CANDIDATE QUESTIONAIRE Greene County Dailies

For The Greene County Dailies (Beavercreek News-Current, Fairborn Daily Herald, Xenia Daily Gazette)

CANDIDATE QUESTIONAIRE

1. Family – are you married? children? How important is family to you and what kind of life to you try to provide for your family? In what kind of home were you raised and how did that affect you?

Married. No children. I spend as much time as possible with my wife. We work at the same college. There were 8 children in my family and we attended the Missionary Church. This taught me to be truthful and true to God’s will even if my viewpoints are unpopular.

2. What are your hobbies or ways you relax?

My father, who stood strong at our church against racial discrimination and, after being laid off from the auto industry, took a job as a sanitation worker to support our family. The Detroit riots of 1967 shaped my life and I vowed never to allow racial prejudices to divide people.

5. Do you have a personal motto or set of guidelines you try to live by?

I believe in Jefferson’s motto, that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I try to treat my neighbors as I would have them treat me and I believe on should never fear speaking truth to power. My guidelines are teachings of Jesus, Gandhi and King.

6. The biggest personal challenge you’ve faced so far?

My biggest personal challenge was completing my Ph.D. and J.D. I came from a family where my mother and father both dropped out of school before finishing the 10th grade, as did my older brother and sister.

7. The accomplishment that makes you most proud? The best thing about life so far?

An accomplishment I am proud of is winning the Distinguished Teaching Award at Columbus State in 1991. I love the challenge of getting college students to think in a world where ideas and books are often not valued.

8. Most difficult and best thing about being involved in politics?

The most difficult thing is the time involved. The best thing is the feeling that you are contributing to the marketplace of ideas and improving the dialogue in the community.

9. What are you looking forward to? Something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet? Something you have yet to accomplish?

I look forward to working fulltime with my wife, traveling the country and writing about the great events of the day. I love to go to Greece and visit my grandfather’s home. I’d like to write an autobiography focusing on my family history.

10. Anything you wish we’d asked but didn’t? A quirk people might not know about you? Anything else you’d like people to know (this could be anything from your favorite food to your biggest fear or love of

turtles)

I raised two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs and they taught me a lot about politics and diplomacy.