I often wonder whether the masses truly believe that if you've done the time for your crime you should be able to put it all behind you. I find it amazing that I, as a felon am not allowed to run for office here in my local municipality or state. We have statutes in place to keep me from running for. Why is that? Is it because we need the government to tell us what a bad person is? Is it because we don't believe people can change? Is it because we want to keep people who have made bad choices from ever helping our communities or do we just want to remind them that they will never be equal, they will always remain a second class citizen? All of these seem just as likely.
I have changed my life and would like one day to run for a local office. I have ideas and strong beliefs that I believe would make my community better. But alas, I am a felon and condemned to the reality that I will never be accepted as an American Citizen again. Why should I continue to push forth the goals and values of a country that has disregarded me, held me down, and helped me in no way? Why should I not raise my family to accept that the country we were born in does not believe in the ideals we were taught as children. The ideals that the framers of the constitution believed in?
So what do you think? Would you support a candidate that supported a measure that allowed felons to run for a political office?