Candidate questionnaire: Tom Ritter

NAME: Tom Ritter

AGE: 47

PLACE OF BIRTH: Perryville

OCCUPATION:

Retired aerospace scientist that currently manages a grass fed beef farm, and talk radio host.

PREVIOUS OFFICES HELD OR SOUGHT:

Though I successfully lead many multimillion dollar secrets projects as an aerospace scientist, my rewards in my volunteer efforts have dwarfed that work. I have been part of many public health and welfare organizations, including being the president of the board of directors on a 501(c)3. The greatest reward was meeting my roommate and best friend Jennifer Friedrich, who was severely disabled from cerebral palsy, (her story: http://theflopside.com/). When I met, Jenn she was struggling to recover from a surgery that was performed to help her walk. Working with Jenn on her nutrition, exercise and attitude, not only allowed her to quickly heal but to relearn to walk, feed herself, snow ski, drive a race car and is now training for a triathlon. While most people cannot believe she drives a car, but now she is very accomplished and even does public outreach to inspire others to overcome and achieve.

WHAT IN YOUR BACKGROUND OR EDUCATION MAKES YOU QUALIFIED FOR THIS OFFICE?:

Most people realize our country is heading in the wrong direction on many issues. Yet we have the greatest opportunity in history to make life dramatically better for all. Having worked with many legislators and spending time at both state and federal capitols, it becomes very obvious that our elected servants are very much being influenced by corporate and specials interest groups. Often times this is in direct conflict with the best interest of "We the People".

Why is this important to you reading this? "Profits before People" legislation and regulations are being pushed down from the top to our local communities which will greatly alter our choices regarding, health, food and god given rights. Many of our greatest political analysts indicate the local level is the best hope and is absolutely necessary to act in the best interest of its people. Regardless of who is elected to our board, I would like to see the board have a much more critical eye and become more proactive to safe guard our health and welfare. One suggestion is for our public health board to work with local health practitioners to offer information to the public that they will not get from the corporate interests groups. One quick example is the fact that scientific studies prove optimal levels of Vitamin D3 reduces the risk of some cancers over 50 percent, it reduces the risk of getting and lowers the impact of many diseases as well as influenza and colds. Estimates are 85 percent of Americans have insufficient levels. Why isn't this widely known? Because, you can obtain this wonder nutrient for free from the sun or very inexpensively from supplements.

I'm glad to see we have very capable board members and candidates. In addition to my previous public health efforts, my radio broadcast experience with Capitol Forum (http://republicbroadcasting.org/) has enabled me to research, report and interview world renowned experts regarding health, welfare and community service. Perhaps my greatest contribution would be coupling this with my scientific analysis experience and my sincere desire to do the "next right thing" to make a difference for all us.