Deb Shafto On The Death Penalty

Once again I turn to the only progressive candidate in the Texas governor's race this year -- Deb Shafto of the Green Party.   I have already posted about Ms. Shafto's views on the economy, education, immigration and drugs.   Today, I present (in her own words) the views of Deb Shafto on the Death Penalty (which we use far too often here in the Lone Star State):

"Probably the most emphasized principle in all religions is that you should not kill. The contradictions in advocating killing a killer are too obvious to belabor. Case after case of the misapplication of justice, the “oops, too late” understanding of innocence after execution, the refusal to examine new evidence, the closing of the judge’s office early the day of the execution, and so on should be enough to make the procedure off limits forever.

It is well known that virtually all prisoners except for those confined for minor offenses, have been subject to childhood trauma and abuse. Why are we treating these victims as though they are something other than our fellow human beings? The common rationale, that it is a deterrent to crime, has been proven wrong statistically and by looking at our fair state of Texas where we execute more people than most nations. Has our crime rate dropped? Are we in anyway closer to a more lawful society than other states? Clearly capital punishment is not any answer to crime, and in fact, statistics show violent crime spikes after each execution.

What is seldom considered in this discussion is what the effect of these executions is on the population as a whole. I believe that we degrade ourselves with each and every execution. We become a people who violate their stated principles, who turn their back on those who most need help. However we try to distance ourselves from the taking of a life, we are responsible for it and in our hearts we know it. Nor is it the case that execution brings satisfaction or closure to victims or their families. Having realized this, many now travel the land to tell their stories to help other victims find peace and forgiveness and to end the cycle of violence.

As governor, I will commute every death sentence to life in prison."

Deb Shafto On Drugs

Texas has a wide range of candidates in the governor's race this year.   There is a libertarian who wants virtually no government, two corporate conservatives who want to maintain the status quo, and a progressive who wants to make government work for ordinary citizens.   Unfortunately, only the two corporate conservatives have a chance to be elected, because the media has convinced voters that a vote for any party except the Republicans and Democrats is a wasted vote.

I normally vote Democratic (and will vote for all down-ballot Democrats this year), but I just can't bring myself to vote for a corporate conservative multi-millionaire oil company executive like Bill White (the Democratic candidate for governor).   So I am supporting (and will vote for) the Green Party candidate -- Deb Shafto (pictured above).   I will not only be able to proudly cast my vote for a real progressive, but hopefully my vote will help the Green Party to get on the ballot next time without having to resort to passing around a petition for signatures.

I have already presented on this blog Ms. Shafto's positions on the economy, immigration and education.   Today I give you, in her own words, her position on drugs.

"There will probably always be those who commit crimes of passion, people whose emotions are so constricted that they feel it necessary to act out in ways society cannot accept. It has been our habit to treat such unfortunates with further cruelty, and sometimes even kill them. Experiments that treat with an aim to rehabilitate have found recidivism rates less than half of our conventional, be-mean-to-’em traditions. It works, there is no other answer.

Most of our non-white collar crime is caused by our country’s insatiable craving for drugs. The border warfare is about nothing else. We should have learned our lesson in the prohibition era, where the Mafia grew to such strength that we have been unable to stop them. Drug cartels now have navies and bring hard drugs into this country by submarine. In some Latin American countries, the drug lords have stronger forces that are better equipped than the governments themselves do.

When are we going to stop playing this deadly game? Let us standardize marijuana, tax it and sell it over the counter to adults. Admittedly, it is not good for you, but it is far less of a poison, far less toxic than alcohol. Hard drugs should be sold by prescription. Easy! The doctor says you can have it, you can have it and can have it at a cost that doesn’t require you to mug people to get your fix. In countries that use this “medical model” addicts remain employed, are not subject to jail time and commit fewer crimes."

