Stay cool!

 

    The gears and springs of our world are wound TIGHT. You can almost feel the tremble and strain in the air when you leave home or watch the news. The never ending war in Afghanistan. The pandemic. The election. The gears just keep getting wound tighter and tighter.

    It has never been more important for us to keep our own personal gears under control. We need to remember that all those things we tell ourselves, about American greatness, really are true and that we will get through this. We are going to elect a president and our government will continue. You may not get the candidate you want, but, to be honest, half of us, more or less, lose every election. And if your boy loses, that’s just how it goes. Accept it and move on.

    Don’t let the paranoia spread. We can only deal with one pandemic at a time. We don’t need an emotional, political virus consuming us. If it sounds crazy, it probably is crazy.

     We’ve been under a considerable amount of pressure for well over a year. And it’s not likely to ease up soon. We’ve got to be strong. We have to trust in our democracy. We have to have trust in each other and in ourselves.

Be strong, 5^th District

Wear your mask!

 

    It’s time to take things seriously. Covid numbers are getting bad, and there’s no amount of wishful thinking going to change things. We need to wear our masks, and we need to wear them right. We can’t keep slacking off and hoping that things will magically improve. We can’t keep pretending that what is going on isn’t real.

    It is time to behave like adults and be responsible. Wear your mask!

Thank you!

 

Election Day Has Come and Gone

 

Well, I am no longer a candidate for office. Election Day has passed me by. But that’s ok, it taught me a lot of lessons as it ran me over.

Before I begin, let me thank you for your support and interest. Running for office was an amazing, POSTIVE experience. Thank you.  

Ok, that being said, I’m not going to make a lot of excuses about the pandemic keeping me inside during campaign season. It is what it is and it affected everyone equally. I’d have loved to have gotten out and been able to meet more people, but it wasn’t possible. Not this time, anyway.

- SOLUTION: Start getting out and meeting people NOW! Don’t wait until 2022 or 2024. Do it NOW!

 

Second lesson, I was unprepared. I did not  intend to run this season, but when the Democrats failed to put up a candidate and the Republicans (no surprise) failed to primary the incumbent, I felt that I had no option. Elections should be about giving voters a choice, and without me and my Libertarian ballot buddy there was no choice other than the incumbent.

- SOLUTION: We have got to cultivate, develop, and train candidates NOW to be ready to run in every election. There should be a Republican, a Democrat and as many Libertarians and Independents on every ticket as possible.

          The 5^th Senate district covers SIX counties. At primary time there should be a Republican and a Democrat from each county on the ballot. The same for every House district!

 

Third lesson, I cannot be both a full-time public-school teacher and a serious political candidate at the same time. Maybe others can, but I cannot. I owe my students more than being their distracted teacher. Honestly, the pandemic saved me there, it gave me time to campaign virtually.

- SOLUTION:  There is no question about it, if I decide to run again I am going to have to retire from teaching. It’s the only way to be fair to my students and the campaign.

 

There are other lessons I learned, but those are the big ones. I need to better budget my campaign. I need to do a better job of learning how to talk about myself. I need to be bolder asking people for campaign donations.

 

In closing, I would like to wish the incumbent wisdom, courage and patience in his next four years as our elected representative.