Being Human Party Candidate Profile
Brad Mitchell

My name is James Bradbury Mitchell (Brad).

I live in Brunswick, Maine where I have been pastor for seventeen years of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Before coming to Maine I was a pastor in Mentor, Ohio, Laconia, New Hampshire and Lexington, Massachusetts. I have been married to the same woman for 37 years and we have two grown children, one in Berkeley, CA and the other a senior at the University of Southern Maine.

I am a graduate from Crane Theological School at Tufts University in the class of 1969.

Previously, I was a music educator in the Lexington, Massachusetts school system for five years, having graduated from Lowell (Massachusetts) State Teachers College in 1961.

I have been involved in several community projects throughout my career including: starting a community theater, saving an old mill building for renovation as a community arts and crafts center, being a chaplain to a county hospice program, starting a shelter program for the homeless and starting a respite program for care givers. My current interests are in documenting the history of local communities.

The following is a statement of my personal political philosophy:

1. We recognize that people universally strive for happiness, freedom and community. No one, however, can fully realize these values if some people are disempowered or marginalized in their pursuit of them. Therefore, we recognize that all people must encourage and strive for justice for all.

2. We further recognize that each person is rooted in the unique traditions of a historical culture in his or her pursuit of these values. Each culture can, therefore, contribute to all other cultures its traditional insights and wisdom in the pursuit of these values.

3. It follows, then, that the solutions to human problems important to an emerging global society arise out of mutual respect, open dialogue and the recognition by all of interests common to all human beings.

4. It also follows that governments and other corporate interests must serve the needs and purpose of all people to strive for these values. It is, accordingly, important that all people be empowered to form the governments they need and to oversee their functioning through democratic procedures. Consequently, the role of the "government of the people" is to create and enforce the checks and balances among corporate and special interests so that these human values are optimized for all people everywhere.

Greetings to you all.

Brad.