Highlights of Gov. Landry’s Inaugural Address

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Gov. Jeff Landry

State Capitol • Baton Rouge

Sunday, January 7, 2024

To the cherished people of our beautiful state, honored guests, our heroic Veterans, elected officials, family and friends. 

Welcome Home!

I am deeply humbled. Humbled first by the grace of God, humbled by your presence here today, humbled by the continual prayers that shower our loved ones, and humbled by the friendships we share. 

It is fitting and appropriate that we stand today before this capitol, the sun having set on the past and where a new Louisiana day dawns. 

This magnificent capitol stands as a monument to the history of our beloved state.  Sculpted in the stone, wrought in the steel, captured in the décor are the symbols of our great history.  The awe of this structure is inspiring at the thought of common people, those living and those gone, whose toil and suffering built it.  

Not as a delusion of self-aggrandizement, but as a reflection of their hopes and dreams. 

Carved in this stone is the story of Louisiana, from Native Americans, to French and Spanish Explorers, to the thousands that came from other lands, to those removed to this place by forces of the past.  

This is our home. This is your home. 

These revered and illustrative chronicles reveal just how the world has found Louisiana to be.  The embodiment of a spirited people that will take you in. A people that will share their table with you. A people who will rush to console you. A people who will fight for their beliefs. A people who will not rest when you need help. A people of immeasurable love and unrivaled determination.

In the battlefield of life and in the straight face of adversity… it is Louisiana’s perseverance that stands as a measure of inspiration.  

From the fishermen and the shrimpers that know no toll of hour, nor individual safety, as they wrought their catch.

To the millions of our toughest that spent the largest portion of their life in our fields and forests. 

To those brave and rugged souls that risked life and limb decade after decade in and around ship-yards, drilling rigs, and plants. 

To the thousands of service workers, cooks, waiters, hotel maids that humbly serve others day after day and night after night… because this is their building too.  

As we reflect together before this Capitol, let us remind ourselves that the grandeur of this structure shall never equal our worth as a people, as a culture of peace, of sharing, of patriotism, of family values, of honor and courage.  

For ours is a culture of joy, of love, of kindness, of resilience, of diversity, and of unbridled hospitality.  The beautiful and unique people of Louisiana are the originators of welcome.  Bienvenue.

Hospitality may have been invented in the South, but it was perfected in Louisiana.  

Again, Welcome Home!    

Whenever and wherever people meet crisis, they look to the people of Louisiana, who for over 300 years, have always come back. Have always measured up. Have always stemmed the rough tides and stood down the angry winds.

Only to crawl back, swim back, fight back, get up, stand up, and to never ever forget who we are and why we are here.                                  

We know far too well why those who leave our state for other opportunities, shall always hear the whisper of the live oak to come back home!   The everlasting love of our culture tugs at their heart. It speaks to their soul.  

Coming home to Louisiana feeds their soul and their endearing longing to be here — home where they belong.  

To the ladies and gentlemen of our Legislature, senators and representatives from each of our 64 different and unique parishes, representing the 4.6 million great citizens of this beautiful State. 

I stand before you, and beside you, with the complete and total realization that the people of Louisiana have designated this Capitol as the hallowed place where their voices are to be heard together; in equal and fair measure; and in its broadest format.  

We are mere proxies in the living illustration of the people’s chosen representative government.  

It is here that we come together, so that their lives are governed evenhandedly. So that their hard-earned money is spent judiciously; so that their institutions are compelled to serve them, and not disenfranchise them; so that their government fulfills the missions contrived by them; and so that their children are promised the perpetual legacy of opportunity.

The place is here, the time is now, and the challenge is ours.

And may we be mindful of the fact that — how ­— we carry out our public service, is what separates politicians from statesmen.  

Our people did not send us here to quarrel over the senseless, the personal, the trivial, or the political.  

Our problems cannot find resolution whenever political divide becomes the antitheses to solution.  

Our people did not send us here to settle scores or engage in battles created by secretly-funded manipulators that profit by dividing Americans.  Instead, the people sent us here to repair and reform their government and to unleash innovation and production, so their future and the future of their children are made better.  They sent us here not as politicians seeking the next vote, but as Statesmen seeking the next generation. For the people of this state are hopeful and anxious. 

They demand leadership that will place the greater good of this state above personal agendas, delusional entitlements, and special interests.  

Our people seek government that reflects their values.  They demand that our children be afforded an education that reflects those wholesome principles, and not an indoctrination behind their mother’s back.   The most important voice in a child’s education should be that of their parents.  It is only through education without indoctrination, that a child finds his or her true potential. We must commit ourselves to the crisis that is evolving in some of our schools and restore the peace of mind that our parents enjoyed when they sent us to school each day.  

We must honor our teachers by letting them teach and safeguard our schools from the toxicity of unsuitable subject matter, so that the sanctity of the student and the teacher is restored. 

