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Where I Stand On A Few
Issues
Abortion - I believe having an
abortion is a moral and/or a
medical decision, not a political one. A
woman has to decide for herself if she wants an abortion and will live
with
that decision for the rest of her life. Many
contraceptive alternatives exist to help
prevent pregnancies, which
are up to 99.9% effective. Abortion
should not be regarded as an alternative form of "birth
control". When it comes to woman's
right to choose, I would rather see adoption be the first choice and
abortion
be the last choice, but the government should not make the decision. I also believe that the Republican Party
needs to realize that after 33 years, they lost the fight over abortion. Let's move on to current issues and leave
morals and family values up to parents.
Constitutional Rights - There are too many people and groups
that misuse the term "rights". All of us
as Americans have the rights as
expressed in the United States
Constitution and all twenty-seven amendments. There
is no "right" for heterosexual marriage,
nor should
there be for homosexual marriage. No one
has the "right” to live where they want to, they can only choose to
live
where they can afford to. The list of
these examples can go on and on. Laws
are used to cover the areas that our Constitution doesn't.
Our laws are subject to not violating our
Constitutional "Rights". Laws
may, or may not, reflect the opinions of the majority of our citizens. If laws need to be made or changed, they must
be able to be enforced. Without the
ability to enforce a law, the law becomes ineffective. When the People
pass
propositions, the new law(s) should remain in effect until the People
change it
through another proposition.
Death Penalty - I'm in favor of
the death penalty in
situations where there is no question as to who is guilty.
DNA testing should be mandatory, when
possible, to verify someone's guilt or innocence prior to carrying out
the
execution. I would also like to see a new plea or verdict added for the
courts.
"Guilty by reason of insanity." If someone
commits a crime and there is no
doubt as to whether or not
the person did commit that crime, how can they possibly be innocent by
reason
of insanity?
Education
- An education is the most important thing that
anyone can have. It's the one thing we
can give our children that nobody can ever take away.
California's
school systems have plummeted in the national rankings.
Parents need to promote the need for an
education to their children. Parents
need to make sure they know what their children are doing in school and
enforce
the curriculum at home. The schools need
to push the children to meet reasonable expectations and to excel
whenever
possible. In today's day and age there
is NO excuse for a child not to have an excellent education. Excuses as to why a child can't read and
write should NOT be accepted. Children
who are incorrigible should not be allowed to ruin the opportunity for
other
children to get an education. Vocational
education should be available to all children who do not intend to go
to
college. Public colleges need to be
affordable for everyone. When someone
graduates college, they should not have to be thousands of dollars in
debt. This is not the way to start a
career. Before we spend any more extra
money on schools, we need to find the reasons for their failures. We have seen from experience that the
increase in school budgets has not improved the test scores or reduced
the
dropout rate proportionately. Just
spending more money has not, and will not, get us the results we need.
English as our official language -
I'm in favor of making
English our official language in our State and Country.
Being multi-lingual is a very helpful asset
in life. It allows you the opportunity
to understand cultures besides your own. However,
if you can't speak the language of
the country you live in, you
are limiting the opportunities that are available to you to become more
knowledgeable and successful. We need to
improve the lives of all of our citizens. Teaching
/ learning English is the first step
to help those that come to
our country.
Eminent Domain -
Eminent domain by definition is "the
right of a government to take or purchase private property for public
use. We need to secure private property
ownership
with a definition of "public use" for California. Public
use should not be defined with taking
private property and
passing it to private developers for their personal gains.
Public use is for the general population. Such as: roads, freeway on and off ramps,
bridges, overpasses, schools, city halls, fire and police stations,
etc....
Gun Control - To put it simply, I
believe in the
Constitution of the United
States of America in its entirety,
from the
preamble through and including the twenty-seventh amendment. The second
amendment
states: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a
free state,
the right of
the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The second
amendment is what allows all of our "rights" to be enforced by the
people. The second amendment gives us the ability to fight our
government,
should they try to change from the Republic that we are, to another
form of
government. Should there be laws for gun
ownership? Absolutely, but they should
be based on facts, not political agendas. More
restrictive guns laws aren't effective on
lowering crime rates,
because criminals don't abide by our laws. Homeowners
need the ability to defend
themselves, since help may not
arrive until after a crime has been committed. In
many cases, the mere presence of a firearm
can defuse a possible
violent or deadly situation.
