1.
What distinguishes you from your opponents?
I have not accepted any campaign contributions from any
source. My campaign has been financed from my paycheck. I
have no obligations to the special interest money that both
the democrats and republicans courted and accepted. Nor do I
have a party line to tow. I am only beholding to the people
of North Carolina.
Another important difference is I am a working North
Carolinian with children in NC public schools. I know what
it is like to work only to see our taxes continue to rise,
our living expenses soar and our paychecks seem to cover
less all the time. The democrats and republicans are of the
millionaire class and are insulated from the daily struggles
of life. We don't need people who are out of touch in
Washington. We need someone who knows firsthand what today's
world is like for the average citizen. This is what our
Founding Fathers envisaged.
2. How long have you been involved in politics?
Do you remember the first time you voted?
This is my first foray into public politics. I first voted
in 1975-1976
3. What is the greatest challenge of public
service?
Actually getting to be a public servant is the greatest
challenge. The electoral system is set up to favor the
two party system. There are many barriers to keep
independents and third parties out. Just getting on the
ballot in NC as an independent requires 98,000 petition
signatures plus 30% for the standard rejection rate. Then
there's the money. Moneyed special interests have pumped
millions to their selected candidates. Independent
candidates usually don't have the access to anywhere near
the funding of the two parties. The facts seem to indicate
the candidate who spends the most wins most of the time.
4. What is the most important issue facing the
State of North Carolina?
Many of the people I spoke with while petitioning said JOBS
is the number one issue. North Carolina has lost hundreds of
thousands of jobs to trade agreements like NAFTA. The
pending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is likened to
NAFTA on steroids and will cause an even greater loss to NC.
We need to stop entering agreements that cost NC and America
jobs. Most of today's jobs are created in small businesses.
This is where we need to be investing. We must stop giving
hundreds of millions of dollars to big businesses that take
our tax dollars, lay off workers and move jobs to foreign
countries. An aggressive investing program in small
businesses is what is needed. We need to provide
workers with meaningful employment that pays a living wage
and do this in a way that small businesses can thrive. It
will require cooperation and creativity from all involved in
the process.
5. What advice would you give someone thinking
of running for public office?
Jump in with both feet! Learn as much as you can from people
with differing opinions and apply what you learn. Don't let
the naysayer dissuade you. Believe in your self and your
values.
6. What was your first car?
A blue 1962 Corvair Monza four door. True basic
transportation. (Bought it before I read or even heard of
"Unsafe at Any Speed")
7. What was your favorite subject in High
School?
Biology and Chemistry
8. How did you become involved in the
Independent movement?
Don't know if I'd say I'm involved in a movement. I went
looking for a candidate who shared my values and beliefs and
couldn't find him or her. I thought someone needs to do
something about the poor choice of candidates. The
democrats and republicans are essentially the same
philosophically, just different names attached to the party.
Our government is now a government of Big Business, for Big
Business and by Big Business and in the absence of an
established candidate who would stand up to them; I choose
to become the voice of the citizens and entered the race.
9. What is your favorite snack?
Popcorn, An unusual question for a political interview, but
I like popcorn. The non-GMO kind please.
10. Will the U.S. invade Iraq by December 2002?
Should they invade?
I hope not. But given the fervor of Mr. Bush's rhetoric I
don't see how he cannot and save face with the world.
I do not feel we should invade Iraq. This is the opening
salvo in the establishment of a new world order for the
Middle East as envisioned by the US Oil industry and backed
by their allies Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney in Washington. An
invasion could possibly start World War Three and certainly
violates the UN articles, which we as a nation agreed to.
This is a horrific example of the US military being used to
further corporate world order and greed.
11. If you were in the U.S. Senate today, what would
be your first bill to sponsor?
I actually have two I would start with.
(1) Public financing of elections. We must remove the
corrupting influence of money from our election process.
This would include spending limits, term limits (two for
senators and three for house members), and change the FCC
rules to allow generous air time for candidates.
(2) American Universal Healthcare. We're the only
industrialized nation without a national health care system.
We can improve on the European and Canadian versions to
create a truly effective and efficient health care system
that provides care for all of our citizens. Our current
system of private insurance only insures the healthiest of
people. There are 43 million Americans without health
insurance and hundred of millions more who have insurance
they cannot afford to use. Everyone deserves proper health
care.
12. Why should the citizens of the State of North Carolina
elect you on Nov. 5th, 2002?
I believe I am the best US Senate candidate. I have one goal
and purpose and that is to represent the best interest of
the people of North Carolina. Unlike others, I am not
beholding to corporate and special interest money. I have no
party agenda to place above the interests of the people. I
will be a public servant, standing up for the rights and
interests of all the people of North Carolina.
13. How do you improve the current Healthcare system
in America? What type of legislation would you support?
To improve US health care I believe we should create an
American Universal Healthcare System. The system would
provide all Americans with health care regardless of
employment, age, income, or prior medical condition. It
would cover all standard medical procedures, diagnosis,
treatment as well as dental care, mental health, medication,
chronic and terminal illness.
I will support the creation of this system with appropriate
legislation.
14. How do you improve education in North Carolina and
throughout the United States?
We need to completely overhaul our educational system.
