Dietsch: For The 18-Year-Old Eagle Scout Who Left Us

The political signs and ads shout so much malarkey. I just want to plug my ears and cover my eyes. Income tax? No such bill even made the senate floor! How to escape the cacophony of lies?

But instead I resolve to press forward with everything I’ve got, because this is such a pivotal year, and because a young man left us with the weighty burden of his lost future. I met him and his friends at an Andrew Yang event at the local brew pub. He was an Eagle Scout, a captivating ball of energy whom so many were counting on to be a leader for their times. At his memorial service last Saturday, they read Mr. Yang's letter of condolence about a young man who left so much promise undone. And the mourners, the mentors and the mother who nurtured him for 18 years, all charged us with the duty to move forward, to push through this crisis and rebuild our state, to rebuild America, the way we hoped he would lead us to do.

I do not pretend to be a charismatic leader like the young man we lost. But anyone who knows me, knows that I am someone who listens and then acts, someone who respects people for their character and their actions. They know that I love nothing more than helping someone find the path that will let them fulfill their passions. They know that I seek nothing more than helping every child, every parent and every grandparent to have a life, not free of struggle, but filled with achievement upon having struggled.

This is what I stand for: public education and opportunity for every child, regardless of zip code, skin color or parental pocketbook; energy policy that includes consumers as part of the solution, that distributes power in a way that benefits not only the powerful; a society that recognizes the value of all work, and that prizes work that betters the lives of others, the beauty of the world and the future of our planet.

And I stand for an innovation economy that creates value and good-paying jobs, that brings capital and revenue into New Hampshire and serves as the engine that drives the rest of our enterprises.

This next year is going to be a crucial time for our state and our nation. I hope to work with you all to bring out the best in us, to live up to the potential of the many lives we have lost this year. Let’s live up to their memories and make this the world they would have wanted to see.