The Road of Bones

As the meeting came to order, one of the party delegates stood and read Barnwell’s bio. According to documents provided, Barnwell has over 20 years experience in entrepreneurial business management. He has a Bachelors degree in Historical Studied with a focus on Education and Communications from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Dallas. Barnwell is also an associate member of the American Bar Association’s dispute resolution section and a member of the Center for Latin American Economics. He has lived in Denton County since the late 1970’s, and currently resides with his wife in Providence Village.

One of the first points of order for Barnwell was dealing out a little reality to party faithful. “It ain’t going to be so easy, my friends,” he said. “My Republican opponent, Michael Burgess, has raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars in just the last few months. And it is all special interest money from big corporations. You know, guys like TXU, SBC, Pfizer and Exxon. The pharmaceutical industry, along with the insurance folks and the electric utilities really want Burgess to stick around.” Financial data from the Center for Responsive Politics confirms Barnwell’s claims. “And they will make sure his pockets are bottomless,” he continued. “All I am running on is a freshly repaired heart and a pool of small donors. Well, so far anyway.”

Barnwell’s speech went on for about an hour and a half. He touched on a variety of issues, including immigration, the war in Iraq, home ownership and property taxes. The most looming political challenge, America’s invasion of Iraq, weighed heavily on the candidate. He left the topic for last, but devoted more words to it than any other issue.

“One of the biggest offenses I’ve seen so far – aside from our Secretary of Defense and Vice President condoning the brutal torture of war prisoners - is the military’s body armor rule,” said Barnwell. “The company that was chosen by the Army and Marines wrote into their rules that if a soldier uses a different kind of armor and dies in battle, the soldier’s $500,000 life insurance policy is void. The problem is the body armor, which is only given to a small percentage of our soldiers, doesn’t stop the bullets. If a family saves up $5,000 to buy the kind of armor the generals wear, their loved one in Iraq is risking that insurance coverage. How can that be?”

Barnwell also offered an alternative solution to the conflict. Diametrically opposed to Congressman Burgess, Barnwell believes there to be a better plan than the indefinite occupation of Iraq. “How do we get out? Pull back now,” he said. “Not pull out now, but pull back now. We sit down with the experts, our allies around the world, all our generals, and we work out a real estate withdraw plan so we don’t have what happened in Vietnam. Pull back responsibly. That is the key. […] Bring in our allies. Bring in the United Nations. We must do everything we can to prevent the bloodbath that is a civil war. But Bush and my opponent, Michael Burgess, want our soldiers to stay in the line of fire. For what? For what? Nobody can say.”