Kilian Consensus

The right to pass away peacefully is a critical freedom that everyone deserves. Today, our laws force people to endure needless suffering against their will. When a person arrives at a decision that they have had enough, who is the state to say otherwise? Well meaning physicians are prevented from treating pain and suffering, and patients are compelled to carry on in merciless wards of agony. My father spent the last two months of his life dying slowly in hospital beds. What he had to live through I would no wish on my worst enemy.

Below is link to the Middletown Press letter I wrote supporting a tax on soda: http://www.middletownpress.com/opinion/20170515/letter-soda-tax-could-help-ameliorate-growing-health-care-crisis Rumor has it that there is resistance to a tax on soft drinks due to it being seen as regressive, as poor people buy the most soda, and would then pay the most tax. Of course, if people replace drinking soda with drinking tap water they would end up spending less and being healthier, too. Opposition to a soda tax is a perverse form of advocacy for poor people. It is as much as saying the tax is regressive, and diabetes is progressive, so let's stay with diabetes. The poor end up losing by maintaining the status quo, as well as anyone else who is drinking more soda than is healthy. It is really not a class issue. Soda is bad for human beings. Would you feed it to your dog? No. Why is it OK to load up your children on it? Opposing attempts to reduce soda consumption erodes confide

I am resharing some of my letters already published to give folks something to read in hopes it will lead others to help further the cause that words alone cannot accomplish http://www.middletownpress.com/opinion/20170424/letter-rep-lesser-standard-bearer-in-connecticut-legislature   published 4/24/17 To the Editor: I am happy to hear that  state Rep. Matt Lesser is moving up in the world of politics . He has proven himself to be a champion of election reforms that even a playing field currently tilted in favor of large contributions. His work in the House includes successes and works in progress that I am concerned could suffer from his absence. Efforts to sunset the failed approach of the drug war, sold to us under the guise of a health issue that it never improved, and was likely not designed to achieve, are still an unfinished campaign. Undefining people as criminals for acts that merit treatment as patients are streamers to be added to our colors in the battle for hu

While politicians ignore matters fundamental to the health of the community, the general population seems to be ready for change. It may be a better time, today, to mount a campaign that draws on the goodwill of ordinary citizens. The millions of Democrats who rallied last year, motivated by optimism and altruism, encourage me to do the same. The first and last time I sought the Democratic nomination for the State House was the same year I helped a little known Governor for Arkansas lose both the New Hampshire and Connecticut primaries on his way to the White House. What I championed then remains worthy of my efforts today. The health and happiness of another generation hangs in the balance between leadership that fails to alter the status quo and reformers who are gaining traction with every passing year. The merits of the case for change is matched by an adept resistance to alter the scope and practice of our laws and government. To be clear, not all the obstacles to progres