Guest MINDSETTER™ Keith Anderson: Why I’m Running for State Representative
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Originally from Maine, I ended up in Rhode Island as a result of attending Bryant University, where I graduated from in 2003. After school, I was hired as a loan officer at a national mortgage lender and was promoted to branch manager only twelve months later.
After several years in sales, management and proprietorship, I decided to switch careers and become a high school teacher as I felt an obligation to help educate our youth.
I currently teach Personal Finance at East Providence High School, educating students on the importance of being fiscally prudent and well versed in the arts of investment strategies.
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In addition, I try and serve as a positive role model for students to look up to, and constantly expound the value of having a "can't quit attitude" and tenacious work ethic. I have accomplished a lot over the last ten years despite being a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair after being hit by a drunk driver when I was twenty-one.
Despite my "disability", I do not outstretch my hand to ask for benefits paid for by the hard working citizens in our communities. Instead, I have chosen to earn my paycheck and give back to society despite earning nearly one thousand dollars less each month at my job compared to what I would receive if I were to accept a disability check. In my mind, I am fully capable of working and would rather see those funds be given to someone who may truly need them, including our seniors, developmentally disabled and brave veterans returning home.
I am running for office, not because I want to, but because I once again feel compelled to do something to help my community. I have always been of the mindset that if you want something done right, you are better off doing it yourself. My values are as principled as they come. I am an honest man who has no interest in seeking riches or fame as a public servant; I only seek solutions to our ever-compounding problems in hopes of restoring taxpayers trust in government, and leaving our posterity a better place with a brighter future.
Our state is headed in the wrong direction. There appears to be no end to the tax and spend policies of the General Assembly, which has been dominated by the same party for over seventy years. Rhode Islanders are voting with their feet, they are leaving the state because of the high taxes, over regulation and lack of available opportunity. I will not sit idly by and do nothing, when I feel called upon to stand up and serve my community.
I am going to Providence in an effort to support the hardworking taxpayers of District 29, as well as all of the seniors, veterans, and children across the state. I will not allow government to continue to leverage our future with high taxes and unsustainable debt. I ask you to join me as I fight to restore fiscal sanity to our state by reducing the size of government, providing incentive to businesses and by reforming our entitlement programs.
As is the case with my students, I hope to serve as a role model for those in our community as well as the politicians at the statehouse.
Keith Anderson is a candidate for State Rep. in District 29.
