Good morning. I’m pleased and honored as Mayor to welcome you all again to my hometown for this great annual conference.

This gathering has special significance for me personally for a couple of reasons. First, it coincides again this year with the kickoff of our annual Fettuccine Forum, a free public-affairs speaker series co-sponsored by the City of Boise and Boise State University. Since we revived the Forum four years ago, it has proved to be tremendously popular – a great way to get people talking about a wide range of issues, from current events to the environment, from politics to transportation.

And also history. Tonight’s speaker is a gentleman many of you are familiar with: Elliott West, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas and a specialist in the social and environmental history of the American West. His topic is titled Saloons in the City: The Drinking Man’s Bawdy Frontier. After his talk, I suspect that at least a few of you will want to visit the saloons in OUR city to engage in some field research on the subject.

The second reason that this year’s conference is special to me is your keynote speaker at tomorrow’s lunch, editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich. Mike was a classmate of mine at Bishop Kelly High School here in Boise, where he drew the most incredible caricatures of the nuns and priests, which is the perfect job training to draw caricatures of George Bush and Britney Spears. Last year we persuaded Mike to fly to Boise from Georgia for a Fettuccine Forum, and I’m thrilled that you’ve brought him back.

I can’t tell you what a treat you’re in for tomorrow; Mike is not only a great cartoonist but just an incredibly funny guy. Be sure to ask him to tell you about the time he served as a member of Henry Kissinger’s security detail. It is a classic.

I did go looking for a historian joke that I thought I might include in my remarks this morning. What I found is that there really are almost NO jokes about historians. Now, my brother is a history professor at Boise State, so I know for a fact that the folks in your profession do have a sense of humor. But really, just about the only historian joke I could track down was this one:

How many revisionist historians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Actually, contrary to popular belief, recent evidence suggests that the light bulb was never changed.

OK, now I know why I’m a Mayor and Mike Luckovich tells jokes.

My serious message for you this morning is really the same as in past years, and that’s to thank you for what you do. The work of our history, civics and social studies teachers isn’t just education; it’s really the process of creating new citizens, acquainting our young people with the tools that will help them make good decisions not only for themselves and their families, but for their communities and human society as a whole. I can’t think of a more important task than that, and so I take my hat off to you.

I am so convinced of the importance of history – of knowing what happened before so we, public servants and citizens alike, can better decide what should happen next – that I’ve taken steps as Mayor to make history part of the structure of City government.

Four years ago, one of my first acts as Mayor was to establish the Office of the City Historian, in cooperation with Boise State University. The results have been just great. In addition to helping launch the Fettuccine Forum, the Office set up an extensive City history Web site, published a great book about the ethnic landmarks of our city, and assists various City departments with issues that arise.

I really believe that this kind of attention to our community’s heritage and culture is so critical that earlier this year I proposed, and the City Council approved, the elevation of the City Historian’s Office and our Arts Commission to full department-level status: the City of Boise Department of Arts & History. I think we may be one of the few cities of our size in the country to have placed arts and history in such a prominent position on the org chart.

What it means is that history and art occupy a seat at my Cabinet table, bringing that perspective and those ideas to the daily business of the City. And just this week we welcomed our new Director of the Department, Terri Schorzman, who I know is going to do a great job for us.

Once again, welcome to Boise, here’s to a great conference, and I wish all of you the very best not only for the future, but for the past that’s so important to all of us.