Deb Shafto On Immigration

Since I cannot bring myself to support a big business conservative for governor, and both the Democratic and Republican candidates fit that description to a tee, I am supporting the only true progressive running for governor this year -- Deb Shafto of the Green Party.   I have already posted her views on the economy and education.   Today I give you my third in a series of posts about Ms. Shafto's views on the issues.   Here in her own words is her position on immigration:

A highly charged subject where the real issues are hidden and the stands taken are seldom for the reasons given. We are barraged with half truths and outright lies about those coming to our land. The facts are that our Spanish speaking immigrants come with little and create markets for every sort of goods and services. They are brought here to labor under conditions that citizens would not tolerate, to produce goods and services at a price that average citizens can afford to pay. They take jobs that others will not and essentially keep this society moving. Their children are motivated learners, respectful to school authorities and supported by parents who, for the most part, well understand the value of an education and try their best to help their children succeed.

The immigrant community has a lower crime rate than the population as a whole. The undocumented are not able to file tax returns so all taxes withheld, all sales taxes paid, add substantially to the public coffers, far more than the cost of services provided.

I believe that we need to recognize the cause of massive immigration has to do with the world domination of U.S. business and the corruption of governments almost everywhere by those businesses and by our government that supports their work. The third world was, indeed, created by first world greed. In country after country, the mineral, oil and agricultural wealth has been appropriated by mostly U.S. corporations with payoffs to the few in control, the oligarchy and little or nothing accruing to the people who live there. Loans to the population have been stolen by the aristocracy who abscond leaving the people to repay the banks. NAFTA has been as devastating to the economies of our southern neighbors as it has to the workers in the US. Who benefitted? US corporations. Many, perhaps even a majority, have walked and waded to our shores because the only way to feed their families was to find some work in the US. What have we become that their children’s hunger means nothing to us?

The free flow of capital is defended by the US Congress, why not the free flow of labor? What makes sense is the issuance of work permits which can be the first step toward citizenship after, say, a year of self support with no legal problems. It is important to remember that it is those with initiative and ambition who take the risks to come. Are they not the ones we want?

I fully support immigration reform that allows full integration into our society for those who have already established productive lives here.

Deb Shafto On Education

The Green Party's candidate for governor in the 2010 Texas election is retired school teacher Deb Shafto of Houston.   She is also the only real progressive in the race.   All the other candidates, including the Democratic candidate, are conservatives or libertarians.

As a supporter of Ms. Shafto, I have said I will present her views on the issues here on this blog.   This is the second in that series of posts.   Today, I present her view on education in her own words:

I am a licensed elementary school teacher, and have taught Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten for many years. It was my field of interest for many years before that. My ideas about education come from what I learned as a teacher, not as a student learning about teaching. First and foremost, we need to take a new look at how children learn naturally and to create learning environments that enhance rather than contradict the natural learning ability we were all born with.

Children develop their various skills at different times and in different ways. They do not all walk at the same age, but they all learn to walk. Some talk before they walk but most walk first. This certainly tells us nothing about their future development and yet we use age as the sole criterion for starting school and for advancing, like a car on an assembly line, ready or not. We need to honor their differences and stop trying to mold them. They are not cars.

Testing is a business model, a factory model that may produce quality goods, but it is damaging to the learning process. A legitimate use of it is a teacher testing to be sure that the objectives she wanted to teach were heard and learned. Good testing will tell her what she needs to do next. The results are for the teacher. Standardized testing is generally geared to ranking students and for most the effect of the ranking is to feel like you are a failure. The best grade in the class is to be envied and the rest are left to feel not as good as, and most are not good enough. Enormous resources are spent on pre-test materials and on the testing itself. We spend over half of the year preparing for final testing. All this effort primarily discourages most students. Our drop-out rate is staggering, our ratings nationally are second to last, we have high school graduation rates of 52% and college graduation rates of 15%. When will we become aware that what we are doing doesn’t work and more of it won’t work any better?

We must, immediately re-think the whole system. What is it we want to do for our children, and what is it that they need from us to succeed? How do they learn best and what will it take to provide such a system for them? What do our children need from their parents and from their teachers? Certainly teachers of algebra need certain skills, and teachers of history have to have an understanding of what happened and why. Subject area knowledge is important, but not all important. Most of us have had a teacher who, because she made us feel loved, seen and understood has influenced the course of our lives. Many of us chose a field because of one like that. That skill, never measured, may be the most important aspect of one chosen to guide our youngsters and should be searched for and valued even more than advanced degrees.

