Scott Rosenow, the first declared candidate for Mayor of Neenah in 2010, permitted me to share this with you as it currently resides on his Facebook page and only Facebook users can read it. It's his first statement of his reasons for running for Mayor:
Let me start by explaining what aren’t reasons I’m running for mayor of Neenah. My campaign is not for my personal ambitions; the ego stroke; the cushy, overpaid job; the prestige; the name recognition; nor is it for the short-sighted goal of actually getting elected.
First, I am running to provide the people of Neenah a choice. No offense to any other candidates, but people are forced to vote for the “lesser of two evils” in almost every election. My candidacy will provide an alternative to the false dilemma of the two-ideology system.
Second, I am running to help inform the public, partially because our public schools are failing. Sure, this area’s ACT scores are higher than the national average, but teaching for the test does not build critical-thinking skills—it promotes pointless busy work and the ability to parrot whatever the teacher said.
The constant erosion of individual liberty and the ever-growing dependence on the state have me particularly concerned. I was only required to take one government course at Neenah High School, and we learned almost nothing about the U.S. Constitution. It’s no wonder that public debate centers on whether Congress should pass a bill, not whether Congress has the constitutional authority.
Nobody I’ve talked to has ever known that juries can acquit a guilty defendant for breaking a law they feel is unjust. Judges can legally lie to juries, saying the juries must convict the defendant if thought to be guilty. This is false. A jury is not required to follow the judge’s instructions, and it cannot be punished for its verdict. Why does seemingly nobody know this? We shouldn’t have to be told by Russia that we are headed for disaster because our public education system is failing.
I have never smoked anything first-hand. My view that marijuana should be legalized should not be construed to mean that I advocate its use—it means what it says, that people should not be fined or jailed for using pot. Alcohol had to be prohibited by a constitutional amendment because Congress has no authority to outlaw it, so how could Congress outlaw pot by federal law? How did the U.S. Supreme Court rule in Gonzales v. Raich (2005) that Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce…among the several States” gives Congress the power to pass a law against growing pot for one’s own use, which is neither among the states nor commerce? This over-reaching power could allow Congress to outlaw any home garden, as then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote.
Pot is as easy for a high-schooler to get as alcohol. Pot sellers have no disincentive to sell to minors because they’ll get in trouble regardless of to whom they sell. Restricting pot use to adults would thus shield more minors from pot. As reported on “The O’Reilly Factor” (yes, I’m not a liberal), 40.3 percent of Americans have tried pot as opposed to 22.6 percent of Dutch, and pot is much less restricted in the Netherlands.
Also, how does allowing the state to charge your child with a felony for possessing a small amount of pot protect your child? Legalizing pot would allow its content to be government-regulated, end its violent black market and all its ills, save tax dollars wasted on the police-judicial complex, save prison space (1/4 to 1/3 of all prisoners are non-violent drug offenders) and generate tax revenue (the cigarette tax is Wisconsin’s third-highest tax-revenue generator).
I support personal responsibility and individual liberty, and their logical conclusions of being opposed to the paternalistic nanny state that tells adults to buckle up and not smoke pot. I don’t understand the appeal of the smoking/drinking culture, but I understand that it’s special to many people. Just as I don’t want others telling me to live how they like to live, I won’t be on my high horse telling others to live a straight-laced life like mine.
I earned political science and philosophy departmental awards in 2008 at UW-Fox Valley, a 3.96 g.p.a. after five semesters and 73 credits there, and a 4.0 at UW-Oshkosh after one semester and 16 credits there. To anyone who prejudged me to be a dumb pot-smoker, it’s time for self-reflection.
Lastly, we shouldn’t be pitted in camps of smokers/drinkers vs. non-smokers/drinkers. It’s us vs. the government. A violation of one person’s liberty is a threat to everyone’s. Change in the U.S. is evolutionary, not revolutionary, and it starts at the grassroots level. Let’s make some good change.