hand is reaching up to God; the other is reaching down to help you focus on your goal. This really made an impression. I want to serve others, I thought. If they can do it, I can too. After all, Im only twenty-nine years old, still young enough to qualify for the limit set by the Jaycees. "Yes, Young Men Can Change the World." Id better get moving.
From the Inside Flap
Former Speaker of the House Marshall Cobleigh is a legend in New Hampshire politics. A significant force in legislature reform, he modernized the New Hampshire House of Representatives. His straight shooting style made him extremely controversial, but unlike many of todays politicians, you always knew where Marshall stood. He desired a career of elected leadership that would culminate in becoming a key figure in Washington, DC, but that ambition eluded him. He served as chief of staff for a congressman and in the General Services Administration in Washington, but was not elected to national office.
From the Back Cover
Former Speaker of the House Marshall Cobleigh is a legend in New Hampshire politics. A significant force in legislature reform, he modernized the New Hampshire House of Representatives. His straight shooting style made him extremely controversial, but unlike many of today’s politicians, “you always knew where Marshall stood.” He desired a career of elected leadership that would culminate in becoming a key figure in Washington, DC, but that ambition eluded him. He served as chief of staff for a congressman and in the General Services Administration in Washington, but was not elected to national office.
About the Author
Marshall Cobleigh was the driving force and sponsor for important local legislation, such as that which created the technical-vocational school in Nashua, the Health Careers College in Concord, and the turnpike liquor stores in Nashua, Portsmouth, and Hooksett, that have raised substantial revenue to help the state finance unmet needs. He sponsored bills which became laws that mandated ramps on public buildings to assist the physically handicapped, provided free tuition for children of prisoners of the war in Asia, controlled the sale of unsafe flammable fabrics with special emphasis on children’s nightwear. Cobleigh was a champion for the “first in the nation” status of the New Hampshire primary, which brings an estimated 300 million dollars in revenue with each run, and adds to the state’s public relations and promotion programs. He also sponsored legislation for an interstate compact for the cleanup of the Nashua River, and a Constitutional amendment providing for freedom of speech in the New Hampshire Bill of Rights, among many others. Learn more of his contributions and how he truly shaped the face of New Hampshire in so many ways, in We Ain’t Making Sausage Here, the story of how he accomplished many of these great deeds, which continue to benefit the citizens of NH. There aren’t many politicians today like him. One can only hope that others will come along, to follow his model of public service and community commitment.Marshall knows New Hampshire government and the people who ran it, as intimately as anyone this century.
