Issues/Positions

With our mission in mind, Fawkes-Lee & Ryan has chosen the following Constitutional Freedoms and related social issues as a focus to empower others through technology, legislative advocacy and targeted communication.  We welcome your suggestions and feedback.

Alcohol & Substance Abuse

We support the following views to address addiction:

• Treatment for addiction should be fully funded and made available to people fitting a relevant treatment model
• Substance abuse treatment should not be mandated for addicts or alcoholics that do not fit a model
• Better programs should be designed and implemented for addicts and alcoholics who respond negatively to programs using group dynamics
• Public access to criminal records are counterproductive to recovery and should be avoided whenever possible and expunged if appropriate
• Substance abuse prevention approaches should be nonjudgmental and based on respect for diversity

Criminal Justice

We are committed to working toward sensible sentencing practices.

The Death Penalty

We oppose capital punishment.  The death penalty is:

• Discriminatory in its application
• Immoral
• More costly than life in prison without the possibility of parole
• Cruel and unusual punishment
• Susceptible to mistakes
• Not a deterrent
• Contrary to most mainstream religious beliefs

The death penalty is . . .

Medical Cannabis

We believe:

• Cannabis is a Schedule II drug
• Manufacturing and distribution should be regulated
• Cost should be reasonable and affordable
• Medical use should be easily accessible

There is more to the story here.

Open Meetings/Public Records

We believe that openness in government is essential for a healthy democracy to survive.  All government and quasi-government meetings should be:

• Open to the public with sufficient prior notice
• Adequately advertised for the public’s knowledge and possible participation
• Easily accessible
• Held in a location that provides the best opportunity for attendance

Public records should be:

• Electronically stored and available
• Affordable
• Conveniently available to a government’s citizens

There exists a fine line between the public’s right to know and a liberty interest in an individual’s right to be left alone. Public records belong to the public.

Privacy

We are dedicated to working toward protecting individual freedoms, with a strong emphasis on privacy.  We invite you to join us. Continue reading about Privacy.

Voting Rights

We believe that:

• The voting process should be accessible and easy for all voters
• The only crimes that warrant losing the right to vote are voter fraud & treason
• There needs to be a paper trail for voter verification
• Voter privacy must be protected
• Photo IDs for exercising the right to vote are an unnecessary restriction

Youth

We believe respect is taught through demonstration, not rhetoric.  Youth deserve both respect and support.  Our prisons would not be housing so many offenders if not for the inconsistent laws and policies that have been cast.  Currently, society wants to hold young people accountable for adult failures. To address these failures, we will lobby the following positions:

• Education should be child-centered, not model-centered
• Medicating children to fit a model is unacceptable
• Until the educational system is changed to meet the needs of youth, the high school dropout age should not be raised; in fact, ideally, it should be lowered
• If 18-20 year-olds shoulder adult accountability, they should be allowed to drink and gamble.  Criminalizing this age group over these activities is unacceptable.
• Youth should be given the same civil liberties as adults
• Juvenile criminal offenders’ records should not be made public.  Youth should be protected and given the opportunity to turn their lives around
• School dress codes bar development of important skills needed for a democracy
• Creating learning disabilities and mental disorders for the purpose of the label “at risk” to obtain additional funding is unacceptable.

Please join our efforts to build a happier and healthier future for our youth by subscribing to this issue.

PDF version of Fawkes-Lee & Ryan Issues and Positions.