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A Little About Alan...
I was born at Ft Meade, Maryland in April 1970. My family moved to San Antonio in 1976 where my father was assigned to Air Force Recruiting HQ. Except for a three-year assignment to Indianapolis in the mid 80s, San Antonio has been home for our family ever since.
While I have always had an interest in politics, I became involved in political issues several years ago when we (San Antonio) were being threatened with emissions testing for our vehicles. I was against it, not because I didn’t want clean air, but because emissions testing has been a complete failure every place it has been forced on the people. It has never amounted to anything more than a tax. That, plus the fact that our high ozone is proven to be from outside sources and taxing us would do nothing to clean the air.
I quickly learned how politics works and it was frustrating to say the least. Its one thing to hear about corruption and waste, but it’s another thing to see it in action. The local politicians tuned out responsible citizens, including two gentlemen who knew more on the subject than all of them combined. The politicians and their employees chose to go along with whatever the government agencies told them and were not only hesitant to “make waves” but seemed afraid to stand up to them.
It wasn’t just the fear of the government that was pushing Emissions Testing though, it was money! At one point, a voting member on the board stood to directly profit from her vote, and yet no one saw any conflict of interest. The local government stood to make money as well, and was eager to bite at the chance to gain another revenue stream. In the end, just a handful of determined people stood up to the politicians and the government and won. I knew that it was up to the people to keep the government accountable.
Later, I took interest in the 281 toll road project and was again disappointed in the way the system works. The disrespect given to the citizens by TXDOT at some of the public hearings was infuriating. I wish I could be more involved in this fight but the meetings are always held during the day when, unfortunately, I have to work. Do you think that’s to keep the public from participating? There are laws that prevent this abuse of power but TXDOT apparently isn’t familiar with them.
This brings me to running for office. Many have asked why I’m not starting out small and running for local office first. With much thought, I feel that starting closer to the top is the best place to make change as local governments can’t run effectively so long as the federal government imposes such control over them. If we can just return the federal government back to the limited roll it was intended to have, and return power and control back to the states and local governments, then the system can run much more efficiently.
Government works best when it’s local. You can’t expect a congressman in New York or California to understand the needs of someone here in Texas. Just as important, the people of Texas shouldn’t be paying for failed systems in other parts of the country. This is the reason why control should be at the local level, and this is my goal – bring us back to a limited federal government and bring the power back to the people through local control and responsible representation in Washington. I look forward to the chance to do just that.
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Talking with William Wadsworth
at the Republican Executive Meeting
Talking with John Hall at the
Republican Executive Meeting
Randolph AFB
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