An Open Letter

This is an open letter to my friends, family, and neighbors across LD26.  You may be scratching your head wondering why I would pick RIGHT NOW to run for a legislative office.  After all, it is an erratic political climate and society is on the very edge of the next technology based industrial revolution. 

We are standing on one of those peak historical points in our collective timeline. I have to tell you that I feel compelled to join with others in securing Arizona’s stability for the long run.  It’s like a bell I can’t unring.  I feel called to put it frankly.  

Most of you know I am a futurist.  You have often heard me describe the ways I see the state changing.   Ways that preserve our traditions, lifestyles, cultures, diversity and economic evolution while still providing the room to grow and advance.   It will take timing but we have to begin now so that we jump into this next era ahead of the curve, competitive and prepared. 

But you can’t think about the future without considering our state’s past and all it has triumphed over. When my great grandfather Jesus Maria Inez Enríquez Madril arrived from Sahuaripa Mexico as an unaccompanied teen he did so at a time when our nation was likewise on the precipice of an Industrial Revolution. He arrived in this Wild West territory just as it was about to be tamed, terraformed and prepared for the booming American State it would become.  

This is the marvel of humanity.  I wonder if he could see the buildings I see, the roads and highways, homes and businesses that would one day stand on the ground he was farming. To my great grandchildren, I want you to know I see it.  I see how it will become and I am prepared to fight to help shape it. 

In a polarized political climate of left and right we need people who think on fast forward and act for tomorrow. We need people looking for solutions to create stability and offer true independence and opportunity to Arizonas.  

We need schools that compete. Shaping a whole future generation’s economic growth. It has never been more apparent than now that this is the time to transform education. This is how we ensure that thousands will not become redundant as times change going forward.  

School choice had allowed thousands of AZ students and families to play to their strengths, their natural talents, interests, and their passions. 

It defies One Size Fits All.

I am thinking about Isabella, my now teenage daughter, and her anger, confusion and fear as she became aware at the start of middle school that she was different from her peers. 

I think about the Melmeds Center diagnosis of autism and how I knew that if I could get her to the right educators who understood her mind that she could learn and thrive on par with her peers.  

I remember my relief and gratitude when I discovered Arizona Autism Charter school was free to the public and space was available.  

I watched her blossom there, growing in her own time, and her own way in an environment that never left her behind.  

She participated in Special Olympic sports, made close friends, skipped a grade in school and was growing and thriving in leaps and bounds. 

Now she is a confident high schooler on her journey to adulthood and I can say proudly that she is going to be a success at whatever she sets her mind to. 

This was all possible because some legislators felt it was the right of families to choose and tailor make an education for their children.  Had someone not come forward with this bold change it would have been a very different future for her.  I felt I finally had a partner with the state in my children’s education.  

I want to expand this opportunity further to help more families like mine. 

There is so much to do. So much to prepare for.  We need to make the ability to earn a livable wage possible for all. We need lasting sustainable solutions for preventing student debt. Every single city and town needs affordable housing. People must have real, sound employment opportunities that provide economy-proof barriers and stable business growth.  Tough, and strong willed protection of our national resources and economic markets from parasitic business practices and development. The compassion to address the crisis at the border. Bravery to enact laws that greatly hinder and put a stop to abuses of cartels, international criminal organizations and terrorists.  Real, long lasting, safe, secure solutions for the growing mental and physical health needs of the more vulnerable Arizonans. The courage to properly consider the core problem of displacement, addiction, bureaucratic apathy and hopelessness which is  churning out hundreds of people onto our streets. 

You know how much of a hard headed, hard worker I am.  I cannot put my fate into the hands of people content with maintaining the basic poor functionality of our dysfunctional present and then patting themselves on the back.  

They throw stats and data as if to gaslight the reality that we are actually living in. I don’t want someone who “understands” I want someone who KNOWS and since that real knowledge isn’t there in the House, I will put it there. 

My family earns 100 thousand a year and we are living paycheck to paycheck even without debt and with dependents.  I have only three digits in my bank account to last this month.  We are everyday at the mercy of what life chooses to challenge us with that day.  How do you explain having a salary like that and still going without food in order to make it stretch so that you can keep the car running and the lights on?  

Our legislators can’t explain it, they only intellectually understand the issues.  They say the economy under Biden is the best it has ever been.  I am glad they are not suffering but it doesn’t make their sentiment true.  I offer a working understanding and an empathy that is sincere because I am going through it as well.  We need representation and someone who understands how very real and very uncertain life is on this level of our society. 

So if I am this desperate that I am willing to open my whole life up for scrutiny in order for the opportunity to fight to save my family, friends and myself then I am the only one determined enough to fight for yours as well. 

As I mentioned there are so many things to do.  Too many to list in this little letter but I am addicted to solutions because I am in so much need of them myself.  

Solutions require the willingness to negotiate for or create them and yes that does include crossing aisles. 

While I am naturally conservative it is important to remember I was Libertarian long before I became a Republican.  Part of my libertarian roots demand that I be willing to step outside the expectations for answers.  I believe in the sovereignty and independence of each person to determine their destiny here, and that the role of a limited government is to provide the security to do that.  

I will leave this letter for now, but it is important to me that you understand why I have set out on this journey, my motivation and what I hope to safeguard and create.  

I am grateful for the support I have received so far.  This legislative district is a forgotten place full of people I am determined should have control of their own lives, prosperity and family free from dependency and uncertainty.  You should be represented by someone who acutely knows what your needs are and where the solutions can be found.  Incumbents will be quick to defend the status quo by touting legislation that never touched your actual life or livelihood but instead benefited some faceless number. All just drops in a bucket with a hole. 

I am not an eloquent speaker. But I am honest and forthcoming.  I am seeking to do something sincere for the service of my fellow Arizonans despite party politics as I thumb my nose at the political agenda wars. 

Dad was a Special Forces Captain,  Green Beret, Airborne Ranger, jungle expert, helicopter pilot and the bravest man I ever knew and he told me “go on three no matter what.” So here we go,1…..2…..3