We need to provide a physical environment that is supportive and not waste resources on administrative overhead. The superintendent has a large plush office and the children have no hot water to wash their hands, even in winter. Our priorities are skewed, and we need to realign them. Principals should be the lead teachers, frequently in the classrooms, helping and guiding, using their skill and experience to care for difficult children in difficult situations. Principals are, in fact, out of the building frequently, in meetings almost half of the time. It appears that these meetings serve primarily to justify an overabundance of middle management. While I have had some principals who should not have been elevated, most were hard working and straining to do their jobs even better. Time, not tutelage by middle management was what was needed. No amount of tutelage would have helped the few that shouldn’t have made the grade.

Above all, we must be kind to our children as they are tender and easily bruised.

Deb Shafto On The Economy

In this year's race for the governorship of Texas, there is only one real progressive running for the office. Both of the major party candidates are self-professed conservatives (of the Big Business variety). The progressive is Deb Shafto, who is running on the Green Party ticket. After introducing Ms. Shafto a few days ago on this blog, I said I would be posting about her stand on the issues. This is the first of those posts. Here is what Deb Shafto thinks about our current economical situation (in her own words):

We have been led to believe that the recession is almost over. Not to worry! However, all the evidence points to the contrary. I do not like being the bearer of bad news, however, all the indications are that we have just begun to feel the pain, and it appears that those in charge, those that are supposed to understand the system don’t have a clue and if they found one, would not act on it. Pretty harsh words, but let’s take a look at what is needed and what should be done.

It is clear that Wall Street is having a grand time. They have arranged scams, convinced others to invest in them and taken the money and run. This financial mess is in a good part due to the repeal of legislation segregating financial institutions and regulating what they can do. The cure, surely, is to reinstate Glass-Steagall and the other regulations that were put in place to prevent the sort of collapse that has occurred.

While I do believe it was the Republicans who were primarily responsible for the set-up, the Democrats now have a majority in both houses. They claim they must be filibuster-proof, a super majority that they have now lost through attrition. It would have been a very good deal to have Republican members of Congress rise to filibuster single payer health care and the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, a truly informative proceeding for the voting public.

In addition to the necessary changes above, there are fundamental flaws in our financial system that cannot and will not be repaired by the insiders in charge. In our capitalistic system, businesses must grow or they are overwhelmed and eaten by their competitors. This planet and its resources will not allow for continued growth. The constant demand for ever more energy has raised our global temperature and, if continued, may well cause climate change such that we cannot survive. We are now seeing formerly peaceful nations make wars over access to what may soon be scarce resources. In fact those wars take the money we need for health care, retirement income, decent, well funded schools, money for space exploration, college tuition and more.

The model of finance capital is not a true model, but an apologia for what the greedy want to do. The myth of “Market Forces” is trotted out to support all kinds of programs that benefit the already rich, but is not given a mention where it doesn’t fit. Union membership, for instance, has created a middle class, a good life for people who must earn a paycheck. Their good salaries create a demand for goods and services which fuels production. So far so good, but capitalist economics calls unions a “market constraint” and seeks to have labor paid only enough to allow them to live to work.

As they have succeeded in depressing working people’s income, they have hoarded money into the top of the heap where it creates no jobs, creates no demand for goods and services and serves to inflate the value of corporate paper, making it vulnerable to the kind of collapse we have just seen. These so-called experts cannot and will not see beyond their own greed, and they will continue to voluntarily blindfold themselves until they pull down this house of cards leaving chaos behind.

So, what’s to do? First, let us build community feelings and relationships within our neighborhoods. Let us find places in our midst to grow food and prepare communal dinners. Let us care for our neighbors in community like family. Let us support workers in factories where good products are being made but not with the profit margins the holders of the capital want. There is a movement to have the workers take over, buy out, democratically run and produce goods without the weight of huge executive salaries. There are people in this country who are making a living (not getting rich) by showing employees how to do this. Let us produce locally, buy locally, and re-cycle locally. This contracted economics has always been portrayed as a step down, somehow negative, and deprived.

