Candidate for
Council Member; City of Claremont

Political Philosophy:

"Civil initiative maintains and extends the rule of law - unlike civil disobedience, which breaks it, and civil obedience, which lets the government break it. The heart of societal order guided by the rule of law is the principle that the nonviolent protection of basic rights is never illegal. These basic rights and their matching obligations constitute standards of just conduct that government counter-enforcement is unable to nullify, short of destroying the societal order itself. While openly submitting to the trials and penalties imposed by government, the free community refuses to be coerced into collaborating with violations of the law (that is of right). Rather, it exercises its rights and protects the violated. This is how liberty grows and free societies form."

This philosophy of Jim Corbett's, from Goatwalking, guided the heart of the Sanctuary Movement. As a sanctuary committee member it guided my efforts to provide political asylum to a number of families and individuals I never met. I wonder sometimes how and where they are today. Claremont heard this call and set up a safe house to help provide a place to live while the applications where being completed.

My efforts to spearhead a resolution against the Patriot Act was based on this philosophy that under the rule of law citizens can choose to "obey the law rather than the government, the consent of the governed is a real rather than fictitious foundation for government legitimacy." Thus, my calling for Consent Decrees and Federal Prosecution of the Los Angeles Police Department as a supporter of the Irving Landrum Jr. Justice Organizing Committee.

Claremont's heritage of Town Hall democracy of consent of the governed with civil initiative and the rule of law is what I will seek to uphold under California's concept of a General Plan city as "YOUR" council member.

As we all have observed a city manager can wield power inappropriately. In the last election, I worked hard to force the hand of the city manager and reverse the awards given in lieu of a tragic loss of life. As "YOUR" council member I will work to maintain the proper relationship between the City Council and the office of the city manager. I will seek a green experienced manager for the new sustainability oriented General Plan. After sulfur comes sustainability. After sustainability comes the next young generation. And with the next generation will come a new nation. Such are cycles in geological time.

As "YOUR" council member: I will bring to bear my community relations experience gained in professional window cleaning in the community, as well as my twenty years of experience as a community activist speaking out on civic issues to nurture and support the goals and policies of the various city departments and commissions. I will help to ensure the full inclusion of the community (animals and plants included) be reflected as I fulfill my role. I want to reflect a spirit of confidence in the future of Claremont; that one can find a spirit of hopeful tranquility that resides here in Claremont, modern town counterpart to our remaining Mediterranean Tongva past.

Repudiation and Call for Disassociation from so-called Preserve Claremont

Dear Supporters, Claremont Citizens and Local Press,

Let me be the first, if necessary, and come what may, repudiate the past and the present methods and tactics used in this election by so-called PAC Preserve Claremont.

First, let me repudiate the past campaign tactics that originated in the past under Richard Mihouse Nixon and how his hireling Murray Chotiner used a formula of slander against the venerable Jerry Voorhis, a true democrat in every sense of the word. This involved calling cold on election eve and claiming that Mr. Voorhis was a communist. The end result, which could be predicted, resulted in the resignation under threat of impeachment of President Nixon. The ends did not justify the means. Thus was ambition blinded by power. The claim to inherent power of the President to suspend part or all of the constitution lost out to the rule of law. Where is that Congress now that we need them?

Second, as reported in the Saturday Courier, a Mr. Bailey reports that he received a call from Preserve Claremont, "'You don't want to vote for a candidate who will destroy Claremont.'" The inference here if the logic is followed through is that Corey Calaycay is a "terrorist," the new code word that has replaced "communist" from the days of Nixon and his ilk. This shows that Corey, who I have a high regard for as a worthy opponent,is not being bested by Preserve Claremont based on issues of importance to this municipal campaign and so belies their claim to a vision of Claremont.

I have already had to repudiate the tactics of Pacific Lumbers political ad campaign to libel and slander tree sitters as "terrorists" before the residents and students at the last half-day conference on "Terrorism and the Inland Empire" held at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) on Sept. 28. I asked if Richard Garcia, assistant director in charge at the Los Angeles field office of the FBI, would ignore such slander of the Pacific Lumber type and focus instead on genuine threats involving terror. I also said I would do anything I could do to help him if called upon.

I have pledged in my Smart Voter website to "To win my political battles by the persuasive power of my ideas and values." I want to avoid what John Stuart Mill referred to On Liberty the practice of "a peculiar evil." "If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the `opportunity of exchanging error for truth;' and if it is wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in `its collision with error.' If we know only our own side of the argument, we hardly know even that; it becomes stale, soon learn only by rote, untested, a pallid and lifeless truth." As such, I have not accepted any campaign contributions from supporters of Preserve Claremont and urge all fair minded Claremont citizens, students and residents to disassociate themselves from those calling themselves Preserve Claremont. No more evil in Claremont!

I am Citizen Michael John Keenan, Claremont Municipal Candidate for City Council