Ace's Blog

I launched my campaign on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, because the American Civil Rights Movement has been such a deep inspiration in my life. I got involved in nonviolent action because of the example of former Congressman John Lewis. My wife and I named our daughter, Ella, after the great civil rights leader, Ella Baker. And, yes, I’m the type of nerd who went on a southern civil rights-themed roadtrip for my honeymoon.  Many people have read or heard Dr. King’s “I Have a D

Imagine taking a can of Pringles to the checkout counter. You ask the cashier how much you owe, and they start talking to you like you’re crazy: “I can’t tell you how much those Pringles are. You have to open them up and start eating them. It could be free. It could be a thousand dollars.”  At this point, you’d probably drop the Pringles and walk away. You can do that with Pringles. You can’t do that with healthcare. Hospitals make money by charging you for procedures.  Insur

Montani semper liberi: Mountaineers are always free. That’s our state motto, and we’re rightly suspicious of a government that grows too powerful and has so much information about you that it can control your life, your choices, and your thoughts.  George Orwell’s “1984,” a high school literature standard, is a book that describes a society with such control. This year is the 250 th  anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and West Virginians should chafe at that

Have you played the game Chutes and Ladders recently? It’s fun, and it was one of my favorites when my daughter was younger. Players roll dice and move spaces, trying to reach the finish line. Landing on a ladder catapults you ahead, giving you extra spaces. But chutes make you go backwards.  The game would have been less fun and more frustrating if it were all chutes and no ladders. But that’s what our modern social service system is: slippery chutes and, at best, broken lad

Back in 2004, I wasn’t paying attention to traffic as I was crossing the street, and I got hit by a truck. That experience taught me about the deep anxieties people face when they know they’re one stroke of bad luck away from disaster. I don’t remember much about the accident. I remember the truck was white. I remember trying to get up and people yelling at me to get down. I remember the quick ambulance ride to the hospital and being called “the facial” by doctors at the hosp

Transitioning from Iran to America I spent the first years of my childhood in Iran, where women’s rights were severely restricted. The mandatory hijab was strictly enforced, and women faced legal inequality in marriage, divorce, and child custody and no autonomy over the reproductive healthcare decisions. Many women—including my own mother—were denied opportunities and barred from certain careers. That's their reality, and it should never become ours.  When my family fled Ira