Full Transcript of Vital VOICE ***EXCLUSIVE*** interview with candidate Joan Landmann (67th District)

2008 Vital VOICE Primary Candidate Interviews
By: Lucas Hudson, Editor
& Colin Murphy, Senior Writer

VITAL VOICE INTERVIEW
JOAN LANDMANN
JULY 2, 2008

Colin Murphy, Senior Writer: We have a large GLBT readership so I just want to touch on some of those issues—we have a marriage amendment here in Missouri, so there’s nothing that will happen on that front for quite some time—but as a civil right, how do you view marriage equality for gay men and lesbians?

Joan Landmann: I think everyone should be afforded that right. It is a fundamental right and to discriminate “because of” is wrong in my point of view. As an attorney I certainly understand that discrimination at its heart is wrong. I mean we’ve been through this before, haven’t we? History seems to be repeating itself and I’m amazed we have not learned our lesson the first time. No citizen should be disenfranchised because of sexual orientation.

CM: Then obviously you support the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act?

JL: Yeah—that kind of encompassed the whole thing, didn’t it? No person should be disenfranchised because of sexual orientation.

CM: Do you support the PROMO Anti-Bullying bill which would include sexual orientation in the enumerated categories?

JL: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, children need to have a safe environment in which to learn. Educators need to provide one free of any sort of violence or anything.

CM: I looked at your website and something jumped out at me and it’s probably perfectly innocent but you refer to, “choices in lifestyle and reproductive options”—you weren’t meaning that homosexuality is a choice?

JL: No—other than to chose to be true to your biological self. That is your choice to be who you are, absolutely and it’s not the government's decision to dictate who you partner with at all.

Lucas Hudson, Editor: I have a question about diversity in St. Louis—with people moving back to the city, many of whom are younger, white, moneyed progressives; how do you revitalize parts of the city without gentrifying it and locking out New Americans or African Americans who perhaps can’t afford the rent of rehabbed properties—how do you keep these neighborhoods diverse?

JL: That’s a really good question and you know I think neighborhoods are going to—part of the diversity is having different income levels in different neighborhoods.

LH: I know you don’t have the answer to this and I’m not necessarily looking for a definitive answer, but could you talk about it as a problem?

JL: And it is a problem, certainly, and we’re seeing that in the neighborhoods where we’re canvassing. It runs the gambit from one end to the other and I have to say I have enjoyed the time I’ve spent in the lower income areas just as much as the higher income areas. People in that area—it’s mixed, it's very mixed—and even in income levels you can see it in the housing. The people welcome us down there just as much and they’re happy to speak with us and we have enjoyed it down there. But you are right, it is frightening the a city the size of St. Louis in our geographic area is experiencing the discrimination that we do and in many cases it’s against the European communities; against African Americans. It’s disheartening, it really is.

I think we need to come together as a city and as a community and recognize the strengths that every race and ethnicity and religion brings to the party and embrace it. I love experiencing different cultures. I think it’s interesting and I think it’s fascinating.

CM: I have a quick question—obviously there’s nothing that Jefferson City can do about gas prices but they can do something about public transportation. What are your thoughts on that?

JL: We’ve explored this, actually, and there’s not a lot of federal money right now in order to expand Metrolink from what I understand. We need to do something about our mass transportation system in the city of St. Louis. Why our mass transportation system isn’t more on par with Chicago and New York, I have no idea. Now, people are utilizing mass transit much more than they were this time last year. We’re hearing it frequently and somebody told me the other night that it takes them two hours to get from downtown to Clayton by the bus. You know, build it and people will come is sort of my philosophy. People will use it, but if you make it too terribly inconvenient, people will not use it. You know, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? But yeah, we need mass transit—gas prices are not going to go backwards—this is our future right here—it is not going to get better, it is going to get worse. And I think we need to prepare for that. We’re behind the eight ball.

CM: I’d like to touch on health care—thousands of people have lost health coverage under Gov. Blunt. Give me two proposals you have to address this issue which is one of the top two issues on voters’ minds.

JL: We need to bring those people back onto the healthcare rolls. We know the legislature missed their opportunity to put those people back into the system in the last session. The same people who kicked them off the last time in order to balance the budget voted to keep them off again this time. So we need to have a big push in the next session to get those people back on.

We would also like to see that that income level is set at 100-percent of poverty. I think we need to push that up a little bit more because our poverty level is still incredibly low. It is set at what I think is 1960s standards, it is not the standard of today. So that is one thing I would like to see absolutely done in the next session and there will be a big push by me if elected to this position.

I think we need to take a better look at figuring out how to get more people quality, affordable healthcare. Another thing I hear in the district is people can’t afford it.—period—end of story. That’s why they don’t have it. This is something that’s become a necessity—it’s not a luxury to take care of ourselves.

