Bill Mize Forum
Bill Mize Forum
Last night I spoke at the Bill Mize Forum at the Rome Grange just NE of Bellingham, WA. It was the third time I had spoken at the forum, which was organized by Russ Weston and the local Kiwanis club. I had spoken there during my 2002 and 2004 runs for Congress. There were about 75 attendees, and the two-hour event was aired in its entirety on KGMI, AM 790 radio. A retired, WWU political science professor did a great job as host.
Bruce Guthrie at Bill Mize Forum
I had hoped to be able to debate Maria Cantwell or Mike!, but the only US Senate candidate who showed up was Democratic primary challenger Michael Goodspaceguy Nelson.
I was second to speak, and brought up my issues of Peace, Freedom and Hope. I received a VERY warm response! My calls to bring the troops home and to defend our civil liberties were especially well received. I had questions from the audience regarding the loss of the blanket primary and marriage equality.
Bruce Guthrie Speaks at Bill Mize Forum
To the former I responded that voters want more choices and if they want to continue to have more choices they should vote Libertarian in the general election. There will be five candidates in my race, and the real solution if you want even more choice is to support Instant Runoff Voting.
For the second question, I replied that all of our rights are equal, and that if we are going to give special governmental privileges to straight people, we have to offer gays and lesbians those same privileges. I mentioned that civil unions may be a good way to accomplish this, and leave the term "marriage" to the social conservatives as a way of avoiding unproductive conflict.
My buddy Fred James was my main support at the forum. He drove down with me, complaining the whole way that I was driving too fast! He was a great help. He took the photos you see here, distributed literature, and subjected the other candidates to the most withering barrage of well-reasoned questions that had the effect of pointing out their logical contradictions. He was absolutely devastating to the candidates who opposed the rights of the people.
I saw many of my old friends at the forum, including "small "l" libertarian" Jim Johann and local civil rights activist Mark Polin, with whom I worked to get the Bellingham City Council to pass a resolution affirming civil liberties in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act. Mark's group got an award from the ACLU for our efforts, and he was really the leader and chief laborer for this successful effort.
After the forum I noticed several people wearing the buttons that I had put out on the literature table, and I saw that very little of my literature that had been left on the chairs before the event had been discarded.
It was a great forum, and I had a lot of fun. It was great seeing some of my old Bellingham friends, and talking to voters about what was important to them. I hope to meet you at my next event!
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