Lawrence Knight Duquesne
& Family
Rear: Lehr & Wife Robyn,
Front: Daughter, Autumn |
Hi!
Excuse me!
Can I bug ya a minute?
...is how I approach prospective petitioners as I solicit
signatures. And while that may not be the way a life begins,
it is how each campaign begins.
Hi!
…is a friendly greeting. It says, “I'm not sneaking
up on you.” It gives you a chance to size me up.
Excuse me!
…is an acknowledgement that I’m interrupting you.
I know that I'm using up your time.
Can I bug ya
a minute?
… means that I have more to say so if you need to blow
me off, now would be a good time.
After that, I've gotten someone's
attention without getting them out of the bath or rousing
them from a nap. In fact, it usually doesn't take as long
as a minute to actually sign a petition. I don't knock on
strangers’ houses, I walk the residential areas of the
district and engage pedestrians and weekend gardeners and
skateboarders and people out walking the dog. They're up.
They're alert. They're approachable.
I
will not knock on someone's door unless
a),
it’s an emergency,
b),
I have an appointment, or
c),
it is the home of friends who more or less expect me, and
are usually glad to see me.
Other
than that: NO WAY.
People should respect your privacy.
The Congress should respect your privacy, the State Legislature
should respect your privacy, and first of all, politicians
should respect your privacy. If a candidate shows so little
regard for your rights while he’s begging for your support,
how much will he respect them when he’s in office?
Earlier…
Archival
Campaign Brochures -- 1982, 1996, 2000
(Click for a larger view) |
A little background, usually
in order about here…
Our family has lived on the Island
of Hawaii since 1997. We moved here from the Oregon Coast.
Previously I have lived (as a Navy Brat) in Oregon, on Oahu
(1969-1971), and in New England and in Washington State. My
cumulative kama’aina tenure would now be about seven
years.
I guess I was born a libertarian,
but I didn’t know the word until adolescence. I developed
an interest in politics at a fairly early age. My parents
were split over Kennedy/Nixon, and my mother showed a great
fondness for Barry Goldwater, so, by the time I was 12 years
old, and Nixon and Humphrey were the anointed, I was Clean
with Gene. It’s just as well that 16 year olds couldn’t
vote in 1972, because at the time I believed that George McGovern
was going to rescue America from the viper Nixon. I’ve
since come to recant that position a bit, looking upon Richard
Nixon as something of an unintentional national hero. His
worse than useless price freeze of the same year was the final
straw that led to the founding of the Libertarian Party, and
his presidency in general has done more to inspire distrust
in government than just about any other figure in recent history.
Sadly, the lesson seems not to have stuck.
The Knights, 1982: Lehr, Danell,
Z, and Nathan |
In 1975 I met Danell Aukerman,
and in 1976 we were wed. She has since blessed me with two
fine sons, Robert Isaac and Nathan Tav. Robert (“Z”)
is presently an Astronomy major at UH in Hilo, and Nathan
is pursuing his Master’s Degree in Mathematics at Oregon
State University.
Later in 1976 I found myself
a Jerry Brown Republican, arguing that America should return
to the Gold Standard… and the Moon. I’m still working
on both counts. During that same summer I’d read William
F. Buckley’s Up
From Liberalism and re-read Abbie Hoffman’s Revolution
for the Hell of It. The two taken together set up
a wicked turbulence in my mind that left me well poised for
an epiphany.
Working security at the Ketchikan
Spruce Mill one long Alaskan summer night I ran across some
literature from the Roger MacBride campaign, and first saw
the word libertarian spelled with a capital letter and in
some other context than “civil”. I read it, read
it again, and all that night read it over and over. Amazing!
Here was an organized group of people who seemed to believe
as I did, that governments are instituted among men, and that
they derive their JUST powers from the consent of the governed,
and that the government that governs best governs least, and
every other battle cry of freedom that I could recall from
my twenty years of life.
That was twenty-six years ago
this summer, and I haven’t looked back. But I did go
on. I spent four years in the Air Force, served as a Jet Mechanic
for the Strategic Air Command and for the Pacific Air Forces,
and was honorably discharged in 1981 with four stripes, a
wife, and two sons. We returned to Corvallis to cash in my
GI Bill where I studied Physics and Mechanical Engineering
at Oregon State.
In addition to my formal course
work at the University I began pursuing my political education
in earnest, attending meetings of local Libertarians and arguing
long into the night. It was then that I met Diane Graham.
For the past twenty years she has remained a trusted advisor
and a harsh critic. I made my first run for the House in 1982
as an otherwise unemployed full-time student. The party in
Oregon didn't manage to secure ballot status that year, so
we had to run write-in. I'm pretty sure we cracked double
digits on that one.
