Chris & Valarie Johnson Receive the John Walker Award at the 2024 Maine Democratic State Convention

Longtime Democratic activists Christopher and Valarie Johnson of Somerville were presented with the John Walker Award during the 2024 Maine Democratic State Convention on Saturday, June 1, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. They were honored for their tireless efforts and years of volunteer service to the LCDC, their community in Somerville, all of Lincoln County, and to the State of Maine.

The award was presented by Maine Democratic Party Chair Bev Uhlenake who said this about the recipients, “Chris and Valarie are a couple of remarkable Lincoln County Democrats who over the past 23 years have demonstrated admirable dedication to showing up, stepping up, and doing the work necessary to bring about change in their community. Between the two of them, they have served in the Maine State Senate, as chair and vice chair of the Lincoln County Democratic Committee, on the State Platform committee, on their local school and select board, and on a variety of other committees and boards. It’s my pleasure to present the John Walker Award to Chris and Valarie Johnson.”

Join us in wishing them congratulations for being recognized with this honor.

Chris & Valarie’s Remarks

[both]
Thank you for this honor.

[Valarie]
By our estimate, in the past 23 years, Chris and I have compiled at least 104 years of service in office or on committees at the state and local levels. We haven’t been at it for 52 years, but the committee years add up quickly when you are on several.

We never started out with that goal in mind. We just see things that need to be done and do it.

I’m good at building relationships and engaging and organizing one person at a time, and I don’t mind leading, but I’m not a fan of public speaking, even though I can and do at times with a smaller group of people I know. So here I am, stepping outside my comfort zone to say thank you.

And with that, I’ll let Chris tell you more about our journey.

[Chris]
When I first joined the Lincoln County Democratic Committee 23 years ago, I did it because the alternative was just being angry at the world. The Supreme Court had stopped the recounting of ballots, resulting in George W. Bush becoming President of a nation that, in the eyes of the justices, did not deserve to know who really won.

I decided that I have a duty to my children, my community, and to my country to join others to work for a better future. Alone there was nothing I could do but vote. But I had learned the value and power of Unions when I worked on the Canadian Pacific railway one summer in college. And I wanted to see the Democratic party become a growing political union of people of good will.

Valarie and I don’t have superpowers. Everyone is capable of things they didn’t know they could do until they try, or until someone has enough faith in them to ask.

-Raise your hand if you are tired of people who want to be leaders, yet do not believe in the inherent worth, rights, and self agency of every human being they seek to lead.
-Raise your hand again if you’ve had your fill of officials who think public service is about power and self-enrichment, instead of exercising a duty to all the people and communities they serve.
-Stand up if you are able, or raise your hand again, if you are tired of people winning public office who don’t bring the essential qualities of honesty, integrity, duty, and compassion to their work.

There is a way to solve those wrongs. Make a commitment that goes beyond group calisthenics:

-Get involved.
-Join good work. Or start some.
-If you don’t do it, who will?

I have learned some universal truths from wise people which have guided me in engaging others:

-Our democracy, rights, and freedom are precious. I learned that from Mrs. Trowbridge, my high school English teacher at Bangor High, who visited China with her physician husband before it was open to the West. She spoke emotionally one day telling us you don’t know how precious freedom is until you witness people who do not have it.
-From indigenous people we have much to learn — “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations” — a truth memorialized as a great law of the Iroquois Confederacy.
-Don’t give up. View every obstacle as a problem to solve or an experience to learn from, not an excuse to stop trying.
-Cultivate understanding and kindness. As challenging as it is in today’s extreme political climate — don’t be a mirror to opposition tactics of hate and dehumanization. Make unacceptable actions your target rather than attacking the person.
-The best way forward is to communicate shared values in relation to what you want to achieve, bring people together around those values to collaborate, and then be open to other ideas for how to achieve it. You will not only get things done, you will create a community to sustain and expand upon the achievement.

As the African proverb tells us, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

We have much to do. Let’s reach out to others, make a place for them in the work we are doing, and go far together.

Thank you.