In a message dated 6/14/01 2:47:20 PM Central Daylight Time, dmcneely@statesman.com writes:

<< Subj: Re: Money Politics Article
Date: 6/14/01 2:47:20 PM Central Daylight Time
From: dmcneely@statesman.com (Dave McNeely)
Reply-to: dmcneely@statesman.com
To: JohnWrldPc@aol.com

John --

thanks for your note. could you send me some stuff including:

1) the name you were born with>>

Kenneth Edward Wolter, born April 24, 1948 (three months after Gandhi was assassinated in India and one month before Israel became a nation) in Houston, Texas. Paternal grandparents second generation German and Swede. Maternal grandparents Irish and Scots with ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and Civil War for the South.

<< 2) why you changed it>>
Jokingly because my first wife would not change her name after our divorce. In truth because I was about to turn 40 and decided to make an overt statement that I intended to pursue a higher calling in life. A belief that if I did nothing more in life than change my name, people would have to at least for a moment consider WorldPeace when they spoke my name. I made the commitment to change my name coincidentally on April 1, 1988, which was April Fool's Day and Good Friday. One tradition indicating the name change was foolish and the Christian tradition relating to death and rebirth. 

<< 3) your business and political history>>

BUSINESS AND PERSONAL

1966 Graduated from Waltrip HS Houston Texas
3 days later began college at University of Houston
1966-1967 Inhalation Therapist at Diagnostic Center Hospital. (Full Time)
1967-1968 Inhalation Therapist at M D Anderson hospital (quit because I could no longer deal with seeing so many people struggle and often times die of cancer.) (Full Time)
1968-1969 Computer Operator at Exxon. (Full time)
May 1969 Married First Wife
1969-1970 Bus Driver for Spring Branch School District (Part Time)
August 31, 1970 Graduated from U of H with BA political science.
October 10, 1970 drafted into US Army trained for 11 months to go to Vietnam as infantry sergeant, but was sent to Vicenza, Italy. Discharged May 1972 because Nixon was cutting back troops to honor his campaign promises. (I actually joined the Marines in early 1970 as a potential officer but was rejected because I did not have an Engineering degree. Two weeks after being drafted, they asked me to sign up and I declined because I did not want to discharge, sit around at home for 6 months and then go back in.) (My three biological sons all went into the Marine Corps, the youngest just discharged after six years duty last month.)
1972-1977 Self employed as Life and Casualty Insurance agent. Acquired my CLU and CPCU designations.
July 1970 Daughter born.
1974 First son born.
1975 Second son born
1976 Third son born
1977 Went back to school on GI bill and graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy Degree from U of H in 1978.
1977 went to work for Memorial City Hospital in Houston as accounting clerk. (full time)
1978 Accepted into U of H Law School with help from father-in-law's employment with the Cullen family in Houston.
1978-1980 Held two jobs as Controller and one as VP of Finance and Operations (full time)
1981 Started my own bookkeeping business. (Chose not to get my CPA because I did not want to be restricted in soliciting business.)
1984 Graduated U of H Law School with Doctor of Jurisprudence.
1984 Bought a tax business in the barrio in Houston's East End and did 1200 tax returns per year.
May 1985 licensed to practice law and within a year had over 250 open legal files due to my large accounting and tax clientele.
1987 divorced: gave wife bookkeeping business, kids and property and I kept my visitation every Thursday and Saturday, never missed once.
1987 moved to a house across street from business in barrio
1988 shut down law and tax business.
March 1988 Oldest two sons moved in with me because of grades.
April 1988 Changed my name
June 1988 sons went back to mother
July 1988 sons came back to me
July 1988 met my current wife, Elizabeth Kay Goldman Long
September 1988 sons went back to mother
September 1988 Oldest son came to live with me. I moved to Spring, Texas
October 1988 Second son came to live with me
October 1988 Kay moved in with me
December 1988 youngest son came to live with me
January 1989 daughter moved away from ex wife 
January 1, 1990 married Kay who has two sons same age as my oldest two children.
July 1990 moved to Groesbeck, Texas to live with wife's 75 year old father who had two heart attacks and was alone on a 125 acre farm with 46 year old Mongoloid daughter.
June 1991 father in law died. 
June 1992 settled estate and moved back to Houston
Jan 1993 moved to Colorado with youngest two sons to get away from ex-wife
1993-1996 worked menial warehouse jobs and at home worked on translating the sacred books of the major religions (New Testament, Jewish - Book of Job, Hindu -Bhavagad Gita, Buddhist - Dhammapada, Analects of Confucius, Tao te Ching, Tibetan Book of the Dead) with a common inclusive terminology. Also wrote the Common Denominators of Peace and Peaceful Coexistence which was changed at the suggest of an executive at Harpers San Francisco to "The Book of Peace" (Could not work out a deal on the book however because one of the subordinate editors said peace would not sell.) All these books as well as 20 years of poetry and art are on my WorldPeace Peace Page at www.johnworldpeace.com
1995 last son went into the Marines
March 1996 moved back to Houston and reopened law office suing attorneys and car dealers. Then began to do family law, some criminal law and David v. Goliath litigation against corporations like Landry's Seafood and Landmark Chevrolet

