February 25, 2002 Speech

Praise God and good evening ladies and gentlemen

My name is John WorldPeace. I am a Native Houstonian. I am a practicing attorney. I am running for governor of Texas; not the governor of South Texas.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my wife Kay. She is an angel and she completes me.

I have a web page at johnworldpeace.com and .org. The Internet is where future campaigns will be waged. The Internet will allow you to see what a candidate really believes. It will allow him or her to respond to the daily news and important issues. It will allow him or her to respond to his opponents. Please compare my web pages to those of my opponents.

I changed my name 14 years ago. My name was Kenneth Wolter. I changed my name as a commitment to equality and justice. And I changed my name because I knew when people said my name, heard my name or read my name, they would have to think about peace for just a moment.

I served in the U S Army from 1970 to 1972 as an infantry sergeant and I have three sons who have proudly served in the United States Marine Corps. I am an advocate for peace but I am not a pacifist.

________

In 1836, the Texans defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto. In 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And in 1920, women were finally given the right to vote. Yet despite all this, today women and people of color are second class citizens in the United States of America. There are no Black or Hispanic governors or United States Senators in the United States of America.

We will never be a whole society until we are inclusive of everyone. Our strength is our diversity. Our future is our unity.

As governor, I will allocate half my appointments to women and a percentage to people of color in which they vote in the November election. This way our children who are entering college will be able to look at the upper levels of state government and see that those positions are indeed open to them.

It will not do any good for me to appoint people of color and women to positions of power in government and then not provide the education that will allow others to follow into those positions.

I have committed to giving teachers a $2,500 raise as a token of my commitment to education. I intend to pay for it by legalizing casino gambling on the Indian Reservations. We already have gambling in Texas and there is no reason for Texas money to continue to go into Louisiana. We need those dollars in Texas for education. I intend to raise Texas’s education ranking from 48 of 50 states in education to number 1. A great state needs to be number one in education. A great state leaves no child behind.

I intend to return a moment of silence to acknowledge God in the schools. If putting "In God we Trust" on our money in 1863 and adding "under God" to our Pledge of Allegiance in 1953 did not establish religion, then a moment of silence to acknowledge God in our schools will not either.

_______________

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for allowing me to speak with you this evening.

To my wife, I love you.

To my parents, I honor you.

To my children and grandchildren, I respect you.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Think about "One Nation under God".

Think about "United We Stand".

Think about equality and justice for everyone. Think about giving every child the dignity that comes with being a first class citizen.

And when you go to the polls in a few weeks, I want you to vote for WorldPeace.

Thank you and God Bless Texas.