Senator Lorraine Wojahn

what they needed. They were making Kachina
dolls and Navaho rugs and things to survive.
But they weren’t surviving very well. And so
this all started at that time. That was during the
Nixon administration. You know, you can say
anything you want bad about presidents, but
there is good in every president; there is some
good.
Ms. Kilgannon: Oh, yes. He certainly
accomplished many things.
Sen. Wojahn: He accomplished a lot. I don’t
feel at all badly about him. I’m sorry he lied. I
don’t like this president we have now, Bush,
because I think he misrepresents the facts all the
time; I can’t stand him. But I never hated Nixon,
because he, in effect, was a good man, I believe.
And I believe that generally, that’s true. But
some of them never learn. Nixon was not born
with a silver spoon in his mouth, is what I’m
saying. He was a Quaker; I respect the Quaker
movement deeply. But he couldn’t lie, and
that’s the reason he got trapped. I didn’t mean to
get onto to that nutrition thing, but it was a big
one.
Ms. Kilgannon: No, that’s important to
understand, how these things all weave together.
Sen. Wojahn: That’s how it all evolved,
beginning with that and that book Let Them Eat
Sharing a moment of conversation with Senator Betti Sheldon of Kitsap
County, 23 rd Legislative District
747
Promises. I’ve loaned that out to a lot of people.
And I remember when I was doing the bill to
pick up the money from the administration, I
had Doctor Sergienko help me, the deputy
superintendent of schools in Tacoma, and he did
all the statistics for me to see how we could do
it. We thought at first we would do it through
the elementary schools, because there’s an
elementary school in every area of the state of
Washington so a senior could walk there for
meals.
Ms. Kilgannon: That’s really local.
Sen. Wojahn: He did the stats for me and we
presented them. We didn’t get the bill that year
and the next year I dropped it and Senator Bauer
picked it up and he got it. So what doesn’t
happen one year, happens another year with
another legislator.
Ms. Kilgannon: You’ve got to plant those
seeds. You did the leg work.
Sen. Wojahn: I planted seeds, you bet. And I
did the leg work, but he used it to benefit
everybody. So it happens.
Ms. Kilgannon: Well, without pounding these
Senate resolutions too much, there was one
other one which was curious. It alludes to the
role of legislators who have served there a long
time and who have planted those seeds and done
things. It was sponsored by
Senator Betti Sheldon, honoring
a group of senators; she calls
them “The Seventy-something
Senators.” She was fairly
eloquent about the wisdom of
age and experience, and how
valuable you all were to the
group, and your leadership and
chiefly your experience – your
long-time life experience and
legislative experience and how
bringing that into the
Legislature was a gift to the
entire state.
Sen. Wojahn: And Betti
Sheldon rarely, rarely
introduced resolutions. She and