I don't write many checks, but I'm prepared to pay a percentage or 2 more on some items in order to support education, senior care, and health care in Oregon. I'm prepared to vote yes on a measure that will increase the participation of corporations in supporting these efforts. I'd like to live in a state with a higher graduation rate, a full school year, healthy people, and old folks who live securely and with dignity. I'd like to prepare Oregon for a future of what is inevitable--more immigration from other states--and I'd like to see that all newcomers pitch in. I think we can, through self-government--achieve these aims. There are other societies who do these things much better and almost all of them ask folks to pitch in with more taxes than we do. Measure 97 is an excellent step forward for a great state that is falling so far behind that it's worse than sad.