The Liberty Union candidate for lt.governor

My name is Ben Mitchell, and I am the Liberty Union candidate for lieutenant governor in the state of Vermont. My basic platform is to take control of our state resources back into the hands of the people.

The framers of the Constitution were quite careful to build systems to prevent any individual or small group of oligarchs from gaining too much power -- checks and balances -- but now the billionaires -- less than .001 percent of the population -- can pick the winners and losers in our elections. Even the supposedly "public radio" has moved to silence any voice but the well-vetted, well-financed voices of finance and energy.

The change Ben Mitchell wants to make is:

1. Free the money: We need to end the stranglehold of the financial sector on the global economy. Vermont needs a state owned credit union to provide financing to small business. As for the thieves who wrecked the economy, any outstanding private loan for which the interest and fees exceeded the principal will be null and void. There is a very real moral hazard in letting all the brokerages, banks and insurance companies walk away with all that money.

2. Free the sick: Take insurance out of medicine. We should triple the number of students admitted to Vermont medical schools. We pay for their education, and in return they work for the state for five years after the residency. The health insurance industry is a form of extortion. Why are the greedy few entitled to a percentage of all our health care expenditures?

3. Socialized energy: We need solar panels and windmills on every building. Energy is too important to leave to the fallacy of the "free market." They are killing our planet. They talk about "cheap" energy, but they forget to account for the costs of climate change, the cost of cleaning up after all the disasters. Take Vermont Yankee by eminent domain.

4. Free the pot heads: Vermont should be the Amsterdam of the U.S. It is good for farms and would solve many financial problems of the state. Medical marijuana misses the point. Prohibition doesn’t work.

5. Build a sustainable local economy: Many in Vermonters support the effort to eat local foods, buy local products and shop in locally owned stores. It is time for the state to recognize the intelligence of this approach and join in with all of its resources. When the global corporate distribution network which is so clearly unsustainable comes to a grinding halt, all we will have is what we can grow and make ourselves. Lets invest in this real, local economy.

6. Money out of elections: I support the Buddy Roemer plan in which each voter has a $50 voucher to be allocated to the candidates of his or her choice. Furthermore, I believe that individuals or corporations who try to buy the election should be incarcerated. If corporations are people they should be incarcerated. Corporations are the one place I would support the death penalty. Chief Justice Roberts is the most violently "activist" judge in history, and he is a threat to our democracy. Vermont needs publicly financed elections and instant runoff voting.

BEN MITCHELL

Westminster But what about special education students?

Shame on North Bennington Graded School for their actions. People knowingly move out of district and want their children to attend. Yet when they go to private school, publicly funded (this is not independent), they might decide they want no special ed children.

Shouldn’t pick and choose students. My son was special education and attended North Bennington. Wouldn’t have wanted him sent elsewhere.

Remember, in God’s eyes, we’re all the same.

ED COREY

Shaftsbury/North Bennington