Author: Marty Keller

Keeping Our Promise

On this Veterans Day it is a time for all of us to reflect in gratitude upon the contributions our fellow citizens have made for us all when they donned the uniform of the United States military.

It is a time to visit, either in person or in our thoughts, the graves of the thousands of men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that the commitment to individual freedom—to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and the country that has championed it from the start, would flourish in spite of every danger and opposition.

California is the home not only of a number of important military bases, but also of hundreds of thousands of veterans. While many of these of our fellow citizens have gone on to great personal success, many still also struggle with homelessness, with lingering physical and psychological trauma, with financial challenges.

Our state works hard to keep the promise we have collectively made, in the immortal words of President Abraham Lincoln, “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”

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Governor’s Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

As the Governor’s Small Business Advocate, I have been hearing firsthand about the challenges facing California’s small business owners in this troubled economy. The state’s budget system is also facing a tough financial crisis, but Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing for economic stimulus to aid businesses large and small across the state. He’s also very concerned with hearing from the business community about what issues they’d like to see the state tackle to help in this climate.

That’s why the Governor is welcoming small business leaders to the first-ever Governor’s Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in Los Angeles next week on November 18 & 19.

Patterned after the White House Conferences on Small Business held in Washington occasionally since 1981, the Governor’s Conference will bring together leaders from all the sectors of the California economy by region, business sector, ethnicity, and generation. The diversity of the state’s small businesses will provide the breadth of vision for better and more inventive ways that the state can work with small businesses to pave the way to greater prosperity.

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