We need to find ways to work within the system whether it’s the current health system or finding another way through the state in order to get people quality, affordable, healthcare.

LH: Turning to education—I realize that both you and your opponent would like to bring control of the city schools back to an elected school board—but what I want to ask is would you be in favor of any measure to actually hold parents responsible—I think it’s all too easy to simply blame the schools for education today—would you be in favor of any measure that held parents responsible, even legally responsible, for attendance or homework or anything of that type?

JL: That’s kind of a broad question to answer. You know certainly there are certain behaviors that children exhibit—violence, crime, things like that—that perhaps should have some accountability for the actions of their children. It kind of depends on what that is; there are limitations and one thing we know too is that there are a lot of parents in the city of St. Louis who work two jobs in an effort to survive and that has an effect on their family life as well.

The problem in the education system is not one variable. We do know it is less about the kids than it is about he parents, the teachers and the administration. We need to work collectively to figure out how to make sure our children are educated in the city. That comes at a high cost to us as city residents. People are leaving the city because they cannot find a decent education for their children

And I think we just all need to come together and figure out what is the best way to get that done. I’m not opposed to that however I would be very wary of what those repercussions are and for what actions. I would be very careful about that.

LH: You support charter schools but not tax credit or voucher programs—why do you support charter schools but not tax credits or vouchers?

I support charter schools because a lot of parents in the area have found that that is a place where they can get an education for their kids. They are open to the public. There are certain things about charter schools that I am not fully on board with, as in the way that there is no public oversight of those organizations. There hasn’t been conclusive evidence that they are educating children at a better level, but if a parent feels that their child is getting an education at a particular charter school then I think that’s something we need to be cognizant of and appreciate it for what it is. It’s about educating our kids and that’s the bottom line and some of the charter schools are very good charter schools. We know that, and we know that they’re doing it for the kids and that’s what it’s all about.

CM: Turning to reproductive freedom, there has been a slow, methodical chipping away of rights. What do you believe is achievable? Do you want to simply put a dam up to stop the current erosion or do you think some of these rights can be restored?

JL: We certainly want to put that dam up pretty quick, and if that’s the best we can do in the next session, that’s enough. Anymore backsliding, we just cannot have that.

I am amazed that in the year 2008 we are talking about his issue. We need to get more reproductive rights back. Effectively there is an abortion ban here in the state of Missouri. It is so difficult for a woman to seek abortion care in the state of Missouri that it might as well be illegal. We are absolutely just at the border of that. We need to get back to good family planning; good comprehensive family planning for lower income families because we know that’s where the heart of it is.

For us to be talking about this in the year 2008 is just incredible. It is a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices that fit her family, it is not for anyone else to dictate what happens in her body.

CM: This is my last question—could you name a difference or two that you have with your opponent, Mike Colona?

JL: Certainly on choice; I differ in so many ways from Mike Colona on that. Number one, I am a woman and, not to sound flip, but it is a woman’s issue and we understand it to its core. I’m also on NARAL Pro Choice Missouri’s Foundation Board, so I’m in a unique position to understand what that organization does and what they’re fighting for and I see the efforts that they do. I was also their volunteer of the year so as you can tell this issue is very passionate for me.

Again it is not my personal belief about a woman’s right—whether a woman should or should not terminate a pregnancy. It’s keeping it safe, legal and rare in Missouri that is our mission. And many people think that we’re not pro life—we are pro life—we are very much pro life but we also believe it is a woman’s choice.

The other thing that I think we probably differ on—environmental issues are very important to me at this stage of the game. We were just recently endorsed by the Sierra Club which is a very good endorsement for our campaign. And the district that we’re in, because it is so progressive, it is an issue that means a lot to a lot of people down there. We are killing our environment and we need to look for other forms of energy, other forms of transportation. We need to make those forms available to people so that they can utilize them and be a part of it. Again, we’re behind the eight ball on a lot of this stuff. We should have been working on these issues years ago.

So in my mind there’s a big push for it right now, whether its wind power or solar power there are ways and we should be doing them.

LH: In addition to talking to Metro and expanding their services, how do you on make alternate transportation like walking, biking, small motor transportation; scooters, Segways, etc.—a more viable means of getting around the city?

