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Mississippi State House of Representatives District 77

I am the No Nonsense conservative business owner just got out spent and out worked and lost an election for Mississippi state House of Representatives district 77.  Logic tells me that I should permantly give up politics, but I am not always logical.  Sometimes I answer what I believe is a calling from God.  Even after losing that race I still have the heart to serve.  I believe this loss has prepared me to serve in a different office and if I get some support and money lined up behind me, I will get back into the game.  I am not a well financed pick of the establishment.  I am not a well polished professional politician.  I am just a small business owner who sees what goes on and knows that things have to change.

I attended Hinds JR. College, Mississippi State University and Solono College but the education that is deepest within me are the lessons I learned from my father while helping him do chores. My father was just an ordinary poor factory worker but his wisdom far exceded his formal education.  My father and grandfather were both deacons.  My grandmother was a Sunday School teacher.  My mother was a Sunday School teacher and the church pianist.  My family taught me from childhood how to behave in church.  They not only taught me how to behave in church but in grocery stores, at the dinner table and every where else.  Learning behavior is important for children but the most important thing my family taught me was scripture.  They made sure that I knew that salvation comes from Jesus.  Now I teach Sunday school and am an ordained deacon.

The world extends far beyond our little church, our little dinner table and even the theories in college text books.  There came a time when I needed to understand the evil that exists all around the world, so I joined the US Air Force.  I served from June 1980 until November 2004.  Most of my service time was with the Mississippi Air National Guard but there was a lot of active duty time too.  Most of my service was as an air cargo specialist.  I transported men and materiel to dangerous places all over the world but never landed in a war zone. If you want to understand our nation and its place in the world, take part in defending it.

While serving at Travis AFB in the San Fransisco Bay Area, I got involved with a local Southern Baptist Church.  While servig in that church I meet my wife Jade and her son Dennis.  We formed a family of our own and returned to Mississippi.  Soon after getting home we started our own little Mom and Pop retail store in Magee, MS.  We started our business small then expanded it.  We were not recruited to Magee and no government beurocrat built our business for us.  We did our own research and found a group of customers who demanded a product that we knew we could supply.

Running a small retail store has taught me many things that will come in handy while serving as a state legislator county supervisor or wherever God leads.  I have to deal with wholesalers and importers. I have to deal with shoplifters who try to steal illegally and with tax agents who steal legally.  I have to deal with lawyers who threaten to sue and with beurocrats who tell me that government is trying to help.  I have to deal with customers at the front door, delivery men at the back door, repairmen on the roof and a landlord who wants the lease paid on time.  I have to deal with bankers who give me business advice from a book and with customers who cannot count their own change.  Now I am ready to deal with a bunch of fellow politicians who are more interested in getting elected again and again than in doing right, but I am also ready to team with the few who really want to do it right.  

I am a JERK

I was born a poor white child in Mississippi.  Steve Martin never did do a movie about me, but there were some things in my upbringing that did turn me into a jerk.

My family was very poor but I never knew it.  We wore hand me down clothes but that was normal for my community.  We worked very hard in the garden so we never went with out food.  Our house was small but it was home.  I did once overhear my father's friend tell him that he could qualify for food stamps.  My father said that he knew that but would have to use them in a county where nobody knows him.

We did not stay in poverty but worked our way out of it.  My father knew that if he accepted government aid it would become a poverty trap.  I am now a small business owner which means that I am not filthy rich but my wife and I eat well.   Now I see people all around me who tasted the forbidden fruit of government subsidy and have become trapped.  I behave toward those slaves in a very compassionate way but my bluntness can sometimes cause me to be seen as a jerk.

I lived in just one house growing up but attended 3 different schools.  Government was involved in the public school system trying to fix some things that really did need fixing, but also causing more problems.  I got jerked into different schools because of the gerrymandered zones.  Families in my school zones with resources sent their kids to privite schools where they got a better education than my brother and me.  I have compassion for students who are trapped in government schools but when I try to speak about the problems, I get called a jerk. 

When I was a little kid I stole a candy bar once.  My father explained stealing to me in the only way an 8 year old kid can understand, and I never stole another candy bar.  He did not just stop at the quick results of getting caught but followed up with lessons about respecting other people and their hard earned possessions.  Now when I see kids and adults whose fathers never taught them respect for anything, that really turns me into a jerk.

Everyday I read in newspapers about corruption caused by jerks who were elected by jerks and that causes me to be a jerk.  I am trying my best to calm down and approach problems in a logical way.  I have learned to appear reasonable and at times even humorous, but deep inside I am still a jerk. 

People Have Been Asking Me Questions

I did not campaign hard in my last run for state legislator.  I put up a few home made paper signs.  I showed up at a single debate.  I ran ads in a few newpapers.  I built this website and my facebook page. Other than that I basically just sat it out. 

In a previous run 3 years ago, I showed up at campaign events, did media interviews and knocked on a lot of doors.  There are certain questions people tend to ask me often.  Sometimes I get things like "do you like my shoes?"  One lady asked me what I will do to her X husband if I get elected.  Among the serious questions, the number one is what I intend to accomplish if elected.  My answer is that I intend to accomplish absolutely nothing.  I will not only accomplish nothing, but will get in the way of all the other politicians who are trying to accomplish things.  Government already does way too much.  Most politicians try to create problems just so they can be seen trying to solve them.  I would consider myself to be very sucessful at any elected post if I never got a single bill passed but blocked a bunch of crap from getting passed.

I did some rethinking about that answer.  There might actually be a few things I would try to accomplish.  I would listen to anybody who brings a problem to me and asks for help.  I will certainly never do personal favors for anybody because I owe nobody and am not depending on machines and establishment connections to get elected.  If someone can explain in a logical way why something would be a good thing for the state, county, district or a portion of the district and if that thing does not waste tax money or infringe on our liberties, I would use the power of my office to get it done.  Just do not ask for personal favors because I will not do it.    

People often ask me if I know how to use the power of the office.  They assume that the main power of any political office comes from being somebody's yes man in return of favors.  They know that I would never use that power.  That is not the only power of office.  Once I get the reputation for blocking crap, I will have my own set of yes men.  As soon as I get elected, I know that I will suddenly have a buch of new friends that I had never known before.  They will want me to stop blocking their favorite bacon and some will be willing to deal.  There are also certain procedural tricks that even freshmen can pull, even if they are not a member of a committee.  You might be suprised at how much I can get done by being in the way.      

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