My name is Bill Winter and I'm running for Congress against Tom Tancredo in Colorado's Congressional District Six.
I am a Colorado Native, a Littleton High School graduate, and a veteran of the Navy and the Marine Corps. I'm a lawyer, a teacher, a high school football coach, an orphan, and a kidney donor.
Forty two years ago I was born in Greeley, Colorado. My biological mother was single. She had six children already, but she only had custody of three of them. My biological father never even knew she was pregnant, or that I was even born. I was given up for adoption at birth and became an orphan.
I was born with a hole in my heart that required surgery. I didn't have that surgery until I was five or six years old. I say five or six because no one that I know really knows exactly how old I was. I wasn't adopted until after my surgery and I was lucky to be adopted at all. The vast majority of orphans with serious medical problems don't get adopted.
Last week I saw a full page ad in the Denver paper, placed by Focus on the Family, aimed at Senator Ken Salazar, and saying that he should vote for the Gay Marriage Amendment, because, as they said in their ad, every child needs a mother and a father.
Well I have news for James Dobson and Focus on the Family and those who subscribe to that hate filled agenda. No one, and I mean NO ONE, at Focus on the Family or anyplace else, is going to tell ME what it feels like to not have a mother or a father. I know it in my bones from the first five years of my life! And I can tell you right now that all I wanted when I was a little boy was parents who would love me and take care of me. I didn't care if they were married, single, gay, straight, male, female, or what their race or ethnic background was.
And who would have imagined way back then, that one day I would have the opportunity to stand up and speak to you as a candidate for Congress? Who would have imagined that a little orphan boy from Greeley would grow up one day to run for Congress?
This really is the greatest Nation the world has ever seen and I'm living proof of it! But we have to be ever vigilant to keep it that way, ever ready to fight for what we believe in.
Thomas Jefferson wrote something over two hundred years ago that still resonates today. He said:
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Almost ninety years later, Abraham Lincoln weighed in and said:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
My friends, we are today engaged in another civil war, a civil war to decide the future of America, and I think it's time that we as a Nation decided once and for all where we stand. Do we stand with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, on the side of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Do we stand for the proposition that all men are created equal?
Or do we stand with James Dobson, Bob Beauprez, Marilyn Musgrave, and Tom Tancredo on the side of hate, fear, and division, and the proposition that some Americans are NOT equal? That it's okay to discriminate against some Americans just because they're different? That it's okay for women to be unequal to men under the law?
Well I know where I stand!
I stand proudly with Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln in proclaiming loudly that all men--and all women--ARE created equal and I will fight for that principle with passionate intensity.
I didn't serve ten years in the military only to stand by and do nothing while hate and discrimination are written into the law and enshrined in the Constitution!
I'm often told to be careful about what I say so that it's not used against me by my opponents. To that advice I say this--caution is not something I learned in the Marine Corps and the Navy. The Marines are not cautious. The Marines charge in where even angels fear to tread and that's something I will never change about myself.
I'm tired of cautious candidates and people who won't stand up for what our Nation is supposed to stand for. I'm tired of people who pander to various groups every two years but then do nothing when those people really need them.
Where was caution in 1776 when patriots stood up against the greatest military in the world? Where was caution on the ridge at Gettysburg when men died for the idea that a nation could exist to provide freedom? Where was caution in 1944 when Americans went up the beach at Normandy or Tarawa or Iwo Jima?
I will NOT be cautious. I will stand up for what I believe. I will stand up for America and for equality and for human rights, and in doing so, I will inspire the people of my District, and I WILL win this race!
If ever there was an inalienable right, surely it is the right to make a life commitment to whomever you choose, and to have that commitment recognized and honored by the State and by the law!
If ever the pursuit of happiness meant anything, surely it must mean the right to live without fear with someone you love and cherish!
If ever there was a meaning for the word liberty, surely it must be the right to make the most difficult choices a person can make, about life and death, and about what happens to your very own body!
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.
Either you believe it....or you don't! There can be no middle ground!
Either you stand for America and the Constitution and freedom for ALL, or you don't!
So I stand here today, Candidate for Congress against Tom Tancredo, and I give you the following advice.
Do not support any candidate of any party, including a Democrat, who will not stand up proudly and proclaim their open and unlimited support for YOU!
We are all AMERICANS, and all deserving of the full protection of the United States Constitution and the laws of this great nation. You have a god given RIGHT to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and you have the right to leadership that provides those rights for you.
Thomas Jefferson said so. Abraham Lincoln said so. And now I say so!
I'm Bill Winter and I approved this message!
Bill G. Winter
http://winterforcongress.com/
P.S. Please post a comment below and tell me what YOU believe. I want to know what is important to you and what you are willing to fight for. I'll check in periodically to see what you have to say.
(cross posted on MyDD.com at http://mydd.com/)