Why I'm Running
I have always felt compassion for the wounded. I do not just mean those wounded in wars – though the casualties of the war in Iraq, which has produced hundreds of thousands of casualties, are very much on my mind. I also mean the wounded who never went to war. Our society has created many new casualties since 2000.

Actions taken by the White House and inactions by the Congress have combined to create many different types of casualties:

• Economic casualties by way of deals with Big Oil and Big Pharma that are not in the public interest;
• Health casualties as a result of the creation of a nightmarish Medicare Part-D program and the failure to approve appropriate S-CHIP legislation;
• Environmental casualties through the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, the ignorance of environmental sustainability and the weakening of government agencies that were created to preserve and protect our planet;
• Educational casualties because of under-funding the unrealistic “No Child Left Behind” program; and
• Moral casualties as a result of what we have perpetrated at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

Few people in this country are free from the damages wrought by the current administration. We all have been wounded – some more than others. I believe our best response to this universal wounding is summarized by Philo of Alexandria who said:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."

We must become a kinder people again – we all are fighting our own great battles.

My campaign is inspired at one level by the human rights agenda and by the misguided and tragic direction in which the nation has been led for the last seven years. It is also informed by an idea I first encountered in a children’s book many years ago. The idea that we are responsible, forever, for what we have loved, never left me. Concern for York compels me to do what I can to make my community and my neighbors’ communities better places to live, work and visit.

Like many people who live here, I first came to Maine as a child vacationing with my parents. For many years, Judith and I brought our sons to vacation at Long Sands. But it was not until we moved here permanently that I got to know the people of York. I always knew the town was historic and a place of exceptional scale and beauty, but I did not begin to feel responsible for it until I became part of the community. I am running for public office because I believe that being in the legislature will give me a chance to be of service to York and to the state of Maine. I believe service to others to be the noblest calling anyone can undertake.

Ron McAllister
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