Tonight I had the pleasure of hearing Senator Jason Atkinson speak at Testimonies, a small Christian bookstore & coffee shop in Eugene. This store normally closes at 6:00p, so it was great of them to host the coffee for Jason.
The group started out small (we got there early so's to get a good seat) but by the time Jason began speaking all the chairs were taken and several people were standing to hear him. A couple of other Atkinson bloggers (Gullyborg of Resistance is Futile & Cherrill of Oregon Conservative), Bob Avery (chairman of the Lane County Republican party), Kaye Ridley (president of the Republican Women of Central Lane) were able to attend. Heck ... even KEZI Channel 9 News sent someone to listen ... 'course, the woman seemed to be holding back a smirk or look of disdain the entire time. If she leans to the right, she was certainly successful in not showing it ... or maybe she had gas ... whatever ... [update: the "bit" on the news was worthless ... got to see pictures of the candidate but didn't hear a word 'cause they decided it would be better to give us squirrel chatter rather than actually let the voters know what he thinks ... sigh ... ]
Anyway, after taking a bit of sustenance from three of the four food groups (a.k.a. a sip from his cup 'o Joe ... the fourth food group apparently has something to do with sugar and deep frying ... hmmm ... deep-fried sugar ... mmmmm k ... ) Jason took up the microphone and began to speak. He spoke earnestly, with sincerity, humility and passion, about the challenges he's faced in his time campaigning for office and serving the Oregon public ... being out-funded, re-districted, his son's health problems ... he talked about struggling with trying to decide to run for governor and the encouragement and pleas he's gotten from average citizens like you and me not to give up and to "please be my governor" ... about the challenges he's faced during this run ... the time away from his family, lack of sleep ... heck, the constantly rising costs of gas alone must be eating him alive (help fill Jason's campaign gas tank here).
In a nutshell ... Jason doesn't want to "be" governor for the power and prestige that come with the office. He wants to *serve* as governor to give the power back to the citizens of our state and to give the respect back to them as well. He wants to force the legislature to put its collective money where its collective mouth is and back up their claims of "it's all for the children" by passing the school budget in the first 60 days of the legislative session ... when we see that happen, we'll know Oregon politicians finally mean what they say (as for me, I'm tired of hearing this claim 'cause I've never seen evidence of it ... after all, Jason's try to get Jessica's Law passed through during the previous regular legislative got killed by the Democrats ... it took firm resolve during a special session to actually get Democrats - yep, those same ones who supposedly stick up for the helpless ... yeah, right - to get the bill passed just recently).
Senator Atkinson didn't talk in brief, vague sound bites. He didn't mince words, and he didn't shy away from questions. He addressed his stance on illegal immigration directly. He does not support amnesty in any way, but rather he wants to make sure that people who are here illegally don't get rewarded for their unlawful behavior by receiving Oregon driver's licenses. He gave the example of a truck that was recently stopped at a weigh station carrying onions to market (or whatever) and the truck's three occupants ... all had the same driver's license. No, they weren't sharing one license ... they each had a *copy* of the same license with the same name, birth date, address, description, etc. (How much do you want to bet they weren't detained for deportation?)
Senator Atkinson wants to be sure that illegal aliens don't get taxpayer-funded benefits like free health care from the Oregon Health Plan. These services, and others like them, rightly should go to Oregon citizens .. you know ... the ones who are *legal* residents. Illegal aliens' access to these services drains the funds that should be available to *citizens*.
Senator Atkinson wants to make sure that illegal aliens don't get offered services from State agencies (such as those offered during the frequent "Carnivals of Information" hosted by the Mexican consulate and staffed by Oregon State agencies such as the Employment Division, Department of Human Services, etc., complete with information printed in the obligatory Spanish language version.)
While he can't deny children of illegal aliens the right to attend school (nope, it's true ... federal law forbids it and all that ... not that Ron Saxton [who's a lawyer, mind you] seems to know that), Senator Atkinson plans to do all he can to keep them from being rewarded for breaking immigration laws (I'm sorry, no matter how noble their intentions may be, they still broke our laws) and to get them sent home, no matter what country that may be. (You may not be aware of this, but illegal aliens don't *just* come from Mexico ... can you say Al Quaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon???)