POLITICAL

I have had no political positions and have been an observer my whole life. In college, I watched the Hippies and ROTC cadets clash. I read extensively about American politics and studied Hitler in depth trying to understand how a madman could take control of Europe.

I was simply too busy with going to school full time, working full time and raising children to be able to participate in politics or anything else.

Now I am in a position to devote my energies to politics but I would probably not have gotten involved were the Democratic party not in disarray and the Texas Republican elite off to Washington. I had prepared my self and the opportunity to run for office manifested when George was elected President.

As an insurance agent, tax man, and lawyer I have dealt with people's most important problems. I have been listening to and solving people's problems for 30 years. Now I have the opportunity to help make some changes at the legislative level which I believe will ease a lot of those problems. 

<< 4) what qualifies you to be governor>>

1) I have the IQ. I was a member of Mensa but after I changed my name I withdrew from all organizations to which I belonged (Masons, Church, etc) in order to try to avoid any stereotype. 

2) I have the ability to connect with warehouse laborers, farm workers, corporate executives and intellectuals, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, children, peers and seniors because I have worked with them and helped the all during my life.

3) I understand business because I have worked with small businesses for 30 years. Small business are 90% of the businesses in the USA

4) I understand that power corrupts and that even though I support business expansion and development, I know that there must be government and unions to put a limit on their power. Tobacco companies will kill human beings for the sake of profit. Yet they employ a lot of people and a lot of people own stock in them. I am not for killing the industry but I am for stopping their denials that tobacco does not cause cancer. And that cancer costs all of society who has to pay for the indigent who have no insurance.

5) I know that we have an obligation to ourselves and our children to preserve the earth with which we have a symbiotic relationship. Just think, a hundred years ago there were some streams from which you could safely drink.

All in all I am a practical idealist. I know that the world can be a better place and we should work toward that end. But I know that we must move slowly because change causes a ripple effect that can get out of control if too much change is initiated all at once.

At the same time, I am a fighter. I am an advocate for peace but I am not a pacifist. I know that there are sociopaths in society who must be dealt with. And I am not just talking about convicts. I do not advocate violence but sometimes you have to fight.

6) I will do well because I am not a liar. I have never been a user of illegal drugs. I am not sexually intemperate. I am a very light drinker of one glass of wine at dinner. I am not a materialistic person yet I will promote controlled greed.

7) And most importantly, I have a global vision of trying to make things better. As they say, "think global, act local". I know where we need to go to reduce the debt our children will have to pay off and leave the earth better than we found it. These are templates to which all social change needs to be measured. The global question must be asked in each case: whether as a whole society will be better off or worse off. And if one can do that without the obligation to skew those global mandates due to political contributions then everyone is the better for it.

John WorldPeace

June 15, 2001