Austin Women's Political Caucus
Candidate Questionnaire 2006
1. Do you support the following issues? Please circle yes or no for each.
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Full and equal participation of women in all aspects of
political, economic, and social life?
Yes. I support a "co-ed" society to the extent that individual women
strive for and earn positions that lead to these kinds of "equal"
participation.
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The Equal Rights Amendment?
No. To my knowledge, this amendment is unnecessary. As long as
government representatives and officials do their jobs properly,
women presently have the same protection under the law that men
have.
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A woman's right to choose, without restrictions on this right,
to have a safe and legal abortion?
No. Although I am generally a "pro-abortionist", there is one
extremely special exception to my advocacy of this option. If a
couple mutually consented to the conception of a child, AND they
then conceived a child, AND the man wants the child - even though
the woman doesn't any longer - then the woman would be in BREACH of
CONTRACT if she were to unilaterally abort the child. (I'm assuming
no health or safety issues here!) I believe that she should, in
such a rare and unusual case, be obliged to carry the child to term,
and then give up the child to her mate/husband/ex-husband (?) while
also and obviously giving up any further legal obligations to care
for the child or support the child financially.
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Affordable, accessible childcare?
Yes. I am, of course for this, but only to the extent that the
free market provides this ... as in any other industry. I support
this just as I support "affordable and accessible" shoes, bread,
computers, automobiles, power tools, and skiing vacations. When
government does its fundamental job of protecting rights and
executing the laws of the land, then we, the people, benefit by
being participants in and of the most amazing wealth producing
machine in the history of the world: the Free Market. Of course,
this does NOT mean that products are guaranteed to exist, and, if
they do exist, this does NOT mean that they are guaranteed to be
purchasable at such and such minimum price. It DOES mean that any
products that do exist are guaranteed to be the best possible
selection, produced at the overall average lowest cost, and
utilizing the resources at hand in the most efficient possible
manner. It is possible that, even in these circumstances, some
women - and/or men - would not be able to afford childcare. In
those unfortunate cases, I would hope that families, friends,
neighbors, perhaps churches would pitch in to help.
2. Please share examples that support your position on one or
more issues listed in question #1?
See my detailed responses (above).
3. Describe one of your accomplishments that you feel made an
impact in the lives of women.
This item is border-line insulting. "Impact" is a pretty general
word. Do you mean positive or negative impact? Do you mean ... did I
stop a rape from occurring - that is the rape of a woman or a girl? Did I
hire a woman when she wasn't quite as able and qualified as a man for the job?
Do girls count as women? [I have been an elementary teacher for 17
years.] Does giving the hundreds of girls I have taught the SAME
treatment I gave the hundreds of boys that I have taught count? Does
proposing to my wife count? Does being a co-parent and mate count?
Does being a good son to my mother count?
4. Please elaborate on any community involvement that
demonstrates the issues that are most important to you.
Running for office (and responding to opportunities such as this)
demonstrates which issues are most important to me. Helping my fellow
citizens - men and women - see how misconceptions regarding political
philosophy and, thus, governmental policy can lead us down a
restrictive and costly path is very important. I am here to offer
better, quicker, less costly, more just ways to handle some of our
societal problems. Although I believe we live in a wonderful country,
a great state, and a near paradisaical city/county, I see lots of
problems that could be dealt with better than is presently being done
by our existing government representatives and leaders. I'm ready to
help improve the already good lifestyles that most of us enjoy.
5. What would you suggest to increase the number of women in
political office at the local and state level?
I am not interested in increasing the number of women in political
office JUST to see these numbers increased. I am interested in
increasing the numbers of representatives (of either gender) who
objectively consider the Constitutions (of Texas and the USA) and who
vow to hold themselves to legislating within these contexts. This
means that I would (and do!) actively foster anybody who understands
the sanctity and priority of individual rights toward becoming active
in politics - at whatever level.
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