I truly believe that the loving, sharing with and caring for friends and neighbors offers a truly rich life that cannot be matched by the acquisition of a larger TV, or a more expensive pair of sneakers. I truly believe that competitive acquisition of goods cannot compare to a life of service to family and others.

Introducing Deb Shafto

If you've read this blog for long then you know that I don't vote for Republicans. Just like my father and grandfather, I have never voted for a Republican in my life and I expect when my life is over that could still be said about me. I certainly wouldn't mar that record by voting for a right-wing nut like Rick Perry.

But that doesn't mean I have to vote for whatever candidate the Democrats put up. I have seen some Democrats that are just not worth voting for. They are normally called "blue dog" Democrats -- politicians who run as Democrats but vote like Republicans. After seeing what these blue dog Democrats did to oppose and weaken the health care bill and the Wall Street re-regulation bill this year, there is simply no way I could vote for one of them -- not even for dogcatcher.

This has presented me with a bit of a dilemma in this year's governor's race because the Democrats have nominated one of those blue dogs to run for governor -- Bill White, a multi-millionaire, an energy company (oil) executive and admitted conservative. Some of my Democratic friends have told me that I should vote for him because "he's better than Rick Perry." Frankly, a wet dishrag is better than Rick Perry but that doesn't mean it would make a good governor.

While Blue Dog Bill White may not mouth the silly right-wing platitudes of Rick Perry, I have a hard time believing his conservative views will let him run the state any better. The ordinary citizens of Texas are going to be out of luck no matter which of those two men gets elected. This has left me searching for a candidate with truly progressive views -- a candidate who would govern for the good of all Texans and not just the rich corporate interests.

Fortunately, there is such a candidate on this year's ballot -- the Green Party candidate. Her name is Deb Shafto (pictured), and today I declare that she has my endorsement and my vote (although I will be supporting and voting for Democrats in all the down-ballot positions). Ms. Shafto is a true progressive who believes in peace, economic justice, equality, and fairness in our legal system.

Now I know there will be those who tell me that Deb Shafto doesn't have a chance to be elected governor, and that may well be true. It really doesn't matter. In giving my vote and support to Ms. Shafto, I am trying to accomplish two things. The first is to help insure the Green Party is assured of a place on the Texas ballot in 2012 without having to resort to another petition campaign. The second is to be able to leave the voting booth with a clear conscience about the people I voted for.

In following days, I will be posting about Ms. Shafto's views and the issues she feels are important. But today, I just wanted to introduce you to her. I can think of no better way to tell you just who Deb Shafto is than by letting her tell you in her own words. She says:

"I was born in New Hampshire, raised in Brattleboro, Vt, graduated high school in Ashburnham, Mass. and moved to New York City. I worked for Blue Cross, got married, sold insurance, had my son, worked as a waitress, worked for a moving and storage company, got divorced.

I bought and ran my own company for 10 years. I worked for a treatment facility for disturbed adolescents, operated a group home for them then moved to Texas. I worked as a union organizer, married again, went to college, got involved with a local HISD school, went back to college for a Masters of Education and taught school. I retired last year.

So, I understand how it is to be a single parent, how it is to put children through college, how it is to run a small business and put in 12 to 15 hours a day. I know what it is like to do hard physical labor and how you feel at the end of a hard day. I know how it is to deal with difficult people and what sometimes terrible difficulties they face. I know what it is like to be a cog in a large machine, and I know what it is like to have the buck stop at your desk, to be the one responsible for what happens next. I also know that teaching is demanding, rewarding, critically important, grossly underpaid and over regulated by those whose knowledge is limited to their own experiences when they went to school.

I have two great families, mine and my husband’s. We have 4 children, 7 grand children. We have a new dog, 3 inside cats, 4 outside cats and innumerable birds who seem to like our cat food even more than the cats do. We have a pond in the back yard which we regularly stock with goldfish. The neighborhood raccoons seem to be grateful."