Thomas Hardman, who ran as a Republican in last year's District 4 special election, is announcing his candidacy this year as a Democrat. His statement follows below.
My name is Thomas Hardman, and I filed for candidacy Friday Feb 27 2009, evidently a few minutes behind Nancy Navarro, to judge from the visitors' log.
I had about 5 years on the board of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc., from about 2002-2007. In about the same time frame, I was very active in the "Mid County Neighborhood Initiative", which has done quite a lot of promotion of anti-crime efforts in Aspen Hill, especially promoting the reclamation of North Gate Park, and the cleanup of a lot of local "trash woods" where overgrowth led to crime and nastiness.
I'm particularly focused on code-violation, home overcrowding, "McMansionism", tear-downs and "over-builds". I'm focused on how sensible Urban Planning can be completely obviated when code isn't enforced and everything deviates from the plan. I oppose seeing our neighborhoods being turned into something that looks a lot like an industrial park, and I oppose people buying up houses on speculation and paying their liar-loan APR mortgages by renting out single-family detached residental homes housing as many as 20 people being charged $500.00/month rent each, generating from $6000 to $10,000 to the slumlords. I've been fighting every aspect of that since Doug Duncan was County Executive.
For some years I have been seeking ways to have some influence, to demonstrate leadership, outside of the very narrow focus of these groups. So, I have run in the last two elections held in District 19/District 4 (state/county) and I am running in this one as of now.
I'm trying to step up and do the right thing, but I'm not a Party creature and so it's a struggle every step of the way.
Visit http://www.thomashardman.com as well as http://www.aspenhillnet.net/ and http://www.district4mc.org where I have done a lot of documentation about myself, Aspen Hill, and District 4.
Coming soon, the new http://www.thomashardman.NET which will be the political site, and the Facebook presence is under development.
I am a pagan tree-hugger and demand changes in policy toward "green", solar, and slow-growth/no-growth and I am on record on Channel 19/21 video from last Special Election as being for this, and furthermore my campaign was based all around expectation of economic calamity, and it wasn't even on the radar of any of my opponents. I was a Liberal Republican then, I am a Fiscally Conservative/Social Liberal Democrat now. I am GLBT tolerant and embrace the large and under-served community of the "differently abled", especially the "special needs" community in young adulthood and beyond, whether they're gifted/talented or intellectually-disabled.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thomas Hardman Announces for District 4
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6 comments:
GLBT "tolerant" ?
How wonderful for those of us that are GLBT that you tolerate us. We're thrilled.
Mr. Hardman:
Do you have a similar "tolerance" policy towards blacks, women, Hispanics, Jews, etc.?
Seriously, what makes you think you deserve a pat on the back because you "tolerate" people who are different from you?
Good lord. This isn't 1978, Harvey Milk is dead, and you live in Montgomery County. Duh.
Dan, I'm not GLBT myself. "Tolerant" is a word that's extremely neutral. If I said I "embraced" the GLBT community that is a little strong one way, and if I were to say that I in any way opposed the GLBT community, that would be both a lie and offensive.
Looked at another way, examine the spectrum implied in that word.
Tolerant == me and probably other candidates as well.
Intolerant == "shower nuts".
Clear?
Dudes, lay off of Hardman for a change.
So he didn’t grow up immersed in liberalism. It’s not like the man doesn’t try.
I mean, I grew up as a liberal and it warped my sense of reality and gave me the false impression that certain people were open and tolerant when in reality many of them were just using doublespeak and coded language to shut down honest debate.
Ultimately I have encountered plenty of Democrats who are intolerant or phobic when it comes to other races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, and gender/sexual identities/orientations.
In fact, this kind of suffocating repression and hypocrisy is part of the reason why I left that party and became an independent. (A lot of us are pretty sick of traditional parties and partisanship overall, actually.)
What would politics be without people like Hardman who express themselves openly and honestly and genuinely try to move beyond their comfort zones?
Oh yeah, and he *was* right about the “expectation of economic calamity.” Actually, an awful lot of us saw it coming. However, those who were locked into certain orthodoxies often discredited people like us. (I’m talking mostly political, economic, and cultural orthodoxies here.)
This ain’t schadenfreude, either. It’s very troubling that more people didn’t see that this crisis was building up earlier. We might have been able to avert some of the fallout if many more people had realized that the economy was in danger of heading over a cliff. Who knows; maybe we could have reined in some of these unsustainable growth-for-the-sake-of-growth policies and hyperconsumerist behaviors and ended up softening these economic blows.
* * *
It’s very easy for us to marginalize those whom we feel threaten us.
Leftists who rally under the LGBTQ banner should know this better than most.
Why tolerate anybody?
Just let people be and live your life.
Every special group has their intolerant people- and tolerant people.
Who do I tolerate- if you are open-minded- and do not stick your nose in my business and tell me how to live and have good manners- I will return the favor- but if you butt in my life- I will not tolerate you- I don't care whatcolor you are, what you believe in, or where you are from- if you are an idiot- and close minded- I will not tolerate you-- as a matter of fact I will probably not even associate with you
I figure two sayings cover it all:
"Live and let live" and "equal protections of the laws".
Is that so hard to figure out?
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