Ricky Dale Harrington talks about the issues facing Arkansas on 40/29 On The Record
Ricky dale Harrington Jr, is *** libertarian candidate for governor of Arkansas Ricky, Thank you so much for joining us today. We have *** lot of issues that we’re going to dig into since we have the entire half hour with you. The first big issue though, that *** lot of people are talking about is the overturn of roe versus wade of the Supreme Court, giving basically the States the power back. So that, of course, lands in the hands of our Arkansas lawmakers. Do you believe that there should be more exceptions to the law right now, as it stands, as it stands? Yes, I believe there needs to be more exceptions to that abortion law. The real issue for me, when it comes to abortion is we need to stop fighting over it in the manner that we have been fighting is continuing to push us over the edge. And maybe at this point while our emotions are high, we need to find *** way to just calm down for *** second and try to understand one another and find some way to have *** positive outcome. Because this is *** very difficult thing for people to deal with just all of us, no matter where you fall on the political divide of this issue, but we’ve got to find *** way to respect one another as human beings in the bodily autonomy that each of us should have in this free country, we’ve we’ve got to find some sort of middle ground. And if it if it’s very important to you, Open your heart up to those who are thinking about it, show that you love them. Open your pocketbook. This is something that I’ve said frequently, and I just I just think we need to find *** better way. Well, is that better way? Is it for the government to involve be involved at all and to what capacity in such *** sensitive situation and so much nuance and so many different things that could happen? I really don’t think it’s the government’s business. You know, whenever you give the government *** certain power, they never give it back. And so when an issue like abortion, I mean, how are we going to differentiate between someone having *** miscarriage or having an abortion? You know, and that issue when it comes to the law, are we gonna start punishing women that, you know, have miscarriages? It’s just it seems like *** lot of unintended consequences because of this law. Now, libertarians are usually hands off. So that’s what you think. You think maybe abortion is an issue that should be left up to the woman and *** doctor or yes, ma’am. That is that is the libertarian position. But there are differences. I can’t speak for all libertarians, but it really is *** personal issue between *** woman, her family physician, and they will have to deal with the consequences of their decision, just like all of us personal responsibility is also *** big portion of libertarian philosophy Now, at the national level Title nine has been *** big debate. And *** lot of people are very divided on should girls be allowed only only girls born as girls be allowed to play sports in girls sports. And it’s just been *** lot of debate. So as *** libertarian, what is your position, um, as *** gubernatorial candidate who should be allowed to play girls sports and boy sports? You know, first we need to establish *** base those extracurricular activities are *** privilege. I was *** student athlete myself, played sports. It was *** lot of fun. I’m older now, and I feel it in my body and I wish I didn’t play some of those sports now. But just it’s an interesting position that we find ourselves in in this first world modern society that we have to discuss that issue. Um, honestly, I’m at *** loss, to be honest, at *** complete loss that we are in this situation. Um, I believe that girls should play sports with girls. I’m just being straight honest with you. Um, There’s *** competitive edge there. You mean girls born as female? Yes, Ma’am. Okay. Not identifying as yes. And I support trans rights and I’m 100% behind people that want to express themselves in *** manner that does not harm to anyone else, but just being common sense about it. I think females biological, females should compete in sports against biological females, and we’ll talk about the issue of trans rights coming up in just *** little bit too. We’re out of time for this segment, but we’ll be back in just two minutes with more questions with the libertarian party candidate for governor. Welcome back to 40 29 news on the record. Sitting here with us today is *** libertarian party gubernatorial candidate, Ricky Dale Harrington, Jr. So thank you again for joining us. Let’s pick up where we started or where we ended in the last segment talking about trans rights, Who should be allowed to transition, uh, currently with the debate in Arkansas is should you be 18 years or under to go through the procedure? What are your thoughts on that? Well, that transition is *** big decision. It is, uh, it almost comes with *** sense of finality. Um, people that are dealing with it dealing with that problem. They should find as much help that they can to help them move forward with the way that they want to live their life. It’s it’s difficult to think that *** young child could go through that process. But I do respect people’s right to make that decision. But from *** standpoint of wisdom, I think *** person should give great thought before they do that, especially at *** young age. And sometimes we leave out the intersex community in this discussion, they’re completely out of it. Uh, people formerly known as Hermaphrodites, you know, colloquially, but they have *** lot of wisdom that they could share with other people from dealing with the issue that they have, they’re nowhere in the conversation, no one’s including them in the conversation and I believe they have *** great deal of wisdom that they could share with people that are thinking about transitioning now, Ricky, you have *** background in the prison system, Tell us *** little bit about what you did and what you think the state of our um system is right now with incarcerations. Do we have enough um prisons, jails? What