Immigration -
Other than Native Americans (a.k.a. Indians),
all of us have ancestors from a foreign country. If
it weren't for our ancestors migrating to
this country, we wouldn't be here now. I
am in favor of legal immigration. We
have procedures and laws so that people can legally immigrate to our
wonderful
country. Some of us take our rights and
freedoms for granted because we were born here and know no different. Other people risk their lives to come to America. But, we cannot allow everyone who has the
desire to live in America
to come here. We have to limit the
number of people allowed in our country. When
allowing someone to live here through the
legal process, we must
not choose based on financial status or nationality.
Illegal immigration by someone of any
financial status or nationality should not be condoned.
People who come here illegally create a
financial hardship on each and every state. They
may take a job away from one of our
citizens, or one of our legal
immigrants. They may take the funds
needed to help one of our citizens or legal immigrants. If someone
breaks the
law by coming here illegally, our taxpayers should not have the burden
of
supporting them. If workers are needed
from foreign countries, we should be using work visas to allow them to
come and
go freely across our borders legally. The
only amnesty policy that we should
consider would be for those
individuals who came here legally and just didn't renew their documents.
Medical Assisted Suicide - There
may be extreme cases where
medically induced drugs should be used to end someone's suffering. If someone has an incurable disease, has no
possible chance of recovery, has excruciating pain even with the use of
painkillers, AND is on their deathbed, then this may be the most humane
solution. Legislation would have to be
written to make this option allowed only by the individuals themselves. I don't believe anyone else should ever make
a decision of this magnitude for them. Our
society looks at putting an animal to
sleep as being humane. Should this apply
to humans? We need input from many points
of view in
order to determine what is best for the patient, their families, and
our
state.
Offices
/ Positions which are appointed - I believe any
token office or position, which a governor appoints someone (campaign
donor,
friend, etc.) to, that serves no useful purpose, should be eliminated.
Our Borders - I believe that the
United States Military
should be protecting our borders. I am
against individuals taking matters into their own hands with vigilante
type
policing. They do not have the authority
or ability to tackle this situation.
Propositions
- I believe that if the PEOPLE of California vote for a
proposition, all of the elected officials of the state must respect and
enforce
the outcome of that election. To repeal
any proposition, it must only be done by another election by the PEOPLE. No elected official(s) should have the
authority
to override the voice of the people. Whether
or not they agree with the PEOPLE,
politicians are elected to
represent the PEOPLE, not campaign donors, not special interest groups,
and not
themselves. The PEOPLE have more power
collectively, than any one person, company, or politician in our
country. The courts should only be called
upon to
determine whether the proposition is constitutional. Taxation
- I think California's
Executive and Legislative Branches of Government are completely out of
control
when it comes to taxing and spending. Some
social programs need to be eliminated or
at the very least cut
back. The government cannot provide
everything
for everybody. People need to live
within their means and so does our state and country.
If the PEOPLE want improved infrastructure
within our state, then we will have to raise taxes to accomplish this. We cannot increase spending without increasing
tax revenues. Remember, the government
does not have any money of its own. The
government only has the money that it collects by taxing us. We can
reduce our
taxes only by cuts in spending.
The next time someone says: "The Government
should provide
me with....” Have them rephrase the
statement to say: "My family,
friends, neighbors, and co-workers should provide me with...” This is the reality of who pays the bills
that our politicians create. Politicians
don't seem to realize, or maybe they just don't care, who pays for
their
outlandish spending. Politicians can
promise the People everything, because they don't foot the bill. I
would like to see some realistic figures on a flat rate
tax (fixed percentage), based upon our current individual tax returns
to see
how feasible and / or cost saving it could be.
There are too many people who
are fed up with the current
political situation in our state and country. The
consensus seems to be, why should I vote,
nothing's going to
change. Young adults are not registering
to vote because they've heard nothing but bitching and complaining from
their
parents that our politicians aren't in touch with the people's opinions
or
desires. Registered voters are not
voting because they're tired of politics as usual.
I don't know how any politician can think
that they won an election when less than 50 % of the registered voters
actually
voted in an election. This seems to be a
silent protest. No one can hear silence,
people!! You have a choice to make
between politicians that accept individual campaign donations and
special
interest money, those that spend millions of their own money, and
someone that
will not accept campaign contributions or special interest money. The
choice is
yours. Make a difference this election;
choose the candidate that will best represent you AND your fellow
Californians. Voice your opinion at the
polls! Scream of your disapproval of
politics as usual with the voice of your vote!!!
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