Courant Guide

Courant Guide

Name: John P. Kilian

Office Being Sought and District: 20th Assembly District

Party: Connecticut For Lieberman

Family: Yes

Education: Yes

Civic Involvement: No

Past Political Office: President of Wolcott Elementary Student Council



TOP THREE ISSUES (in order of priority, each response should not exceed 200 words)

Issue 1: Our government's role is to enable our citizens to realize opportunities by bringing out the best we have to offer. To too much of a degree, our government today is mired in the role of providing for people's welfare with a series of very large band aids that in the long term can not be sustained. Our state legislature is especially adept at taking out large loans to provide generous benefits without consideration for how the bills are going to be paid down the line. A political empire has been fashioned that lures people into dependency on the state, instead of leading people to follow a path that, in the short term may be more strenuous, but in the long term is the way to go.



We need to find a consensus on what government is supposed to do for people, and what people are supposed to do for themselves. There is a widening gap between people like me, whose families pay for government services that we have never used, and other families who use services they never pay for. That is an underlying source of a lot of the friction that is undermining cohesiveness in our community.



Issue 2: Some of our state's largesse is counterproductive, as well as expensive. Our culture is being transformed by the increased prevalence of single parents whose partner in raising their children is a government check instead of a committed and contributing spouse. If there were only two things I could convince my children to buy into, it would be for them to wait until they have a decent education before getting married, and to wait until they get married to have children. It is difficult to stand idly by while so many children in our state casually, even purposely, decide as minors to have children out of wedlock. The state comes to the rescue of these individuals in the form of government aid, but who benefits when it becomes common place that mothers and fathers have no intention of marrying the person with whom they have children? Minors should not be receiving direct aid for having children. Paying children to get pregnant is a very bad policy, and no one is hurt more in the long run than the mothers and their children who fall into this trap set with the allure of a short-cut to adulthood.



Issue 3: Our economy is suffering from a lack of willingness on the part of private capital to invest in our state. Government spending to bridge a recession is not a bad short term solution, but it is not a long term solution. What government needs to do is encourage the private money sitting on the sidelines to get in the game.

I think the economy could be better if the government phased in significant energy taxes and that would create a market for private industry to solve the problem of needing to be more energy efficient. Changes to the income tax could compensate for the regressive nature of consumption taxes. Also, government investment in mass transit solutions will spawn economic activity around stations while easing the blow of energy costs that will rise whether or not the government raises taxes.

Without a phased in, deliberately executed plan to wean us off foreign oil, we are prone to be stuck driving to work, paying whatever the world market will bear, and every dollar spent on imports will be unavailable to provide the incentives and infrastructure to cushion the blow.

Sincerely,

John Kilian

The Gospel Truth about the Tribeca Mosque

I am downright disgusted by the way the controversy over the proposal to construct an Islamic community center in the vicinity of Ground Zero has evolved into a political donnybrook of inflated proportions. A great investment has been made by those who seek to manipulate a truly ignorant public for ulterior motives, and it is alarming to see the success that this approach is having. The senseless bias against fellow American citizens, whose crime in the views of the minions of Rupert Murdoch includes devotion to the tenets of Islam, is a good argument for adopting anew the Bill of Rights, that until recently conservatives would have rallied to defend.

Such rhetoric is only the latest in a pattern of stoking racial bigotry for political gain. It is very similar to how Shirley Sherrod from the U.S. Department of Agriculture had portions of her address to the NAACP taken out of context and used in a transparent effort to manipulate public sentiment.Then, as now, the target audience included people predisposed to criticize those whose identity includes the possession of a different skin color, religion or whatever else constitutes for them a "normal" American.

The animus fostered in a most calculated fashion by well-heeled propagandists is the kind of strategy articulated by George Orwell’s 1984: the surreal, but all too common version of a “Two-Minute Hate”. This is the kind of sophomoric exercise that belongs in the bleachers of Fenway when the faithful call out “Jeter Sucks!” Everyone knows he does not, but he is wearing the uniform of the arch-rival, and we want to get our money’s worth before security escorts us out the door. It is a mentality that does not wear well on serious matters, at least among those of us who know what is going on.

I fear our nation is being purposely misled, in a word, lied to. What advantage can there be for our nation if our decisions are made by the profiteers of poor counsel and knowing misrepresentation that carelessly dispossesses our fellow citizens of the liberties that we reputedly send our sons and daughters in harm’s way to defend? Political advantage. There is no merit to the claims that anything being proposed by a group of Tribeca Sufis amounts to a threat to our nation. This is just a vehicle to sweep the gullible off their feet and cultivate their worst fears into votes for politicians who likely know the truth, but prefer to profit from the stirring of emotions of an uninformed public.