In 1986 I was graduated from
OSU with a pair of degrees and a fair amount of debt. I worked
where I could and let politics take a back seat to my other
interests. During this time Danell and I drifted from each
other, gradually pushing each other away. Eventually we stayed
pushed. In 1988, while playing Sherlock Holmes in a local
amateur theatre production, I met Robyn Reck, who was working
as a sound technician in the show. We resonated both on a
political and moral level, but, more important, we laughed
a lot together. We were married in 1989, and in 1991, our
daughter, Autumn Selene Kara Zor-El Marybrock Duquesne was
born. She is named after the cyber-hero of The
Moon is a Harsh Mistress Adam Selene, Supergirl
(in the original Kryptonian) and the woman who was responsible
for coaxing Robyn to work on the show that brought us together.
Duquesne is the name we both adopted when we were married.
My name is Knight, her name is Reck, and our name is Duquesne
(from Doc Smith’s Skylark
series – science fiction principles run strong through
this family.)
By the time the political itch
got strong enough to throw me back in to the fray, it was
1996. This time the Oregon party was on the ballot, and so
we did much better, receiving, for myself at least, just under
2%.
Neither disappointed nor discouraged,
having witnessed a progression of going from “Liber-what?”
to actually being recognized, printed in the newspaper, and
acknowledged on the air, I was not to be denied. I would run
every chance I got. Politics, and campaigning, I had learned,
were just too much fun and too satisfying to ever sit it out
again. As steep as the odds appear, not trying is not acceptable.
Big talk, but life intervenes.
In December of 1996, just six
weeks after the election that had so fired my enthusiasm,
facing another grim wet Oregon Coast winter that was taking
it’s toll on Robyn’s health, and listening to Bing
Crosby singing Mele Kalikimaka on the stereo, we realized
that you can be broke and in debt anywhere in America. We’d
always wanted to move to the tropics (or at least vacation).
I had lived on Oahu as a boy when the Navy had stationed my
step-father at Pearl, and the Air Force had sent me to Okinawa
for part of my tour. I knew I was suited to the year-round
barefoot scene. My mother had since moved here after her retirement
and had been coaxing us to visit for some time. It took Bing,
ultimately, to give us that final push.
We worked. We saved. I did double
shifts. We had a huge garage sale. We packed up, tossed out,
and mailed off, a box at a time. And when we stepped off the
plane in Kona in August of 1997 we knew we’d made it
home. Within a year, we’d purchased a house – a
house mind you, a house in paradise. No other place on earth
has been as good for us as the Big Island.
In 1998, Noreen Chun ran for
the Congress as a Libertarian, leaving me off the hook. Besides,
bettah one local girl run than some pretentious malihini.
In 2000, Noreen elected not to
run again, and I felt it was again time for me to step forward.
Third party candidates (unless
they are gainfully retired) are still obliged to earn a living.
So, while working as an Audit Clerk at the Hilton Waikoloa
Village (in whose employ I remain) I chanced to meet Wayne
Ryker. Here was another who was fond of an intellectual challenge
and could see clearly to the center of an issue. While working
together we often argued politics. I made no secret of my
aspirations and he made no secret of his doubts. He, too,
has become a trusted advisor and harsh critic. (I need them
all.) It was through him that I met our wondrous web spinner,
Sharon Spilman, whose gracious generosity and titanic talents
have permitted me to inflict my clumsy prose on the suffering
surfing audience.
We did respectably for a party
that no one had heard of a generation ago, and for a candidate
who was new to the area and still pushing down roots. For
the record, based on vote totals in partisan races in Hawaii,
I was the most popular Libertarian of the season. Polling
only half the state, and winning roughly 2.4% of the vote,
I beat our party's Presidential and Senate candidates, both
running statewide, and in raw numbers (4468) every other independent
party candidate in the state with the exception of Ralph Nader
(whose “independent” credentials are questionable.)
I hope we can build on that. With your help, and the valuable
support of my extended political family (see below), we will.
Hawaii’s greatest burdens
are crushing taxes, suffocating regulations, and inflexible
labor laws. Hawaii is rich in resources and opportunities,
but it goes nowhere if people are unwilling to invest their
money, their sweat, or their dreams. A business friendly Hawaii,
freed of artificial restraints, could become a real workers’
paradise – the Hong Kong of the Pacific.
I will bring to the Congress
an understanding of the limits of federal authority. These
limitations are spelled out in the Constitution in concise
English, and are clear to any reasonably educated person (with
the obvious exceptions of judges, lawyers, Democrats, and
Republicans.) I promise neither pork nor special favors, but
freedom and opportunity for all.
 |
|
Citizen
Duquesne is...
|
| Policy
& Oratory: |
Lehr Duquesne |
| Public
Affairs: |
Robyn
Duquesne |
| Policy
Analysts: |
Wayne
Ryker, Diane Graham |
| Inspiration: |
Autumn,
Nathan & Z |
| Wicked
Web Craft: |
Sharon
Spilman |
|
|
