With the political situation that’s going on now, people are not looking at the needs of a lot of people. When you look at the situations in Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Boston, and Wisconsin, people aren’t really trying to think of other people. They are just thinking of their own thought process. It’s disturbing to me that they think that looters now are justified in doing what they’re doing to recap some of the things that they’ve lost. That doesn’t make sense. Why do you steal from somebody else because you may have lost. What’s happening is very difficult for me to understand.
I was a democrat and I am a republican now. From my side of it, I lived in a very democratic area. For you to get a job in that area, you had to be the correct party affiliation. At that time in life, you don’t know what the politics of that is. As I got older, and saw what was transforming in our area, and what the needs of my family were, it made me change. What I saw within the democratic party is that it was a party that wanted to help all of the poor and take away from the wealthy. It was a party that had their own special interests, not necessarily the interests of what the country wanted, but their own personal interests.
If I look at Donald Trump, there were 16 people, I believe, who ran for President when he ran. As far as I was concerned he was number 16. In the years that he’s been there, he’s done a number of things that have benefitted, not only me as a businessman, but I think a lot of other people, if they would really look at it. Republicans aren’t people that are necessarily rich, but it takes business people to be able to provide jobs for other people. A lot of regulations that are held by the democrats really hold us back. The republican party seemed better and it fit our needs for what we were doing as business owners. I’m 83 and I go to work every day. I enjoy it. It’s probably what keeps me very young. I feel that to do work and be involved is rewarding.
ABORTION
I think life begins at conception and that little one deserves a chance to be born.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
Every adult can do whatever they feel they need to do. When were talking about children, I am very opposed to a child being raised by two of the same sex. I don’t think you’d find a version of the Bible that says that’s acceptable. You’ve got two people, two ladies, or two guys, and that’s their thing. I don’t think children should be involved in what their decisions are there.
As far as care - no matter whether they’re trans or anything like that, healthcare is for everybody. It’s not really anybody’s business what your personal thoughts are. If they need care, whatever it might be, I think they deserve that. I think that needs to be given to them.
RACIAL MOVEMENTS
All lives matter. I think there are too many people who are involved in the Black Lives Matter movement who are doing it for personal benefit. If you’re protesting, which is totally legal and important, and I agree with it, there doesn’t have to be all the rioting and all the other things involved. You’ve got an opinion. You can voice your opinion. I’m totally against what’s happening because that they’re putting a lot of "Mom and Pop” businesses out of business. Nobody feels safe going into the areas.
A lot of things that are happening with different statues being torn down and hopefully we learn from that and improve on it. It’s part of our history. It’s how we got from there to here. When people are reaching that far back it doesn’t make sense.
If it’s unequal and people don’t think that they can get ahead, for whatever reason, whether if they’re not being treated fairly, there are many, many highways in this country. Find a place that you’re comfortable with. I grew up for part of my life in Providence, Rhode Island, and one of my best friends was a black kid. I could never get him to go into my house. As many times as I invited him, he just would not do that. I could never understand that. I don’t understand people now that feel that they are being thought of wrongly because they are black or whatever they may be. There are so many places in this great country of ours to go to and have the life that you want to live.
CLIMATE CHANGE
I would like to have it a little cooler but I don’t think that would work. I went through the outdoor era and I’m still going through that. Everybody would like to have a green environment and do that type of thing. There are so many people that make their livelihood based on oil or gas, not necessarily through solar energy. I think all that has to be taken care of. We have scientists and very intelligent people and we can work together on this. If you’re living in the Southwest, the Southeast corner is all oil and gas. Oil is down tremendously, and when you go to fill up with gas, it hurts us tremendously down here, school districts and everything. It hurts our revenues to be able to provide education for kids. I think we have to learn to live together with this.
VOTING
As a voter, the most important things to me are jobs, growth, and removing a lot of the stringent restrictions that have been put on businesses and the economy. We’re a small business amd we believe in having a living wage, but it’s hard. We do everything on contracts, with school districts and that. If we bid a contract and we cannot bid it to where we can be able to pay those wages and get a contract, then it’s very, very difficult for us.
