Alex Shantz is a former member of the St. Helena Unified School District Board of Trustees. He resigned on Nov. 16.

I’ve devoted most of my young adult life to challenging structures of oppression while defending those whom American culture has marginalized and abandoned. This political passion traces back to my own experiences in high school. I was a freshman during the first anniversary of 9/11. During this time, our nation’s leaders called for national unity in the wake of tragedy, and I witnessed, within my own high school microcosm, the worst of humanity.

I heard my peers calling for carpet-bombing Muslims in Middle Eastern countries. I saw students divide themselves along racial lines, whites against brown students, during Physical Education free play time. I felt physical objects and homophobic slurs hurled at me while changing in the boys locker room. Those who claimed to be the most enthusiastic lovers of America’s foundational freedoms were among the most vicious opponents to free speech. [Read More…]

Arizona vote counters keep finding more ballots that were stuffed under mattresses. My “final vote count” for US Senate in Arizona has increased again to 134,127 votes, or 5.5% in a race against Democratic US Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, and John McCain, the former Republican presidential nominee who likes to use your taxes to buy bombs and guns for heart-eating cannibal terrorists.

This is the highest percentage of votes cast for a Green Party candidate for US Senate in the nation this year, on a zero dollar campaign budget.

Unfortunately, I think the not so hidden reality behind the good showing of Green Party candidates in Arizona this year is a byproduct of a recent candidate suppression law that effectively [Read More…]