2006 Candidate Forum

In each election year, the League of Women Voters has been a consistent and gracious host of televised candidate forums. This year is no exception, and, despite the fact that I am a lowly 3rd party candidate, I have been invited to the forum. The 24th district State Representative race is scheduled for 9/8/06 at 3pm.

I am looking forward to an evening of discussion about Kansas politics. I plan to raise my 3 issues as often as possible: 1) Eninent domain abuse, 2) No Child Left Behind, and 3) the sales tax on groceries. I believe all 3 of these issues are important to the people of the 24th, and they deserve to know that their legislature has been negligent in its duties with regard to these issues. In each case, the action taken by their lawmakers has been either insufficient or non-existent.

In addition to my 3 issues, I've learned a great deal from the people of the 24th district in my door-to-door campaign. I recently met a fellow firefighter who has been retired for some time now. The state has not given him any cost of living adjustment, nor have they increased his pension in any form for over 6 years. Yet the same state has the nerve to continue to demand more of his tax money. I would like an explanation for this.

I would also like an explanation for why our government sees fit to pass on a crushing debt to my children. For example, I've heard enough of the school funding argument. The fact is that our public schools leave much to be desired, but the only thing our politicians can seem to debate is how much more to give the schools and when. It's time we demand some fiscal accountability from our schools, as well as some results to correlate with the increases in taxes they continue to demand. How can we justify throwing more money at our schools when they insist on catering to the lowest common denominator? They are not subject to any form of consumer competition, nor do they have any incentive to leaner and more efficient. Furthremore, there is no recourse against the 2% of students who terrorize the other 98% who are there to learn but cannot because of their disruptive (and sometimes violent) behavior. Our public school systems lack discipline and their policies are merely paper tigers.

To my brother in the fire service, I say to you: You should not have to get a second job in order to finance your government's inefficiencies. You should not have to scrape up loose change to help your children put your grandchildren in private schools to escape the public school system. You, my friend, have answered the call. It's now time for the state of Kansas to answer your call.

Sac and Fox Pow-Wow part II

The Pow-Wow was great! Unfortunately, much of the dance competition on Sunday was canceled due to inclement weather. The competators work extremely hard on their regalia, and much of it is not weatherproof. It is all hand made, and attention is paid to the smallest detail in the extreme.

Saturday we watched the competition, and we listened in as the tribal eleders led the ceremonies. I must say I was impressed. The Sac and Fox are truly a great people, and their hospitality is without equal. They have a sense of family, honor, and heritage that would make many cultures jealous, and yet they proudly call themselves Americans. There was more than one warrior honored for service to his country, including one young man about to depart for a tour in Iraq.

When the MC announced that the Sac and Fox are a generous people, he was not exaggerating in any sense. For $5.00 each we were allowed into the pow-wow. We not only got a spot to camp, but we got showers, very nice buffet meals, and this was ALL WEEKEND. To top that all off, this whiteman who has been known to be a fairly mean gambler came out up $40.00 after a few hours in the casino! That money was promptly returned to the tribe, as I came home with a few souvinirs.

I bought a 15 month calendar with some extrordinary native artwork, autographed, for $5.00. I also bought an arrowhead from the same gentleman for $1.00. For anyone looking for a very real American Indian experience, I highly recommend the Sac and Fox Pow-Wow. I do have a few pictures on my website:

http://cyberdads.info/pow-wow/pow-wow

Enjoy.

My first visit to the Sac and Fox Nation

I've been looking forward to this weekend for some time now. Every year, the Sac and Fox Nation holds its annual Pow Wow to showcase the American Indian traditions that they have worked so hard to preserve. Contests are held for Native dancers of all ages and all styles, awards are given, and the native lifestyle in general is celebrated. The Sac and Fox Nation is one of the smallest Indian tribes in the area, and yet they remain one of the most authentic. I can truly say that tomorrow morning I will be leaving the United States, and I don't even need a passport.

As many of you know, my girlfriend's daugher is a Sac and Fox tribe member. This is her opportunity to meet up with relatives and explore her heritage. I am honored to be a guest of the tribe, and plan to support them in every way I can. I have been told that the tribe will barter for skins, bones, and other goods, so I plan to bring some of the artifacts I have collected while hunting. I have some buffalo hide, a cow skull, some possum skulls and other types of living art that I have decorated. I hope that my soon to be Indian frineds will find them at least somewhat valuable.

It is truly remarkable that a white man like myself is allowed to even set foot in a nation such as this; after the agregious injustices that our government has inflicted upon these people. As my friend's helmet sticker so aply states, "Sure, you can trust the government, just ask an Indian". Hopefully this white man's humility will serve to stoke the fires of friendship with a tribe that inhabited this land long before my people. Though neither of us are responsible for the actions of our forefathers, the fact is that we still live our lives in their shadows. I have always felt a kindred for the people that learned to live in balance with the land and the other life that shared their space; and I hope to grow to appreciate that respect even more in the coming days.

The black man may have once been a slave, but the Indians have long been pushed aside, onto "reservations" that are smaller than a decent farmer's land, to become slaves to themselves. My heart goes out to the Indian tribes of the Americas. May the great spirit be with you my friends.

Door-to-Door campaign ramps up

The 66th annual Black Hills Motor Classic (a.k.a Sturgis Bike Week) is now officially over. Once again, I've been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, worn it out and used it as a shop rag. The rally was great, though I did notice attendance was drastically down. The most likely reason for this is of course our steep gas prices. In and around Sturgis we were paying $3.15 - $3.30 per gallon, which is only really tolerable to my budget because of the fact that my bike gets 40-45 mpg. And yes, we rode all the way up and all the way back. In my opinion, that's the only way to go!

Now it's time to kick the door-to-door campaign into high gear. With the days getting shorter, and advance ballot voting available in October, there really isn't much time left to get facetime with the voters of the 24th district. So far we have visited about 3,500 houses out of a total of 10,000 in the district. We have not thus far knocked on every door, because we wanted to cover the entire district and leave flyers and didn't figure we had time. This was my strategy because my $0.03 flyers that I made in MS-word were the only form of advertising I had, next to letters to the editor that I've had published. Well that has recently changed!

My campaign war chest now has enough money (over $1,100 in donations) to allow me to purchase 250 yard signs, 500 business cards, and have enough left over for a voice-broadcast campaign or some radio and newspaper spots. This is really exciting for me because it moves my campaign more into the "serious" category where it belongs. Also, it is rare for any 3rd party candidate to raise this much money for a state rep race. The signs and cards will be in by the end of August. I have a deal in the works with a telemarketing firm to handle my voice broadcast campaign and, if I decide to go forward with it, will begin that in mid to late September.

I have already spent a great deal of time and money on my campaign. I have filled out every single survey that has been sent to me, I have attended caucuses and meetings, published numerous op-ed pieces, all in addition to going door-to-door. I'm doing this because I think the voters of the 24th deserve to know where a candidate stands. Some candidates don't like to fill out surveys because it risks exposing some of their less popular opinions. I have chosen to accept this risk in order to mount a "what you see is what you get" campaign. Nobody agrees with any candidate 100% of the time. I may not even agree 100% with what I said yesterday sometimes LOL. But the point is, there will be no doubt what a vote for Jason Peck means when we visit the polls this November. Economic and Social Freedom, tolerance, and a government guarantee of an opportunity rather than a result are what my campaign is all about. Now let's see how many other candidates are willing to be this forward in the coming 80+ days.