Saturday, July 24, 2010

Vote for me.

I'm diagnosed with autism and I attended the special needs school district when I was a child. So there are issues which I look at through a prism of one with a disability:

*I'm a strong supporter of public transportation. I supported Proposition A, the County's halve cent sales tax to restore and improve metro services. Furthermore, I support trolley systems and Bus Rapid Transit. Metro services are vitally important for people to get to work and go to school and can't drive.

*When I attended school my parents were involved and I benefited form their involvement. I don't think parental involvement is talked about enough. Without parental involvement, it's going to be hard to make improvements to the metropolitan schools. That being said, I support any educational alternative that will benefit a child in educational advancement.
I'm proud to announce that Citizens for Educational Freedom has me down as in favor of school choice for all parents. I believe all schools, public, private, and charter schools, should be held accountable.
When there is a shortfall in funding, I will support increase in funding. That is why I ask all city voters to vote yes on Prop. S, a school bond to improve the schools.

*While this issue is not exclusively effect people with disabilities, we are effected. I believe we need to make it easier for people to vote: this will include but not limited to making ballots in languages other than English, a voter ID law that does not disenfranchise voters and allowing people to voter absentee without requiring them to get a the absentee ballot notarized.

I invite you to the ADA 20 Anniversary at the History Museum is Forest Park. I will be there.

One more thing, I am the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, who is on record in support of legalizing medical marijuana.
So Ask for a Republican Ballot and voter for Me on August 3rd.

I write for the examiner. So subscribe to me.
Please email me at damienherr@yahoo.com if you have more questions.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Stop the credit chects.

On March 29th of this year, Oregon Governor signed a law that prohibit employers from doing credit checks on job applicants. Now Oregon residence have an easier time getting a job. Supporters point out that well qualified applicants could have bad credit history.
Opponents argue that credit history can indicate whether or not the applicant is financial responsible, have good judgment, or risk abusing drugs or gambling. Lets dissect this argument.
1. It’s hard to be financial responsible if you’re out of work. Employing people makes them financially responsible. Moreover, to say that bad credit indicates bad decision really without knowing whether the circumstances what gave the applicant a bad credit score is wrong.
2. So you didn’t use your coupons when you went to the store, that makes you unqualified to work? I think we need to be careful before we make judgment against people.
I think Missouri and the whole nation should prohibit employers from doing credit checks. As state representative, not only I would introduce a bill to ban credit checks, but I would include in the bill the option to opt out of paying taxes until all old dept is paid back to collectors. This would not only make it easier to pay the money back, but it should increase the employees credit.

I also writer for the St. Louis Examiner.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

I want to legalize marijuana

I want to legalize marijuana because the status quo is too costly for tax payers and unjust to civilians.
In the state of Missouri, cuts are being made to programs support people, like education. I understand that Missouri can't spend money we don't have, but maybe cuts could be made in other places instead, like the criminal justice system.
Currently, there is a city wide ballet initiative to decriminalize marijuana in the St. Louis city. Under the proposal, if caught with 35 grams of less with marijuana, a user would not get arrested for it, but could be fined. The benefit of this is we are not wasting tax payers' dollars filling up jails over marijuana.
Another proposal is to legalize medical marijuana. This benefits patients who need to use it without the fear of going to prison. While is saves tax payers dollars, it does not save as much as if we legalize marijuana.
If marijuana would were to be legalize, Missouri as well as the rest of the nation would not only save money, but earn money form the taxes collected. Legalizing marijuana would reduce people from being criminalized for nonviolent and non-disruptive crimes. That is why the NAACP endorsed legalizing marijuana.