is the state of our law, our correctional systems right now? Well, I started off as *** chaplain um at the Cummins unit, my first year there participated in those eight executions that we did in 2017. And the question is now that did we execute an innocent man? And I was there for that. And the people of Arkansas must ask themselves *** question if the state has executed an innocent person. Should the state administer that power furthermore, when it comes to our prisons. Uh, there’s ***, there’s *** lot of need there, there’s *** big need for mental health. When it comes down to those final arguments on the Supreme Court. The main go to arguments are issues of mental health. Was this person confident enough to even stand trial and did they even know what they did? But furthermore from that inside the prisons, those inmates are subject to criminal activity that goes on in the prison, threats of rape, threats of violence. There’s *** lot of that that goes on inside and we’ve got to find *** way to clamp down on that. It’s quite hard whenever you have all those criminals group together. And Arkansas also has one of the highest incarceration rates in the the union. And we shouldn’t be locking more people up over personal choices especially when it comes to cannabis and things like that. We should be focused on getting those violent criminals into those prisons, serving their time and trying to rehabilitate those men. And the reason that we should do it is because obviously we want that same thing done to us. It’s *** measure of our moral fiber as *** people are ethical fiber as *** people of how we treat those who have done terrible. I mean we could do what we’ve done in the past as human beings and with the terrible acts of torture and things like that. But that’s not who we are. As americans. We we are free from cruel and unusual punishment. That’s one of our rights. The government cannot cross that line. Am I in favor of building more prisons? Absolutely not. Especially when we’re closing schools. But we’ve got to get *** lot of the low level offenders out. So the jails are not crowded. So those that are waiting to be put into *** D. C. Custody can finally get to serve on their sentence. Okay so you brought up cannabis, you brought up education. Those are two issues we’re going to talk about next. Thanks for joining us here in 40 29 news on the, on the record will be back in two minutes. Welcome back to 40 29 news on the record. Joining us today is *** libertarian party gubernatorial candidate here in Arkansas, Ricky dale Harrington, Jr is here with us on 40 20 nineties on the record. So let’s get straight to education. There are *** number of issues that I want to talk about when it comes to education including teacher salary. Our teachers getting paid enough. That’s *** good question. I think teachers deserve *** pay raise for the things that they endure and I hate to laugh at that. But you know, we we’ve all been around *** lot of little kids and they always find *** way to rile us up. But it’s it’s *** it’s *** blessing to be around Children and to teach them and to uh, because I think about the teachers in my past and they, they shaped me who I am as *** person. I think about my algebra teacher, I’m shouting out to him, Colonel Cherry, he was *** marine telling us how to be successful and I’ve never forgotten that. One thing that is puzzling to me is the fight that we have solely over teacher pay. There are plenty of state employees. I was *** formal correctional employee and I worked pretty much all the time in the back with inmates with no stab vests, uh, not receiving hazard pay, but no one jumps to the correctional workers that go without receiving, you know, overtime pay for *** while and they keep the people of Arkansas safe. Do people realize that that is what they do? And if you know, in my situation with no hazard pay or no stab vest, if something violent happened to me and there’s always violence is always around the corner there. Um, what would happen to someone like me, you know, um, who’s gonna take up the cause for those that are keeping, uh, you know, other state employees that keep people safe. But back to that, I want to ask the question to the people of Arkansas, do they believe that teachers really need *** bachelor’s degree to teach? Maybe we can just require an associates degree and that will lower the level of student loans, that teachers might have, nurses only require an associates degree. So why not teachers to lower that level of burden that they have to, where they’re in *** nice pocket of debt to income ratio. You know, I hate to start talking like that. But it’s the truth that people are thinking about when they’re taking *** look at student loans. Do you think all state employees should get paid more? Where would the money come from? Um, or are we just kind of good right now where we are, I think, you know, *** reasonable percentage increase that is on par with, you know *** lot of other federal programs uh and employees is reasonable. Um For the amount of work that state employees do put in uh any pay increases should be reasonable for for the ***. D. C. We all had to be evaluated and if we as *** group didn’t reach that certain level we didn’t get to pay raise on our performance. So that’s much worse than on that. What about school safety? Is the government doing what it’s supposed to do to keep students safe in schools in Arkansas? This great tragedy that is plaguing our nation of mass shootings happening in school is there’s no words that could put in the the grief that all of us feel about it. We we’ve got to find *** way to bring safety into our schools without turning them into *** prison themselves. Students don’t feel like they’re attending the prison at school. I would be in favor of more private security rather than law enforcement. It just adds *** whole nother dimension with the students. And plenty of us have seen videos of resource officers body slamming Children. Uh It’s not necessary if you can’t handle the child, you don’t need to be doing that job. Um