Texas Tuesdays: Jeannette Popp
Yes, kids...it's once again time for Texas Tuesday, wherein Texas Democrats attempt to stave off the political equivalent of the Ice Age by stumping for Democratic candidates. Sure, it's a tough job, but we're betting looking than Republicans, and we have better taste in women. Other than that, we don't have a whole lot going for us at the moment. Except for Jeannette Popp:
A native of Azle, Texas, Jeanette has come from being married at 14 and homeless at 15, to being a nationally sought speaker and the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 99. She exhibits a determination usually reserved for prize fighters and NBA superstars. Petite, blond and feminine, there is a toughness about her that there is no mistaking. She's no quitter. She's in this fight until the end.
"We have to set things right for the children. If we don't do it now, I fear for what my grandchildren will have to do just to survive" Jeanette says. "I want to see your child grow up in a loving and safe community where they won't be afraid to go up to the ice cream truck. We have thousands of kids in Texas who are not on the right track, but we don't try to put them back on the right track."....
In 1988, Jeanette's daughter was brutally raped and murdered. Two young men were convicted and sent to prison. Jeanette was asked if, as the mother of the victim, she wanted the state to seek the death penalty. She declined. Her decision put her own ideology to the test, and turned out to be quite intuitive. Twelve years later Jeanette would learn that both men were wrongfully convicted. One of them was coerced into confessing by being threatened that he would be put in a cell with other prisoners who knew "what to do with fresh young meat." While the two wrongfully convicted young men were in prison, one of them was beaten so severely that he is permanently severely mentally handicapped.
Jeanette first learned from television news that the convictions of the two young men accused of her daughter's murder were about to be overturned. She was stunned. No one contacted Jeanette to let her know that the men she had seen convicted and who had been imprisoned for twelve years were not her daughters killers or that her story was about to be broadcast on national news....
Because of the agony Jeanette saw first-hand in the ordeal surrounding her daughter's rape and murder and the wrongful conviction of two innocent young men, she wants to make a change in how fairly people are treated by our criminal justice system and in preventing crime from the very beginning. Jeanette's focus is on the children to educate and elevate children of all income levels, because she knows that prevention is better than intervention. Jeanette believes investing in our children is the key to our future.
Jeannette Popp is what politics SHOULD be about- not self-aggrandizement and empire building (are you listening, Tom DeLay?). She deserves all the help we can muster. If you want to throw some money her way, you can go here