Guest worker program? He's not for one if it results in amnesty (no matter what you might have heard on Lars Larson's radio program). However, he's for the old-fashioned kind of guest worker program that was in place some 45 years ago ... back then a "guest worker" could come to the US to work, but he/she could not bring the family along, could only he here for a specified length of time, and when that time was up, the worker had to go home. I can live with that. Like Senator Atkinson, I'm not against immigration itself ... but what I'm for is legal immigration.
Another thing that I really appreciated was Jason's attitude about "funding by crisis", as many state agencies currently operate. He wants state agencies to be accountable and let taxpayers know how their dollars are actually being spent instead of watching helplessly while legislators continue to fund one agency after another as they cry wolf over one "crisis" after another.
One gentleman who came to check out the candidate's stances asked how he would approach the making of laws and how he viewed the role of government. On the role of government, the answer was simple: "Limited. Limited. Limited.", adding that the growth of government should never exceed the growth of the private sector and income levels of the citizenry.
On how to decide if an issue required government to step in and pass a law to deal with it, he quoted a long-time supporter's three-point check list:
1. Is the regulation of the issue within the role of government?
2. How would the regulation of it be funded?
3. How would it be properly administered?
All this said, however, the thing that best described the evening to me was what my husband said on the way home. When I asked him what he thought of Jason and his positions on the issues brought up. He said, "I didn't get that slimy feeling." When I asked him if it was compared to Kevin Mannix and Ron Saxton, he said, "No. I generally get that feeling from *all* politicians ... they're slick and polished and I don't trust 'em. I didn't get that feeling with Jason Atkinson." That says it all. This is a candidate who can actually connect with people, one who can win the hearts of the voters and give them the respect they deserve by actually serving them and their best interest, decided *by the voters*. Even if it's not something he fully agrees with ... he believes the citizens have a right to have their votes on a given issue respected. People are changing their party affiliations to be able to vote for Senator Atkinson in the primary because they want him to be able to run against our miserable excuse for a current governor. People don't switch party affiliations on a whim...it takes a lot for someone to switch sides.
Do yourself a favor and check out his website. Read the 15 Reasons to Vote for Jason Atkinson. Don't try to feel your way through the primary election (only 20 days away as of today), but rather *think* long and hard about the direction our state is going and who can best lead us back to the right path for *all* of our citizens (not just those that want to re-engineer our society to what they think is best for us). If you're not currently a Republican, it's too close to the primary to switch parties ... but Senator Atkinson is a good example of a great reason to jump to the right side of the aisle.
Hey, excellent description!
Almost like being there. Great job!
One of the huge problems with government is that they decide to fix a problem, and so they create an agency - and those bureaucrats run along under the radar, in many cases with an agenda to "re-engineer our society". And while governors have the power to make changes, they seldom do. And so the agencies take on a lifestyle of their own.
I believe that Senator Atkinson will act in an unprecedented manner in regard to this issue, when we vote to give him the power to do so.
Ted hasn't, Hill and Sorenson won't, Mannix and Saxton won't.
There are times when ya gotta go with youth and vigor - and this is one of those times.
MAX
Posted by: Jay H8 | Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 05:00 PM
Thanks, Max. I was a bit concerned that I rambled too much .. it was really late when I finished the post, not wanting to forget anything...it was after midnight when I finally got to bed.
I'm with you on the creating agencies bit ... those in government who want to change our society can't get what they want through regular channels, so they propose a "program". These programs are always larger than they need to be, rarely effective for very long, if at all, and are almost never self-sustaining, which means the "proles" have to keep funding the stupid thing into perpetuity ... and probably with PERS thrown in for good measure. Just once I'd like to see a new program that comes with ways to make money without ripping off the citizenry, that does what it was meant to do ... and then *closes its doors*!!!
Posted by: HMIL | Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 07:03 PM