Throwing more money at the problems as they arise and
providing Band-Aid fixes to it will no longer work. The
first step is to take an honest critical look at our current
system. Identify what we do well and areas where we need to
improve. A study published in the early nineties showed we
spend the most on education, yet we were ranked sixteenth in
the world. That means fifteen other countries are doing a
better job educating their young people. Let's take a look
at what they do better and incorporate what's appropriate
into our education system. Model what works and stop
reinventing the educational wheel. We could take a lesson
from Japanese industry on this. The Japanese analyzed the US
Auto and Electronic industries, figured out how to improve
it and implemented what they found out. The results are
electronic and auto history. I'm suggesting we take a
similar strategy in education. We tend to discount things
that are not invented here in the US, we nee
We don't need to change the entire system at once. We
formulate our best ideas and implement them in
representative school systems, then refine the process to
maximize student success.
15. What are three current legislative
bills in the U.S. Senate that you support and why?
It's September 19, and as of today I don't know three
current bills in the senate I support. Most debate seems to
be about giving the president more power and control. This
is something I am opposed to. Fast Track Trade Promotion
Authority and now the ability to disregard workers rights,
large sums of money to be used at the president's whim, may
seem like good ideas to some, but the potential for abuse is
too great.
16. What is your view on the recent Enron
debacle? Will the new federal law be effective?
The Enron debacle was the result of prolonged undermining of
regulatory laws to prevent such an occurrence. This is what
the government does when it's run by Big Business and
special interests. They make laws that protect and enhance
profit and the capacity for greed, while sacrificing the
public good.
The reduction of oversight was touted by government and
business as the most effective way to make US companies
competitive globally. We how have proof that
ineffective oversight by committed government regulators
leads to massive corruption and greed. Enron, Worldcom,
Tyco, Anderson and a host of others have been cited for
falsifying accounting records often in collusion with
auditors and regulators. It's the average citizens, those
who trusted their life's saving and futures to these
companies that have and will pay the dearest cost.
The New federal law, I predict will be ineffective. It seems
to lack the teeth to force compliance. I'd also be willing
to bet that close scrutiny will reveal enough loopholes to
allow business as usual.
17. Can you elaborate on your "10
Values" and Quality Life Statement?
The Quality of life statement reflects, what I hope, is a
growing trend in measuring the quality of life not by how
much we consume, but how we interact we other people, our
communities and the natural world.
The ten key values are a set of beliefs that allow us to
live together, as diverse as the people of the world are, in
harmony with each other and the natural environment. They
look to the future. What legacies are we to leave our
children, grandchildren and generations yet unborn. They
speak to our stewardship of the planet and its people.
I have include the Ten Key Values and quality of life
statement below so they may read in there entirety.
Future Focus and Sustainability
Our actions and policies should be motivated by
long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural
resources, safety disposing of or "unmaking" all
waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics
that does not depend on continual expansion for survival.
We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by
assuring that economic development, new technologies, and
fiscal policies are responsible to the future generations
who will inherit the results of our actions
Personal and Global Responsibility
We encourage individuals to act to improve their
personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance
ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with
people and organizations around the world to foster peace,
economic justice, and the health of the planet.
Respect for Diversity
We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic,
racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to
promote the development of respectful relationships across
these lines. We believe that the many diverse elements of
society should be reflected in our organizations and
decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of
people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership
roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life
forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.
Women's Rights
We have inherited a social system based on male
domination of politics and economics. We call for the
replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control
with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect
differences of opinion and gender. Human values such
as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility,
and honesty must be developed with moral conscience.
We should remember that the process that determines our
decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the
outcome we want.
Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice
We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and
sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and
provided a decent standard of living for all people while
maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful
economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity,
while paying a "living wage" which reflects the
real value of a persons work.
Local communities must look to economic development that
assures protection of the environment and workers' rights;
broad citizens participation in planning; and enhancement of
our "quality of life." We support
independently owned and operated companies which are
socially responsible, as well as cooperatives and public
enterprises that distribute resources and control to more
people through democratic participation.
Decentralization
Centralization of wealth and power contributes to
social and economic injustice, environmental destruction and
militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of
social, political and economic institutions away from a
system, which is controlled by and mostly benefits the
powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system.
Decision-making should as much as possible remain at the
individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights
are protected for all citizens.
Nonviolence
It is essential that we develop effective
alternatives to society's current patterns of violence.
We will work to demilitarize, eliminate weapons of mass
destruction, without being naive about the intentions of
other governments or factions.
We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of
other who are in helpless situations. We promote
nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with
which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting
personal, community and global peace.
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
All persons should have the rights and opportunity to
benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society
and the environment. We must consciously confront in
ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers
such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia,
ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and
equal justice under the law.
Ecological Wisdom
Human societies must operate with the understanding
that we are part of nature, not separate from nature.
We must maintain an ecological balance and live
within the ecological and resource limits of our communities
and our planet. We support a sustainable society,
which utilizes resources in such a way that future
generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices
of our generation. To this end we must practice
agriculture, which replenishes the soil; move to an energy
efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the
integrity of natural systems.
Grass root Democracy
Every human being deserves a say in the decisions
that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of
another. Therefore, we will work to increase public
participation at every level of government and to ensure
that our public representatives are fully accountable to the
people who elect them. We will also work to create new
types of political organizations, which expand the process
of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in
the decision-making process
Quality of Life
Our overall goal is not merely to survive, but to
share lives that are truly worth living. We believe the
quality of our individual lives is enriched by the quality
of all of our lives. We encourage everyone to see the
dignity and intrinsic worth in all of life, and to take the
time to understand and appreciate themselves, their
community and the magnificent beauty of this world.
Paul
DeLaney
Interview:
Paul DeLaney (Write-in) for U.S.
Senate in North Carolina