The people of Louisiana deserve a government just as great as they are.  I fully appreciate that in governing, a difference of opinion must exist for there to be deliberation.  And it is our duty to deliberate respectfully and productively to deliver solutions our people seek.  It is in that spirit that I welcome your thoughts; I value your opinions; I respect your ideologies; and I sincerely invite your ideas.

To the Legislature; I ask you to help me help you, and together help them… for our failure is not an option. 

To my fellow citizens;  I pledge to you an open door. I welcome anyone and everyone to the table of thought with an open ear.  I have learned by listening to the voices of those that long to be heard.  I sadly hear the victims of crime whose compelling voices have gone un-heard for far too long, squelched by the misguided noise of those who had rather coddle criminals than live in peace. I mince no words about the consequences that I feel are wholly appropriate for those who commit violent crime in our state.  For it comes from listening to the innocent victims of the senseless, uncivilized, and outrageous violence that too many have suffered.  

Families ripped apart; loved ones taken from us by people with no conscience who do not deserve the privilege of freedom.  Those victims speak out for justice and it is our duty to act, so that others are spared that same burden of pain.  

We owe no higher obligation as public servants than to fix this. To fix it now and to fix it for good.  

To the men and women who protect us, who stand firmly on that thin blue line.  Our appreciation is expressed today in the rows of flags that have been placed on these sacred grounds and this profoundly empty chair.  We know too well the sacrifice you give every day, and the risk you endure to protect us from those who will not follow the laws of society.  

Our police officers, our correctional officers, and our deputies deserve our gratitude, our respect, and our support. For I have stood in their shoes and my love and support for them shall never waiver.  

The concern of our families for their own safety in their own neighborhood has been heard loud and clear and will be addressed by whatever legal means necessary from this day forward.  

There is no greater gift we can give to a person than to provide the opportunity for their labor. 

To enable their own self-sufficiency and in doing so, we revel in the thriving of our economy.  As we shape policy and seek solutions to the challenges of energy, exploration, production, conservation practices, and the protection of our precious environment. 

We are mindful that America is a nation of small businesses. As a small business owner myself, I understand, I appreciate, and I fully support any Louisiana citizen with the courage to risk their precious capital to pour their heart and labor into an idea, working tirelessly to make a dream a reality. You are the people who built this country. For you generate revenue for state and local governments, and pave the way to prosperity for all Louisiana citizens.

Exactly 208 years ago at this very time, the most powerful armed force in the world were mobilizing around the city of New Orleans to conquer Louisiana, to hopefully rescind the Louisiana Purchase, and to claim our rivers, our cities, our towns, and our settlements to serve their King.

Tomorrow morning marks the anniversary of that fateful sunrise attack. The untrained and outnumbered Louisiana militia of 1,000 men, were logistically no match for the superior British force of 6,000 highly trained and perfectly equipped soldiers.  

Those Louisianians represented the magnificent diversity and courage of our state that exists today.   They were men of all colors, ethnicities, backgrounds, status, and religions. There was the wealthy few, the working poor, many were farmers, shop keepers, enslaved men who were readily armed and fought valiantly, some were fishermen, boat builders, clergymen and pirates side-by-side, shoulder to shoulder.  The bravery of Louisiana that day, stunned the world with a crushing defeat of King George’s army.  It is a story of courage, of optimism, of how a group of people with extremely different opinions; set aside their differences, embraced one another’s courage, and demonstrated to the world the power of unity.  

Theirs is a story of defeating fear and adversity ­— with courage and diversity. This story is our story.  We are the same Louisiana people of that fine hour.  

Then as now, we love to love, and we love to argue.  More importantly, we still love when we finish arguing. It is that indomitable spirit so deeply rooted in the DNA of Louisiana that motivates us, that reminds us that we can do anything, that we can solve any problem, that we can count on one another, that whatever befalls one of us rallies all of us. 

That is who we are.

If America is a melting pot, Louisiana is the gumbo that fills the pot.  

To the people of Louisiana, there is something quite extraordinary about you.  What kind of people could make mosquito infested marshes and swamps their productive, beautiful, and thriving home?  

What kind of people could fabricate industry along the bayous, rivers, and a turbulent gulf?  What kind of people could tame the wilderness and the vast forests?   

What kind of people could lead the world in energy and provide the technical force that lifted the world from mud and poverty?  

What kind of people could master the land and produce an agricultural abundance to feed the world?  

What kind of a people could master the violence of our sea and rivers to create commerce and trade?  

Only you, the amazing and wonderful people of Louisiana.  

Only you, could turn your exile into a garden of Eden and a place where the entire world celebrates the unique culture we have created.  

There is no place like Louisiana and nowhere are there fabulous people like you.   

I love Louisiana. If I had a hundred lives to live, I’d live them all in Louisiana!

Again, welcome Home!