Just say no.

A few years ago, a group of teenagers, (one of whom is near and dear to my heart), decided that as a Halloween prank, they would smash a mailbox. Not being criminal masterminds, they were quickly apprehended, and dealt with appropriatley.

Besides being grounded, they were required to purchase and install a new mailbox, apologize to the victim, and, for what was probably the most heinous portion of the punishment, they had to listen to one of my lectures. The gist of that speech was simply that all of their trouble could have been avoided if just one of them would have taken the lead and said "No, this is wrong." and stuck to his guns.

I believed it then, and I believe it now. That's one of the reasons I'm running for the Indiana House of Representatives. When I look at some of the bills that have been passed in recent years, I have to believe that things would have turned out differently if a few legislators would have said "no", because it was the right thing to say.

Last year with Daylight Savings Time, and this year with Major Moves, a lot of our elected officials voted party lines, despite their own misgivings and against the wishes of their constituency. A local Republican stated that 80% of the people in his district were opposed to DST, but he voted for it anyway, just please his leaders.

Imagine having a few Libertarians in the statehouse. While the Republicans and Democrats worry about keeping their party leaders happy, we could support any bill that moved towards lowering taxes and lessening government, and oppose any bill that didn't, from either side of the aisle.

Hey, we might even occasionally get the chance to say "yes".