To break it down for the average American, Islam has various sects, just like Christianity. The Shiites have a hierarchy similar to Catholics. These are the folks who run Iran. Sunnis are like Protestants in that they have a congregational approach to their organization. A very small number of these are in Al Qaida. Sufis are like Unitarian Universalists. No one understands what their doctrine is, because they don’t have one. They are like Amish with autos. They are unlikely to hurt a fly, but if they ever did the experience would lead to several volumes of cryptic poetry capturing the spiritual essence of the dearly departed insect.

So, the Sufis are building a glorified YMCA in the Holy Land near Ground Zero wedged somewhere between a strip joint and an off track betting site. Who are we to say, “There goes the neighborhood”?

Those who would benefit from this woeful piece of dishonest presentation lack the basic qualities to lead our nation. If we don’t figure out the truth of the matter soon, it will be our fault for what happens to us should they gain control of our country.

Kilian is Your Destiny

I am a fortunate son
of the twentieth assembly district.
Born and raised in the heart
of the land of steady habits.

Middletown has better nightlife,
(at least the kind the public is invited to)
but we can work on that.

It is more than nostalgia
that draws me back to my old haunts
along the shores
of the Rockledge Brook Flood Plain.

I saw Jaws amd Star Wars
in the Mall 1-2-3.
My neighbors and I watched
The Sound of Music
and An Officer and a Gentleman
at the Elm, and later the Elm 1-2.

My first communion was at St. Brigid's,
my confirmation was at St. Helena's.
Nothing could prepare me better
to challenge with conviction
the duplicity of a status quo gone awry.

On my Army weekends
I run around the football fields
of my youth,
where today play the children of my old teammates.
Where once I played to my heart's content
today I stare and worry about fractures
to an epiphyseal plate
and pray my kids opt for soccer.

Talcott was my Junior High.
Sedgwick was my middle school.
Would I be half the man I am today
if the closing of one set of doors
did not lead to the opening of the other?
Change is seldom easy,
but it is never avoidable.

I grew up playing
with nerf balls and frisbees
on Burnham and Fowler
when we played till our mothers rang their bells
calling us home for dinner.

Cable came first
and then the remote control.
ADD and obesity came later,
and this ill tide continues to rise today.

Kids wear helmets when they ride their bikes today.
If we wore them when
we played bicycle-polo through my mom's rock garden,
well, I might be a contender today.

I may never enjoy the privilege
of assuming the honorable titles
the law bestows on those
who win on election day.

But I have had my name called enough times on the Conard P.A.
that if I hear it again
I may unplug the microphone for shame.
If no reporters call,
no headlines misspell my name again,
it will suit me just fine.

Running for office is more of a thrill for your girlfriends
than it is for the mother of your wee children.
That is why my wife doesn't even know I am a candidate,
and I would ask everyone to help me keep this secret
for the sake of my marriage.

I worked harder than I knew I could
to become an RN.
My wife stayed home with a house full of kids
while I studied and practiced nursing.
She did not complain when I was away,
because she understood
if I did not become a person
whose life helps others
that half of me would not be there
even if I was home on time.

You got to be
who you got to be.
When you come from a place called Conard
and suit up in a soldier's uniform,
you have big shoes to fill,
but none are bigger than the ones you own and wear,
because you are the only one who can fill them.

Even if no one else knows what you did on any given day,
we all have to look in the mirror to our souls and ask,
how did I fill my shoes today?
Did I live up to the promise each day presents us?

My hair is not getting any thicker.
Maybe this nomination is just a half dead pony on the same track as thoroughbreds,
but this is the horse that has been offered to me today,
and I have no intention to decline a chance to ride again.

I am back in Elmwood.
And I am back in the saddle again.

John Kilian
endorsed candidate for the 20th Assembly District
Connecticut For Lieberman Party.

Connecticut Agenda 2010

Here is what I want to see happen in Connecticut:

1) Health care Reform - allowing small companies and non-profits to join the state insurance pool.

2) Medical Liability Reform - capping pain and suffering awards that are driving up malpractice premiums to the point that health care providers are leaving high risk practices, such as obstetrics.

3) End of Life Reform - allowing physician assisted suicide where it is the patient's wish.

4) Medical Marijuana Reform - Do what they did in California, and let doctors prescribe marijuana to people who will benefit from using it.

5) Estate Tax Reform - The State of Connecticut is facing a financial crisis. This is no time to give tax breaks to rich, dead people.

6) Reducing our dependence on petroleum.

Please take a poll on the above at Agenda for Connecticut 2010