Erwin Haas says much of state policy is based on “flawed social sciences.” The Libertarian says if he is elected to the state Senate, he will question those underlying assumptions.
Haas is a retired physician and a former Kentwood City Commissioner. He is running for state Senate in the 26th District, which includes all of Van Buren and Allegan Counties, as well as part of Kent County.
Haas, who served as a military flight surgeon, says political and military scientists sent him and many other young men to Vietnam. He says those “experts” never apologized for it. Haas says much of the underlying science used to form state policy is not reproducible.
When it comes to education, Haas says public schools in Michigan were first authorized in 1871, but the law was not enforced until 1900. Haas says before that people learned all sorts of things and had great accomplishments. Haas says he would return school to communities, maybe even one room school houses, so parents know what their children are learning. He says at the age of 12 or 14 children should seek out their “own fates, their own impulses.” Haas says “if they want to go to high school that’s their business, if they want to go out there and apprentice themselves to a brick layer or a soldier of fortune that’s their business.” Haas says Michigan needs people to take risks, rather than the aimless drift that he says we have now.
Haas says he favors Proposal 1 to legalize recreational Marijuana in Michigan. He says the current marijuana laws have been used to jail hundreds of thousands of young men, who are not guilty of any violent offense. Haas says Michigan farmers should be allowed to grow hemp, which he says has many potential uses.