JL: Yeah I think there’s a lot of ways we can do that, actually. I’ve spoken with some of the local bike lobbyists here and received a little bit of education on some of their initiatives. And I think they are very good and very wise in what they do. You know for a few extra dollars, we can create bike lanes that are safe and that people can use. The more people that use them, the more aware motorists are going to become of bicyclists and allow them space on the road as well. You know a bike rack for a bus station can’t be that costly for what it saves us in the long run. The people who are using that bike rack—they’re not on roads—they’re not creating more exhaust and pollution. They are utilizing Metrolink and the more people who are using it we can get more routes in place. There’s a lot of benefits. We don’t think about the long term benefits verses the little bit of money spent. Maybe it’s not a little bit but in the long run I think it’s going to benefit us in a lot of ways.

CM: I have a follow up on reproductive freedom. St. Louis is currently number one if Gonorrhea and Chlamydia—it’s not a distinction anyone relishes—what can we do to bring STD rates down? Obviously sex education; how far would you take that—in schools?

JL: It absolutely needs to be in schools and education is the key. For some reason in our society we are afraid to talk about our reproductive system and I am confused by that. The reproductive system is no different than our nervous system or our circulatory system or our digestive system—it’s part of our bodies. If kids are not educated at a very high level of the repercussions of unprotected sex, they’re not going to learn it. And it needs to come from an educated point of view; it needs to come from a biological point of view like anything else that’s learned in the school system. Not talking about it does not make it go away; not talking about it makes it worse. If we’re not aware of it, how can we know about it? If someone doesn’t educate us, how can we know about it? Education is the key and we need to get abstinence-only sex programs out of the public schools. We need to bring a comprehensive sex education back to our public schools. That is where it needs to be taught. Not that the parents can’t have a part in that, but not all parents are obviously teaching their children the right things and if they were we wouldn’t have that distinction.

LH: St. Louis suffers from a chronic bout of brain drain—a lot of intellectuals who live in the area choose to leave St. Louis. Every city to some extent deals with that, but I think in St. Louis, it’s a particularly severe malady. Do you think anything can be done to keep St. Louis talent in St. Louis?

JL: We have a lot of culture here that people really enjoy. If we had a good economic base in order to keep those people here along with the cultural diversity, it would behoove us to do that. We’re a little bit conservative here in Missouri. We don’t like to do too many things progressive terribly quickly; we like to think a lot about them.

There’s a group over off of Forest Park, the Center for Emerging Technology—they're a group that’s a exploring a lot of new ways—new innovative medicines and treatments and things like that and I think more businesses like that, more incubator type businesses are what is going to keep people here. It is the wave of the future, it is how most other large cities are moving and I think we need to tap into that and explore that and make that part of our economic development.

LH: You’ve mentioned in interviews that you’re a very strong supporter of the arts. Talk a little bit about why art is important to the city’s vitality and how do you keep some of our artistic talent here in St. Louis?

JL: Keeping it here is investing in it. It gives the artists a reason to stay here in the city of St. Louis. Art beautifies the city and it brings conventions and tourists because of those attractions. Again, other cities—I lived in Minneapolis for a short period of time and they did the Charlie Brown and Snoopy characters—they did one each year where they had Snoopy dressed up different ways and that actually brought people into the state of Minnesota. And it brought people into the city to look at those characters and to see how different organizations made them up. It is part of a convention business; it is part of a tourist business. Our art museum is world renowned and people come to see that. People come to our zoo. Let’s give them more to see and bring more people here.

You know it was pointed out to me not long ago that we have the most known architectural structure here in the state of Missouri and the city of St. Louis in the Gateway Arch. Everybody knows where the arch is. When I say I’m from St. Louis, Missouri everybody that’s the first thing people say, oh, that’s where the arch is. It’s something that we need to be proud of and something we need to expand on. Art makes a city beautiful. It’s just that simple.

LH: Another difference between you and your opponent is local control; he is in favor of keeping control over the police in Jefferson City and you are in favor of keeping it here. Why are you for local control and what do you think is Mike Colona’s motivation for being against it?

JL: I’m not sure what his motivation is for keeping it there, but Alderman Gregali said in a meeting not long ago pretty definitively, the civil war’s over folks. And that was the whole purpose of having the police under the control of Jefferson City. Here we are 140 years later and we still don’t have control over our own police department? It seems to make sense from the people that I’ve spoken to that the people who pay the salaries of the police department should have some say in the control of it. It seems to make more sense.

LH: Are you in favor of a civilian review board?

JL: No I am not. As an attorney, I can’t condone every action that the police department does, but what they do by putting their life on the line every day—there’s a lot more to it than I think a lot of people in the public see. It’s a tough job, it’s a very hard job and they're out there putting their lives on the line every day. And sometimes, they do need to do things that we, as citizens, may not always feel is right and appropriate. But yet, at the same time, sometimes their actions to stretch farther than they should. I’m not sold on a civilian board. I think there are other ways to control our police force.

Thanks for having me, and I hope your readers enjoy the interview.

LH: Thank you, Joan.