It’s just it’s just *** great tragedy but I’d be in favor of private security. I would not be in favor of arming teachers again because of that relational dynamic that’s there. I don’t think it would be wise, but private re resource officers, I think would be *** nice little middle ground right there. They have *** specific duty. They don’t have any arrest powers. So it’s I think it would be *** better path forward with private security. And one more question, when it comes to schools and education, should we be offering free pre K education? I know that there has been *** push by some lawmakers, they think that it shouldn’t start at kindergarten. They think that we should offer pre K three K four programs for everyone in Arkansas. I know it would benefit *** lot of people. Um, the question is, where is the money going to come from? How are we going to pay for it? And are people willing to pay for that? Because it’s gotta come from somewhere? The money has to come from somewhere. I honestly believe that if we are having *** shortage of places for people to place their Children in daycare, it sounds like *** great business opportunity and and undercut your competition. You know, you have *** cheaper prices. Um, so, I I definitely think that there is *** free market solution, maybe we should try to solve it ourselves as *** people before we get the government involved in it. And again, going back to my main theme, once we give the government power, they do not turn it loose. All right, Ricky dale Harrington Junior here on 40 29 news on the record, we’re going to be back in two minutes with more questions with the libertarian party candidate for governor of Arkansas. Welcome back to 40 29 News on the record. Joining us today is *** gubernatorial candidate for the libertarian party. Ricky Dale Harrington Junior. Let’s talk about marijuana. Now *** ballot issue. Um, what do you think should happen? Should at what level should the government be involved when it comes to medical marijuana and marijuana recreational use? Well, first, I’d like to point out the pattern of behavior of these past two election cycles, with initiatives being put forth by officials in government versus initiatives being put forward by the people. And 2020, just about every initiative put forth by the people was knocked off the ballot. All the ones put forth by the legislature were on the ballot. And there was *** couple of quirky ones that were worded, uh, in such *** way that was tricky this year, they tried to knock the marijuana initiative off the ballot be arbitrary reasons, in my opinion. Um, I do not believe the government shouldn’t be involved in people putting *** plant that grows naturally inside their body and penalize them. Uh, some people have been put in prison for, for life over marijuana. Uh, it’s time for some justice, especially now that we have *** medical marijuana industry and the state is taken in, uh, you know, was 100 and $25 million in taxes, um, from the program? And there are people still sitting in prison, We need to fix that. And especially with the recreational initiative going forward, it doesn’t go far enough, but it’s *** step in the right direction and we just do not need to be throwing people in prison over over marijuana if elected governor in just *** couple of weeks. So what would be the first thing that you tackle? Oh for me, the first thing that I would like to tackle is trying to work with the people in the state to fix our foster care system. So we don’t have thousands of Children in DHS custody waiting for home and I make *** plea right now we don’t even have to wait till I’m in office to do this. If you have room in your heart, if you have room in your heart, consider taking one of these Children in your home. It won’t be easy. But if you have room in your heart, please please do it. So you think that’s where we can start in in the home. And then what kind of laws would come out of that? What kind of as, as governor, how would you enforce more families to take foster care? And how would you fix the system? Well, I wouldn’t want to use the force of law, but use in the realm of influence from the governor’s office and, and leadership and leading by example. And definitely I get involved in this myself. You know, again, back to that same theme of can we fix it amongst the people? Can we fix it ourselves without having to use the force of law? Um, what do you think about the state of our economy right now? Do we have *** great cushy surplus that needs to be used, or what, in your honest opinion? What do you think about our financial situation as *** state? Well, I did come out supporting that. They ought to just cut $700 checks to all adults for that $1.6 billion. I know that’s *** little while there, but you know, the state has *** surplus, and I believe that that surplus came from those coronavirus monies and people spending the monies, and of course, the state taking in more revenue. But I I’m not sure we can have another two years of surplus if we did. I’d be surprised given the state of our economy right now, it’s gonna be Rocky. We just we just got to be honest about it. It’s gonna be Rocky. But we can make it through it. We’ve done it before. We can make it through it. And this is, I think, twice in my life that we’ve had *** recession, but we can do it Ricky dale Harrington, Jr, thank you so much for joining us here on 40 20 nineties, on the record, the libertarian party candidate for the governor of Arkansas seat, with Election Day coming up in just *** few weeks. Thank you. Thank you.
Ricky Dale Harrington talks about the issues facing Arkansas on 40/29 On The Record
Updated: 1:44 PM CDT Oct 3, 2022
Ricky Dale Harrington is running for governor of Arkansas. He talked about his positions on the issues with 40/29’s Yuna Lee on 40/29 News On The Record. Watch the video above to hear what he had to say.
Ricky Dale Harrington is running for governor of Arkansas. He talked about his positions on the issues with 40/29’s Yuna Lee on 40/29 News On The Record. Watch the video above to hear what he had to say.
