choices
Through the stampede of voters to perceived, least-bad, "electable" candidates, to candidates pushed by dominant political parties and powerful, narrowly-selfish-interested special interests, deceived, manipulated and "shrewd" Gainesville voters now have a choice between "the lesser of evils:" out-of-touch, incumbent mayor Craig Lowe and polito-tainment talk show co-host, Ed Braddy.
One of these men will become the next mayor of Gainesville.
mayor, City Of Gainesville, Florida
current alcohol abuser arrested for drunk driving March 21,2013 http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130321/articles/130329900?tc=ar |
Craig Lowe
|
Ed Braddy
|
politio-tainment talk show co-host, Talk Of the Town, WBXY-FM The Star 99.5 FM
test administrator, Santa Fe College Executive Director, the American Dream Coalition reformed alcohol abuser arrested for drunk driving January 26, 2006 http://www.gainesville.com/article/20060126/NEWS/60126006?tc=ar |
edited dashboard camera video
of parts of the sobriety testing and the arrest of Craig Lowe March 21, 2013, starting at 4:29 a.m. and ending at 4:56 a.m. Lowe's failed line walk test begins at 6:27 of the video. Officers take him into custody immediately afterward. |
Impaired driving is among the most irresponsible
and avoidable things that a person could do.
An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.
(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)
About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence of alcohol are repeat offenders.
(Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.)
(Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.)
50 to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license.
(Peck, R.C., Wilson, R. J., and Sutton, L. 1995. “Driver license strategies for controlling the persistent DUI offender, Strategies for Dealing with the intent Drinking Driver.” Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Circular No. 437. Washington, D.C. National Research Council: 48-49 and Beck, KH, et al. “Effects of Ignition Interlock License Restrictions on Drivers with Multiple Alcohol Offenses: A Randomized Trial in Maryland.” American Journal of Public Health, 89 vol. 11 (1999): 1696-1700.)
(Peck, R.C., Wilson, R. J., and Sutton, L. 1995. “Driver license strategies for controlling the persistent DUI offender, Strategies for Dealing with the intent Drinking Driver.” Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Circular No. 437. Washington, D.C. National Research Council: 48-49 and Beck, KH, et al. “Effects of Ignition Interlock License Restrictions on Drivers with Multiple Alcohol Offenses: A Randomized Trial in Maryland.” American Journal of Public Health, 89 vol. 11 (1999): 1696-1700.)
Drunk driving costs the United States $132 billion a year.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2010
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2010
Drunk driving costs each adult in this country almost $500 per year.
(Taylor, et al 2002) Full cite: Taylor, Dexter; Miller, Ted; and Cox, Kenya. "Impaired Driving in the United States Cost Fact Sheets." Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002.
(Taylor, et al 2002) Full cite: Taylor, Dexter; Miller, Ted; and Cox, Kenya. "Impaired Driving in the United States Cost Fact Sheets." Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002.
One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
In 2010, 211 children were killed in drunk driving crashes. Out of those 211 deaths, 131 (62 percent) were riding with the drunk driver.
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2010: Alcohol Impaired Driving” Washington DC:National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2011.)
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2010: Alcohol Impaired Driving” Washington DC:National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2011.)
Irresponsibility is a bad character trait for a leader.
To humbly seek and get help with problems that vex a person is a good thing, and we all should encourage people to do so. People can and do change, and we all should encourage them to do so. That Ed Braddy has found help and found God is great. That Craig Lowe has been slow to acknowledge his impaired driving offenses and to truly take responsibility for them is bad. (See my ADDRESS to the City Commission of March 21, 2013 on impaired driving and the reputations of our mayor and city and ADDRESS to the City Commission of April 4, 2013 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to be mayor.)
However, Gainesville voters had much better choices in candidates than these two men in the mayoral race in the general election of March 19, 2013. Peter Johnson or I would have been a good mayor.
Craig Lowe has a record as mayor of habitually failing to engage citizens and regard critical information, failing to heed warnings of substantial, credible threats to our city and failing to respond to desperate cries for help from our suffering citizens.
Ed Braddy has a record as a commissioner, as a polito-tainer, as a leader of a conservative "ideology tank" and as a candidate of dismissing science and credible studies, of reducing complex issues to political quips and of opposing planning and regulations critical to protecting our environment and the safety, health and moral welfare of our citizens.
From the local to the national levels, our country desperately needs good civic leaders: humble, conscientious, honest, engaged, committed, truth-seeking, studied, thoughtful, creative, articulate, energetic, fiscally responsible, collaborative and morally courageous men and women.
To get the quality of leadership that our country needs, voters must not allow themselves to be deceived and manipulated by duplicitous candidates; by dominant political parties; by heavily financed campaigns; by political action committees; by powerful, narrowly-selfish-interested special interests with their overly simplified and inflammatory advertisements, mailings and robocalls. They must not be swayed by distorted corporate media coverage. They must resist equating "electability" with affiliations with dominant political parties and entrenched cadres of politicos and with amounts of campaign funding raised.
Instead of being deceived and manipulated, voters should support and vote for quality candidates--of any or no political party--and those candidates will become "electable."
For now in the mayoral runoff election, vote for the "lesser of evils" as your judgement dictates. While both candidates have many positive qualities and have done many positive things for their families and for our city, either candidate would be a high-maintenance leader who would require constant oversight, guidance and correction by citizens. Therefore, remain informed and engaged in our local governance.
As a longtime observer and citizen participant in the governance of the City Of Gainesville and as a candidate for mayor in the campaign for the March 19, 2013 Gainesville general election, I have had the opportunities to get to know candidates Braddy and Lowe and their perspectives and intentions better than most citizens of Gainesville. Therefore, I feel a civic responsibility to share with my fellow Gainesville citizens my views on those candidates in the runoff election for mayor.
