Jason In His Own Words
- March 3rd, 2010
- Posted in Uncategorized
- 10,578 Comments
January 4, 2010
I first want to take this opportunity to thank city officials for putting together this event, and for Chancellor Bechtel-Wherry for graciously agreeing to be our MC.
Most importantly, I want to thank the citizens of Altoona for providing me to serve our city in this way. It is a great privilege, and a humbling one. I’m only just beginning to sense the gravity of issues we will encounter, and I can promise you that I will strive to confront our challenges with hard work, integrity and creativity.
Before I begin, I would like to describe for you how I came to the decision to run for political office. Far too many politicians enter this realm because they want the involvement, and figure out their vision and worldview as the work begins. In contrast, my desire to serve on City Council arose from a desire to see improvements and solutions for the city I love. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald described a similar impetus for the works he composed, urging budding authors: “Don’t write because you want to say something, write because you have something to say.”
This philosophy informed the three main tenets of my campaign last year: fiscal responsibility, practical strategies and a culture of life.
For starters, I want fiscal responsibility for the city because I see what a positive influence it has been in my life and the life of my family. Several years ago, we had only a small taste of fiscal irresponsibility—student loans, paying for home improvements on credit cards, etc. These are by no means the acts of compulsive spenders, but even these brought a noticeable burden. I first consider the way these loans were a drain on our budget every month, preventing us from achieving sound financial goals and making progress. On top of that though, there’s the stress—the concern over whether there will be enough money in the account, the way our stomachs would turn when a crisis loomed on the horizon, and we had no savings to meet it.
Finally, fed up with that kind of life, we decided to live within our means—if we didn’t have the money on hand, we didn’t need it. Initially, this felt like a giant risk. A lot of people will tell you that credit cards are necessary to protect against an emergency, but that’s like keeping whisky on tap in case your water gets shut off. Instead, we opted to keep some “jugs of water” off to the side in case of a “drought”—we have an emergency fund that has been absorbing the occasional bumps that come with life.
Here’s the astounding thing: cities can live within their means as well. Now I’m going to tread lightly, because Altoona has floated bonds for the last two years for necessary improvements like fire and police vehicles. They’ve also purchased systems to enhance productivity and safety for our city workers. It’s not those purchases that are the problem—it’s the years of previous budgets with too much fat in them, and the previous bonds passed by the city, that have forced us to not buy our city vehicles and systems outright. Think about it: these bonds are secured loans, collateralized with the objects themselves. As long as we can pay the bills, we’ll be OK. If we owned them outright, we’d be OK either way.
I’ve had people tell me that the city needs bonds to survive. Of course, that’s true…as true as the myth that a family needs a credit card to survive. If our household can defy reality, perhaps the city can too.
The city has some unique challenges, and I think they present unique opportunities for our community to excel. Someone once said that the difference between a good economist and a bad one is a good economist looks beyond first consequences. For instance, increasing taxes increases revenue, right? In the short run, certainly, but what will that do to the business environment, the residential tax base, etc.? Over the past several years, some of our city’s business leaders have answered the question for us, and we’d be remiss to not pay attention. As another example, cutting city spending strangles city services, right? Well, if done irresponsibly, city services will almost certainly suffer indefinitely, but wise belt-tightening, over a period of several years, can be different. It can attract businesses to the city, provide entrepreneurial opportunities, and incentivize residents and commercial taxpayers to expand and improve.
From Monday to Friday, I am a project manager by trade, so I’m trained in the process of looking at a project from start to finish, and finding the points of weakness that will need to be attacked proactively. Does this phase represent an acceptable level of risk exposure? How can we control cost and not sacrifice quality? What do we need to do now to ensure the project is delivered on-time and on-budget? As the council considers legislation, we must start out with the end in mind, and we must take steps to put hands and feet on our cost-consciousness.
The final thing that drove me to consider service on city council is the pro-life issue. Perhaps that sounds unusual, since I won’t be able to vote on any abortion-related legislation as a city councilman. Perhaps it sounds like an admission of using the council seat as a stepping stone. I can assure you it’s neither. I really firmly believe that the citizens of Altoona need a pro-life role model to encourage them—that they are not alone in this fight. I also believe our pro-life politicians—and we have some admirable ones—need to know that local elected officials appreciate the stand they take. Finally, there’s value in reminding some of our other politicians that someone will hold their feet to the fire; if they won’t work to defend life, we will replace them with others who will. If a politician refuses to acknowledge the sanctity of life, do they understand the merit of founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (assuming they have read them)? Do they understand the seriousness of having their worldview priorities so flawed? Do they think they can secure liberty or property without defending life? Practical evidence convinces me it can’t be done.
So that’s what brings me to this place—agree or disagree, I hope you understand what makes me tick. Again, I thank you for the opportunity to share my vision today, and I ask for your help to make our city an even better place to live. I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t firmly believe in our potential to make it happen. I hope you feel the same.
September 9, 2009
I first want to tell you how grateful I am for the help you provided me in the spring. Together, we put on a fundraiser, released a website and a series of videos, raised funds, and spread the message of fiscal responsibility, smaller government, and the sanctity of life throughout the whole city. Conventional wisdom says that money makes the gears of politics turn, but I think that volunteerism instead takes that prize. Together, we proved that you don’t need a lot of money to affect change in the city of Altoona.
