My friends.

A devastating new reality is upon us. I don't know which heinous act broke it, but the tipping point has passed. Each layer of our society is being stripped away. The racist Republicans in our State House have brought our government to financial ruin. They laugh at our courtesy, our empathy, our personal honor. They sneer at the values that I have lived by my entire life. Honor. Integrity. Courage. They flaunt their disdain for the rules that make our society worth living in. They live in opulent homes far from the districts that voted for them while laughing at the cruelty, the viciousness, the pain that their actions are causing every day. Their burning hatred for anyone not white and rich blinds them to the suffering of others because they enjoy it. The Arizona GOP treats the state like an ATM for anyone white and wealthy.

Under the racist Republicans, the rule of law has weakened into a sieve that rescues anyone whose wallet is big enough. Everyone else goes down the drain. Our health system is being repressed into a form of cleansing, cutting costs by cutting lives. Our financial futures are up to the whims of social failures so maddened with the love of money that they use their stolen billions like a club, because, as in Highlander, in the end, there can only be one.

Those dangers are not in some other town, some other neighborhood. No longer. ICE, Border Patrol and many in law enforcement have demonstrated their disdain for basic human dignity right in front of our eyes. The burdens of providing constitutionally mandated process clashes with a fanatical obsession. They forgive themselves their transgressions in the service of a leader so justified, so idolized, so sanctified, that no rule made by men can have legitimacy when it stands in the way of a long overdue comeuppance.

And so here we are.

When so many engage in active and ongoing suppression of our basic and constitutionally protected rights such as Assembly, Education, Habeus Corpus, and Commerce;

When many in our legislature ignore the real issues in our district in favor of their Racist Republican patrons who reward cruelty, segregation, and intolerance;

When the economic burden of every bad decision made by the Greedy Republicans is passed down to every local business, every hourly worker, and everyone who can least afford it, and the wealthy continue to

And, when we are not safe in our own homes from those with the power to detain, to imprison, to kill,

I can no longer stand by without action.

Therefore, I have decided to run for a seat in the Arizona State Legislature representing the long underserved people of District 28, and to use that platform to draw attention to the imminent threats to us all.

I have the training, experience, and vision to lead my friends, neighbors and any others who have a stake in the future of this district, this city, and all of Arizona. I ask only for your attention as the threat to our continued existence as a free society looms over us all.

Marc Graham, Citizen, America