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Green
Candidate for Arizona House in Legislative District 26
Phone: (480) 966-0649
Email: haryaksha.knauer@gmail.com
Website: www.newmenu.org/HGK
1020 S Siesta Ln, Tempe, AZ 85281.
(Mail: PO Box 7931, Apache Station, Tempe, AZ 85281)
Name pronunciation: Hurry-OX-shah
Age: 58. (03/24/54, Conroe, TX).
Arizona since: 2000.
Occupation: Foundryman, Cosanti Originals, since 2011; groundskeeper, Cosanti Foundation, comingled with foundry work at Arcosanti since 2000.
Marital: Divorced.
Children: 1.
Religious preference: Sri Chinmoy.
Education: Some college: bouncing from architecture/fine arts to film production, anthropology and theater; Choate School, 1972;
Political experience: 2010 maiden campaign for state rep, LD17, as a Green Party-endorsed candidate. Until we achieve permanent ballot status as the peoples’ alternative to the Ds and Rs, we must circulate petitions every election cycle: this is our grassroots democracy. Occupy Phoenix has been invigorating and heartening, and a great learning experience. (Everybody should get arrested, to learn first-hand the smell of fungus at the 4th Avenue jail.)
Memberships: War Resisters League (whose premise is that war is a crime against humanity, and that we must work to eliminate the causes that lead to war), ACLU, Sierra Club, Green Party Lavender Caucus, IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), World Harmony Run, AZ Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Interests: Meditation, hiking, running, horses, art, gardening, sewing.
Political influence: Howard Zinn. We are all influenced by each other, and I’m grateful for many tough lessons, but nothing challenged my socio-political underpinnings like HZ’s “Peoples’ History.” I’d like to take up his refrain and encourage everybody to run for office. It’s a free country. Runners up: William F. Buckley (the American Pope), Emma Goldman, Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Jefferson and Eugene McCarthy.
Job creation measures: Direct hires for a latter-day civilian conservation corps for out in the country; and for in the cities, public transportation projects like buses and the light rail and its extensions to get people to work. Inter-city passenger rail would be nice, and massive alternative energy initiatives. “Sustainability” is a scary and ambiguous word, but it really comes down to ‘healthy” and “frugal.” Long-term: public education. Let educators and school boards determine what is needed, and give it to them. Arizona is famous for spending more on prisons than for schools.
Top Issues: Standing up for organized labor and LGBT equality and the environment. There is a loud chorus (whining, really) implying that all environmentalists are extremists. Ecological science is a rational and valuable discipline, much needed for protecting our fragile land, air and water. We’re all in this together. There’s another chorus going “green.” But we must not lose sight of social justice too. Sometimes it takes persistence and longevity. Prison reform will require much patience. We must eliminate prisons-for-profit, and we must abolish the death penalty.
Prop 100 sales tax extension: Favor, even though it’s regressive. Sales tax is a stop-gap until we can broaden the base. In conscience, there’s only so much we can squeeze out of the working poor. Also, at some point the bed taxes and rental car fees will start driving away the tourists. Tax the churches. Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drugs. We can’t keep chop, chop, chopping critical health programs for the needy and sweeping funds from schools and parks, meanwhile offering tax breaks to the wealthy. (Where’s the litigious Goldwater Institute on the fresh-mint Arizona Commerce Authority, vis-a-vis the gift clause?)
Illegal immigration: Full amnesty. Scale back the hysteria. Everybody should learn to speak Spanish: this is America. Here we have a time-honored libertarian/anarchist tradition. Why the sudden nativism? NAFTA is the root cause of the surge in economic migration from our southern neighbors. I was taught to be hospitable toward strangers. It’s a reciprocal virtue.
Background & experience: My spiritual life has been preparing me for anything. In the Legislature we could stand to lighten up and treat each other with more compassion. Keeping in mind our obligations to the Constitution and to the very people we represent, let’s not lose sight of beauty and joy. (Once again, my friends, Kumbaya. Voices are heard, good Lord, Kumbaya. Songs of freedom, justice, love between my brothers and my sisters, all around the world, Kumbaya.)
Pro-life / pro-choice: Laissez-faire. Ideally, with single-payer, Access-for-all, no legislators or lobbyists or lawyers or “taxpayers” or insurers or employers would be interfering in the relationship between a woman and her midwife/doctor. Abortion (or not) is a personal decision, and should be free from coercion. All health and medical care is a fundamental need, like food and shelter. We are an exceedingly wealthy and generous people. Frankly, I’m still a proponent of zero population growth.
One last thing: I strive for nobility in demeanor and in conduct. I am ovo-lacto vegetarian. (Vegans, please forgive me for using honey, leather and silk.) Mine is a “No-Gift” campaign, non-mercenary, $500 threshold. Arizona’s experiment with Clean Elections is pioneering and laudable. But like Coriolanus, I don’t want to trouble the poor by begging (for the $5 contributions.) It’s time to end “corporate personhood,” banish the notion that money equals speech; overturn “Citizens United,” get money out of elections.
Campaign finance: private.
