Candidate for
Member, Green Party County Council; County of Monterey

Unless you know me personally, I may scare you away with what I have to say, regarding political philosophy.

After 4 years on the Green Party County Council, much of what I fight for or believe in is still the same.

I call myself a "social anarchist" which has a double meaning. "Social" meaning for the common good of the community and organized society in which we are a part of. "Anarchist," in the true spirit of the word, or better yet, "concept", signifies the absence of a ruler or rulers. Not "chaos" or "complete disorder" as is customary in describing anarchists.

We believe in organization from the bottom up, and through consensus and in the majority vote if all are not in agreement, rather than being imposed upon from the top down upon resisting individuals or groups. Like war and bank bailouts?

The Spanish Civil War in the 1930's was started by the fascist ruling-class against the liberal government in Madrid, and to stop the spread of leftist or "egalitarian" groups in different cities and villages in Spain. The anarchists, socialists, and communists had their own philosophies and system of fighting the forces of Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler, spending more time disagreeing with each other and lost out to Franco. Our own Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell ("Homage To Catalonia") and others fought on the side of the anarchists, et all, in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Enough history. Whether I'm re-elected or not, I will still be an advocate for Single Payer health care (like they have in most civilized countries) and have helped put two single payer programs on for the public, H.R. 676 for the nation, and for Californians, S.B. 810.

I'm a retired Teamster truck driver and pro-union and fought for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) which Obama, Pelosi and Reid "took off the table" shortly after President Obama took office. The United States is not a "union-friendly" country, contrary to political speeches by the two mainstream parties. So, that struggle continues on.

For honest elections, I have been an advocate for hand-counted paper ballots ever since I started reviewing the research on how easily computerized voting machines and "optically-scanned vote counting results can be "changed" for specific reasons. While living in Santa Cruz County in the 1990's, I worked as a poll worker one election year - before the Diebold and Sequoia machines were used. I'm on record in the Monterey County Registrar's office with written testimony about the accurate (and honest) vote count of "we the people's" selections in the voting booth.

War and Peace? I'm a combat infantry veteran of Vietnam, (squad leader) and not very proud of it. Our nation's "hubris" is leading us into a third world war, and I'm for closing all of our overseas military installations, and bringing our armed forces back home, turning their swords of destruction into plowshares for cultivating the soil and using their labor in public works projects like President Roosevelt created during the Depression. Real, meaningful employment, for the good of the community.

I'm an advocate for "worker-owned" businesses, and patronize as many of them as I can, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, which are a modal for all to learn from. Quite productive and profitable, too!

And as a life-long animal lover and caretaker of dogs, cats, parakeets, a rabbit, and goldfish at one time or another in my life, I stress the non-violent vegetarian diet and have been one since 1968. (No self-discipline for junk food, though. The sugary stuff is like a magnet)

That's it in a nutshell.