Open, public discussions of public policies, fiscal responsibility and accountability, responsive governance and an eagerness for aggressive corrective action on the biomass power purchase agreement and aggressive remedial action on the Cabot-Koppers site are most lacking in our City Commission right now. Craig Lowe has been a part of the commission that has failed in those areas. For whatever reasons, our current city commissioners--except Commissioner Chase--and mayor rarely question or challenge one another or acknowledge or accept well founded suggestions and criticisms of the policies of the commission or answer legitimate questions about those policies. They could be avoiding addressing matters that the majority has accepted because they may be trying to be respectful or deferential toward their fellow commission members or to be "team players."
Ed Braddy would liberalize (humor intended for that "conservative" candidate) public comment rules for city commission meetings. He would regard some well founded criticisms and answer some legitimate questions of citizens. He would raise many questions and concerns of his own. He would push for fiscal responsibility, including adequate repair and maintenance of infrastructure. In doing these things he would break the anti-democratic, unhealthy, lazy, costly and hazardous groupthink and defensive thinking of our current city commission. We would have more healthy discussion of issues than we have had. The majority on our city commission and the majority of our citizens could easily overrule any attempts by Ed Braddy as our mayor to subvert our reasonable environmental protection, planning and construction policies and regulations and our timely investment in efficient public transit and public conservation and recreation spaces.
Therefore, I painfully choose to vote for Ed Braddy in the runoff election on April 16 and recommend that other voters do likewise. I also commit myself to monitoring and advising the city commission on policies regardless of who will become our next mayor and strongly encourage other voters to do likewise.
To humbly seek and get help with problems that vex a person is a good thing, and we all should encourage people to do so. People can and do change, and we all should encourage them to do so. That Ed Braddy has found help and found God is great. That Craig Lowe has been slow to acknowledge his impaired driving offenses and to truly take responsibility for them is bad. (See my ADDRESS to the City Commission of March 21, 2013 on impaired driving and the reputations of our mayor and city and ADDRESS to the City Commission of April 4, 2013 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to be mayor.)
However, Gainesville voters had much better choices in candidates than these two men in the mayoral race in the general election of March 19, 2013. Peter Johnson or I would have been a good mayor.
Craig Lowe has a record as mayor of habitually failing to engage citizens and regard critical information, failing to heed warnings of substantial, credible threats to our city and failing to respond to desperate cries for help from our suffering citizens.
Ed Braddy has a record as a commissioner, as a polito-tainer, as a leader of a conservative "ideology tank" and as a candidate of dismissing science and credible studies, of reducing complex issues to political quips and of opposing planning and regulations critical to protecting our environment and the safety, health and moral welfare of our citizens.
From the local to the national levels, our country desperately needs good civic leaders: humble, conscientious, honest, engaged, committed, truth-seeking, studied, thoughtful, creative, articulate, energetic, fiscally responsible, collaborative and morally courageous men and women.
To get the quality of leadership that our country needs, voters must not allow themselves to be deceived and manipulated by duplicitous candidates; by dominant political parties; by heavily financed campaigns; by political action committees; by powerful, narrowly-selfish-interested special interests with their overly simplified and inflammatory advertisements, mailings and robocalls. They must not be swayed by distorted corporate media coverage. They must resist equating "electability" with affiliations with dominant political parties and entrenched cadres of politicos and with amounts of campaign funding raised.
Instead of being deceived and manipulated, voters should support and vote for quality candidates--of any or no political party--and those candidates will become "electable."
For now in the mayoral runoff election, vote for the "lesser of evils" as your judgement dictates. While both candidates have many positive qualities and have done many positive things for their families and for our city, either candidate would be a high-maintenance leader who would require constant oversight, guidance and correction by citizens. Therefore, remain informed and engaged in our local governance.
As a longtime observer and citizen participant in the governance of the City Of Gainesville and as a candidate for mayor in the campaign for the March 19, 2013 Gainesville general election, I have had the opportunities to get to know candidates Braddy and Lowe and their perspectives and intentions better than most citizens of Gainesville. Therefore, I feel a civic responsibility to share with my fellow Gainesville citizens my views on those candidates in the runoff election for mayor.
Open, public discussions of public policies, fiscal responsibility and accountability, responsive governance and an eagerness for aggressive corrective action on the biomass power purchase agreement and aggressive remedial action on the Cabot-Koppers site are most lacking in our City Commission right now. Craig Lowe has been a part of the commission that has failed in those areas. For whatever reasons, our current city commissioners--except Commissioner Chase--and mayor rarely question or challenge one another or acknowledge or accept well founded suggestions and criticisms of the policies of the commission or answer legitimate questions about those policies. They could be avoiding addressing matters that the majority has accepted because they may be trying to be respectful or deferential toward their fellow commission members or to be "team players."
Ed Braddy would liberalize (humor intended for that "conservative" candidate) public comment rules for city commission meetings. He would regard some well founded criticisms and answer some legitimate questions of citizens. He would raise many questions and concerns of his own. He would push for fiscal responsibility, including adequate repair and maintenance of infrastructure. In doing these things he would break the anti-democratic, unhealthy, lazy, costly and hazardous groupthink and defensive thinking of our current city commission. We would have more healthy discussion of issues than we have had. The majority on our city commission and the majority of our citizens could easily overrule any attempts by Ed Braddy as our mayor to subvert our reasonable environmental protection, planning and construction policies and regulations and our timely investment in efficient public transit and public conservation and recreation spaces.
Therefore, I painfully choose to vote for Ed Braddy in the runoff election on April 16 and recommend that other voters do likewise. I also commit myself to monitoring and advising the city commission on policies regardless of who will become our next mayor and strongly encourage other voters to do likewise.