August 30, 2009
So in conclusion, let me share with you some of the objections that are floating around inside my head. First, but what about this economy? We’ve all seen the news stories, with the news anchors biting their nails, feverishly awaiting the newest statistics. What we need to keep in focus is that God is orchestrating all of it. He is Lord of the unemployment numbers. He is Lord of the State budget. He is Lord of a shrinking GDP. He is Lord of all, and in control of all. Since God has a purpose for everything He does, we would be mistaken to assign a purpose to these events too quickly, but we would be remiss to throw up our hands and write the situation off to “chance,” “fate” or “luck.” Doing so disregards God’s omnipotence over our lives and avoids an opportunity He may be using to show us something.
But my circumstances have changed. One of the things that has been hard for me to understand as I’ve been growing in Christ is that God’s rules don’t change with my circumstances. For instance, God says I can’t use wrathful words on someone even if they’re tearing me down. God says I can’t overeat even if things are going crazy at work. Believe it or not, this is ultimately a good thing, because God’s law remains consistent, even while we are not. If it weren’t, then we could just say: God’s law applies to my life unless I’m tempted to do otherwise. That may be the rule that our society plays by, but as the people of God, we’re called—I’m called—to answer to a higher authority.
September 18, 2008
I want to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to the dog owners of my neighborhood.
This summer, they saw a need, unbeknownst to me, that my lawn was under fertilized, which they answered with zeal and enthusiasm.
It seems nearly every day when I walk out of the house, I see some small gift they have left, palpable tokens of the volunteerism and good citizenship of my fellow Juniatans. Since no one individual has come forward to take credit for their donations, I would be remiss if I did not thank you all collectively.
But I do have this to say: I think your kindness has been sufficiently extended to me, and I ask that you find other neighbors in need of your services.
I will try to tread lightly on this issue, as I’m surely venturing into a potential minefield. But I’m sure that I speak for all other homeowners in our city when I say that your kindness would be as welcome on any of their lawns as it has been on mine.
In conclusion, I salute you, Juniata dog owners, for the abundant goodwill you have spread across my lawn, and I’m sure the lawns of many others around me.
Rest assured that this deposit of good works will reap for you the undying affection and adulation of front lawns everywhere, leaving them greener, if not cleaner.
November 13, 2007
Before I begin, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who is here today, was at the viewings yesterday, and has sent cards, called, or sent gifts or foods. Your love is comforting us at our time of need.
I’d like to read you three verses from the book of Acts today, about Saint Stephen, for whom Stephen, the patron saint of Hungary, is named.
“And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” –Acts 8:2-4
The verses I just read paint a very hard picture: a good man, Stephen, has just died, and a very bad man, Saul, is persecuting and imprisoning Christian believers. It appears that Satan has gotten his victory: Stephen has been silenced, and God’s people are rounded up like cattle. God, however, is bigger than any circumstances life can throw at us, as the next verse testifies. Even as Christ’s followers flee from Jerusalem, they take His words of hope to the ends of the earth with them.
The message I would like to give you is that God is bigger than this morning’s circumstances too. In the face of Grandma’s death, we have a God who is bigger, stronger, and more loving than any other force ever seen or imagined. A God who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” A God who lets us “lie down in green pastures and restores our soul.” A God who loved us so much, He sent His Son who, by dying, shows us the way to life.
I remember when I was about five or six years old, Grandma would tell me, “You know Jason, I’m an old woman.” Being just a kid, I thought she was saying she was going to die. So when she said that, I would cry and cry, and say, “Grandma, don’t die!” I think that our society has the same problem I had when I begged Grandma not to die: not only can’t we accept the fact of death, we can’t even talk about it.
But if you can’t talk about death at a funeral, when can you talk about it?
Well, this morning I want to talk to you a little about death. Ever since the Garden of Eden, you and I and every other person we’ve ever known are born with the curse that someday we’ll die. When Adam and Eve sinned, they, and all their descendants, were doomed not just to physical but also spiritual death, and so wounded God’s heart that He did everything he could to reverse this process of spiritual death. He sent us the Jewish law, with its sacrifices, blessings and cursings, so that by that Law, we would know how to please him and how to have our sins forgiven—usually by the shedding of blood by a living sacrifice.
Now when God sent His Son Jesus to the earth, he made it clear that Jesus’ purpose was to: show us how to love God, live a sinless life, and then, in His most significant act, become that living sacrifice that will once and for all take away the sins of the world.
I know the name of Jesus might be unpopular nowadays, but if you can’t talk about Jesus in a church, where can you talk about him?
By Jesus dying on the cross, he made a way for all of us to never taste spiritual death. This does not reverse the process of physical death, but more importantly, it undoes our spiritual sickness. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
The catch is that accepting God’s forgiveness through Jesus means that God is your Lord—your master—and the rest of your life is His, to do whatever he wants with it. This doesn’t mean you’ll have to become a missionary to deepest Africa, but it does mean that He will take you where He wants you to go, whether that’s an office, a church, a factory, or a jungle. The upside is, wherever He takes you will be the safest, best and most worthwhile place you’ll ever be. As he says in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
This is the same God that Grandma confessed as her Lord. She always let her children and grandchildren know that she was praying for us and our families, and that she loved us. She cried out to God, the God of Saint Stephen, worshiping and praising him through the Rosary. Grandma leaves this world as a loving mother, an adoring grandmother, a devoted sister, a caring aunt, and a faithful friend. Whether she knew it or not, she was living out one of Stephen’s life principles: “Be humble in this life, that God may raise you up in the next.”
If you want to know about the God that Grandma worshiped, we’re always available. We’d love to tell you how God has turned some terrible circumstances in our lives into beautiful miracles.
We will shortly post a selection of Jason’s writings, along with a video slideshow with photos of him and his family, along with some of his best quotes.