What I would like the chance to do if you, the people of the 78th AD, elect me

By Dennis Triglia

I would introduce an Assembly Bill to legalize private ownership of exotic animals (such as ferrets, hedgehogs and gerbils) in California. Imagine the government telling us which pets/companion animals we can have!

I strongly support alternatives to government-run public schools, including private tutoring (homeschooling). Don't you want your children to be taught the subjects and values YOU deem are important, such as allowing others to live their lives the way they deem fit so long as they don't infringe on your right to do likewise?

I would attempt to introduce an Assembly Bill that would put an end to police-state sobriety checkpoints. PLEASE - don't get me wrong - I am totally against being intoxicated and driving; that's completely irresponsible and dangerous - but these Gestapo-esque techniques of fear and intimidation should be illegal in California, and I'll try my best to accomplish that if elected by responsible voters whose civil rights are violated by these unnecessary intrusions into our privacy. Education about the dangers of drunk driving should be a part of every driver's ed course, as well as the responsibilty of parents to educate their children.

I would like to enact a Death with Dignity Act where terminally-ill individuals may choose to end their lives with the assistance of a physician or friend without fear of legal reprisal; however, I would not use tax dollars to accomplish this.

I would like to reform existing police-state civil asset forfeiture laws. Civil asset forfeiture amounts to STEALING by the government.

I will support a total separation of church and state. Pagans and minority religions have as much right to worship as mainstream religions - no one religion is better than another. And no religious person should fault an atheist for his/her beliefs either.

I would like to see an end to government spying and harassment, and the repeal of all "victimless crime" laws, such as laws against pornography, gambling and any form of sexual activity between or among consenting adults. I want police officers to stop harassing prostitutes and entrapping "johns" or other consenting adults. I want police to stop arresting California's medicinal marijuana users. I would like to see police officers vigorously pursue incidents of domestic violence, rape, child molestation, fraud, murder, child neglect, etc. and leave innocent consenting adults alone!

As of 2/15/2000, there were 2,000,000 Americans in prison; mostly for drug charges and other victimless crimes. Of course, a disproportionate majority of prisoners are minority African-Americans or Hispanics (clearly victims of the failure known as the War On Drugs). What other country in the "free" world has imprisoned almost 1% of its population? The USA has less than 5% of the world's population with a quarter of the world's prisoners. There are six times as many Americans behind bars as are imprisoned in the 12 countries that make up the entire European Union, even though those countries have 100,000,000 more citizens than the USA. Our jails and prisons have literally become the 51st state with a greater combined population than Alaska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Two-thirds of the inmates in America's prisons - over 1,200,000 prisoners - are locked up for non-violent offenses. Since 1980, the number of nonviolent prisoners has tripled and the number of drug prisoners has increased SEVENFOLD! Talk about civil rights violations in the name of "saving the children." An end to drug prohibition would actually protect our children by getting local pushers out of the schoolyards since it won't be profitable for them to sell drugs to kids anymore. Parents, please talk to your children and raise them the way YOU see fit - they will listen.