My name is Tisha Casada and I'm the independent candidate for Colorado's Thurk Congressional District. The Thurk Congressional District is 29 counties in the state of Colorado. It's most of the western slope and the boundaries go all the way down south to New Mexico and north to Wyoming. So it's huge. It's 45,000 square miles and I'm running for Congress as an independent because I think both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have sold out the American people and I want to find actual solutions for our country and community. I'm a small business owner. I've had my own small business for seven years now and the final straw for me, first of all after 2008 I had a lot of my clients shut their doors or cut their marketing budgets so of course that affected my own small business but the final straw for me was when I had a farmers market in Pueblo County and the rules and regulations became so much that it was almost impossible for me to profit. The rules for my privately run market were different than the publicly subsidized markets so it was unfair and I thought I wrote I petitioned to my city council and the county commissioner and the city manager and I said listen I'm a young entrepreneur I'm here I'm trying to bring money you'll sell tax revenues into the city and they never responded to me they completely ignored me and driving home I thought government's broken and I'm gonna run for Congress. I have met probably the nicest kindness needest people in my entire life and they're all in the third congressional district of Colorado so I've met wonderful people and we're doing really good things for the community regardless of the outcome of the election we're trying to find solutions for people who desperately need them and the negatives are probably learning about how much money it does take to run an effective campaign we've outraged any independent or third party in our district to date but it's still a pittance compared to what the two parties raise and we are really working hard at actually pounding the pavement and meeting people and it's traveled the third district that costs a lot of money so the realization of what you need in the bank to be effective is you know it's hard but we know what it is and we know that we can continue to work to accomplish that. The two parties have a system in place to be able to have debates and put you in front of people and they have a large mailing list and they have a large calling list and so running independently we have to create all of that on our own what I've kind of come to realize is how fragile the process is and that with you know enough money it is possible to run independent and be just as effective as either of the parties are because what it's about is reaching people and creating your own database and creating your own network of people who are able to engage in you know debates or talk about the campaign and talk to others so it's been a learning experience for sure but running independently also means that I don't have to listen to a party and when I go to Washington DC I can vote according to my conscience and according to the desires of the people all the people whether the Republican or Democrat or independent or libertarian or green or American Constitution party it doesn't matter who they are when I'm unaffiliated or independent I'm accountable to everybody at the same time and on that same note both political parties have a lot of money behind them and that money oftentimes comes from special interest groups well I don't have any special interest group money all of my money comes from individuals and so running independently allows me to be accountable to the individuals in the district ourselves number one most important is the soundness of our currency the fact that we have the federal reserve which is a system of 12 private banks not accountable to Congress and not accountable to the people of this country is eroding the wealth of all Americans so you have a system where they can pump as much money as they want into the system well that creates inflation inflation is an insidious tax on every single American and that's what the federal reserve basically is doing so we have to have some type of change when it comes to our monetary policy and for me it would mean full accountability of the federal reserve if not abolishing it in its entirety but that'll be really hard to do because a lot of people are behind the federal reserve but what we can do is we can have state currencies and eliminate legal tender laws and allow for people to pay for things in silver and gold and eliminate the taxes on silver and gold so create other means of exchange that has some type of value because federal reserve notes we don't carry around dollar bills we carry around federal reserve notes it says it right there on the piece of paper have no value basically no value so what we need to do is we need to find ways to have other currencies with value at some point so for me that's the number one issue to tackle because it affects everyone equally and the next thing is the financial markets because economic terrorism and economic warfare is real it could be used on us at any time and that again affects every American equally I think that law at the federal level that basically eliminates habeas corpus or right to do process is doing away with everything that our bill of rights and constitution stands for something unique to the American judicial system is the fact that when you're accused of a crime you have a right to state your case in front of a jury of your peers with indefinite detainment and by making that federal law legal which it's really not legal in the sense of common law or in constitutional law it's only legal in the sense of statutory law it it eliminates every right that we have and so especially when it comes to people like myself that speak freely and outwardly about the corruption in government somebody somewhere could decide that I'm a terrorist and detain me indefinitely without due process and that's the antithesis of what freedom of speech is in your ability to say when the government is outstepping its bounds but there's a lot of agencies in the federal government that can step outside their bounds and it can be really dangerous to the freedoms of all Americans every freedom our freedom of speech our freedom to be secure in our property and against un legal searches and seizures of your property there's just so many things that could go wrong with that particular piece of legislation depending upon who's interpreting it I think that you need to stay positive and remember that you have to act out of love and not out of fear know that there's a lot of people out here that want to listen to you and foster you in to the political system even though the two parties in my own opinion are very corrupt there's a lot of people working outside of those two parties that want to do something really good for the next generation and that we want to hear from the next generation about you know the issues and their needs and how they think we can improve upon our economy and I would really encourage all students to read the constitution and pick up a book on interpreting it if you're having difficulty of course you who contact me at any time I'm trying really hard and will continue to for many years to come on educating and empowering people with information and learn about the power of your county sheriff and how much power you have at the local level of politics you can change your local level of politics every night the electoral system with our presidency is you know pretty much rigged and very dangerous you know but how you can really have a huge and profound impact is at the county level with your county sheriff county commissioners at the city level on city council and I would urge students not only know about these systems but run for office you are never too young to run for office you are just as smart as these other guys and don't ever let anybody tell you to sit down and shut up ever