Bruce Robert Morris

Please share briefly what inspired you to run for this office and why you feel you’re qualified for the position.

In 2008, My mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. This was devastating news to my family who tried to keep it all together while mom was in the hospital. This was before the affordable care act, this was before pre-existing conditions were covered. This was in a time when economic recession touched the lives of most American families, including mine. My families life was quite literally changed forever due to a diagnosis. Funny thing is we had insurance, my dad had two jobs, he was a hard working American, and yet the system we've created would rather profit off the suffering of others then to help those it was designed to save.

A few years later, even more tragedy would strike when it would be discovered that my eldest sister had multiple sclerosis. She was an artist in the prime of her life living in Chicago. She graduated from the art institute and began studying at North Western. She was a brilliant person who often times talked of politics, the impact that it could have, and a genuine positive outlook on the future through political progress.

So that is where I am. I have seen hardships in my life, and I want no one else to have to go through what I went through, what my family went through. No ones mother should have to go through or worry about what mine did. No ones father should be economically crippled for trying to care for their family. No ones sister should have to find their own insurance because they aren't covered after 26.

So that is who I am. I am inspired by the strength I have witnessed in my life by those battling the toughest battles. I want change for the better and believe that although I have seen hardships I represent the average American. I think losing someone is common. I think a lot of people can agree that if the system was better maybe they could have a few more living relatives and a lot less dead ones. I also think that we can all agree that those currently holding office do not seem adapt or capable of making the changes required to help the majority of people.

I see the state of congress currently and am unimpressed. I'm unimpressed with their ideas, their solutions, I am unimpressed with their unwillingness to cooperate with each other. So I decided to run myself as an independent. Disillusioned by the Democratic parties failed promises, and repulsed with the current state of the Republican party, I attempt to pave my own political path. None of them seem so experienced I am but a cook, and a student, but I come with a mind full of ideas and I want my voice heard.

What policies would you propose for dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our state’s economy?

Honestly, not sure. This presents a much different challenge to enforcement due to the now ever growing ability to make your own at home. Also I think it is really incredibly terrifying to know that someone could just print out fire arms using a 3d printer of some sort. So we should require background checks on the sale of anything like that as well in order to ensure that these ghost guns don't fall into the hands of children or other people who might be a danger to either themselves or others.

Nevada has historically protected the right to abortion, including protecting the right in statute 30 years ago by a vote of the people. However, there remain barriers to access in the state. Do you support not only the right to abortion but policies that improve equitable access to abortion care?

We should have a comprehensive plan that details what should happen when certain covid-19 numbers hit certain criteria. I felt like the implementation of the stages of lockdown during the early days of covid-19 were not handled well. It was confusing for the population when we moved either forward or backward because there were not clear indicators as to whether it was safe or not or why they were making the decisions they made. In the future we should have a plan in place beforehand and we should better communicate how its enforced from the top down. We need city-wide madidates for masks and need to have better masks more available at entrances of all open businesses. We should provide testing to houses as well as businesses and require testing in order to work. I worked during the pandemic and can't tell you how unenforceable the mask mandate had become. How often people were calling out either having been exposed or having tested positive. That created a weird hostility in the work place as bosses seemed suspicious of those calling out. There was overall a disregard for worker safety and health, and it wasn't just at my job, I heard many of the same stories from others working around the time.

The state of Nevada is facing an unprecedented shortage of health care providers – a problem that impacts every area of medicine, including the provision of sexual and reproductive care. Do you support removing the physician-only requirement and allowing advanced practice clinicians (APCs) to provide this vital care to patients with training and certification?

We should modernize our mining laws to better reflect the business practices of the day> We should put an emphasis on worker safety and make sure that we are providing workers with the best available equipment and technology in order to make the process altogether safer and more efficient.

Comprehensive, age and developmentally appropriate, medically-accurate, inclusive sex education has been proven to improve students’ long-term health outcomes, yet it is not required that students be provided with this information in their sex-ed programs. Do you believe that public school sex-ed programs should be comprehensive, medically accurate, and inclusive?

I do. I believe in a women's right to choose. My eldest sister always placed a level of importance for how access to these procedures is necessary. Access to these kinds of procedures is often times dependent on the socioeconomic gentrification of any given area of town. Which often leads to lack of access in the lower income areas. This is class warfare in its simplest of forms. Withholding access to specific procedures and preventatives medicines based on nothing more than economic status or gender is absolutely awful. So yeah I support the right to abortion and think it should be more accessible. Although I myself do not know if I could that doesn't matter. I would never want someone to tell me what to do with my body, and so I wouldn't wish to tell anyone what to do with theirs.

It is well documented that patients of color face greater obstacles to obtaining sexual and reproductive health care than non-Hispanic white Americans – a pattern that results in worse health outcomes overall for BIPOC patients. Do you not only acknowledge systemic racism’s role in public health disparities but will you pursue policies that seek to rectify the historical harm of systemic racism and advance equitable access to health care?

Yeah I do. I think educating people about their own bodies is important. To be honest I also think in the long run that it would be better to learn more about it for your mental health. Sad to say our puritan roots have left some nasty scars when it comes to our perceived notions of sex-education. It certainly seems rather taboo to talk about openly and perhaps we are victims of the system. Having not been educated about it ourselves, we are unable to talk about educating a younger generation in something we learned so little about. As we progress as a society and nation we will however need to face this taboo we have about talking about sex in America. Sex is everywhere, its used in advertising everywhere from selling cars to selling you shampoo, yet we are still unable to have open discussions on it in America. I think we would all benefit from sex-ed programs, especially if they were more comprehensive and inclusive. I feel bad for the generations of Americans who were forced to figure it out on their own because their educational system was too shy to tackle the subject. However, I feel as time moves on the stigma and taboo nature might fade in some public aspects allowing for a greater and more comprehensive conversation on sex in society. Which sounds like a much needed conversation in America often times shrugged off.

Knowing that the death penalty is exorbitantly expensive, racially discriminatory, and does not promote true healing for victims family members, do you support its abolition and do you think ending the death penalty is a crucial part of criminal justice reform?

I acknowledge it and would rectify to seek some justice and change to the current system. I'm half Jewish on my dads side. So like I do not know but I've heard the family horror stories of other historically harmful and systemically racists systems in the past. Not that we are that bad, but we could definitely be better.

Anti-transgender bills are being introduced across the United States that attempt to trans prevent people from having access to health care, gender re-assignment surgery, and access to sports in schools. Do you support transgender equality and access to healthcare and an athletic school experience?

Capital punishment is something that has been debated since the days of Julius Caesar and the Old Roman Senate. The current penial code in America needs a massive over haul and so much looking into. That being said our current society is built upon a system of punishment rather than rehabilitation. I would personally love it if we invested more on rehabilitating people rather than leaving them in a system more akin to a merry-go-round than that of one of justice. Should crime be punished? Yes, most certainly. However, whether the state has the right to take life is yet to be seen. Then, we stumble upon a conundrum of the fact that some crimes truly are so heinous that there is no punishment that is just. For what is an accurate punishment for serial murder/rape? Is a life behind bars with 3 square meals and a cot a true punishment for that of destroying some ones life, some ones well being?

Moving on from that I look more at how it is implemented on a racially discriminatory fashion. That is very despicable to say the least. It seems disproportionately against POC. That is the whole system in a nutshell sadly. POC disproportionately make up a majority or close to it in the prison systems. Then they make up a disproportionate amount of those who end up being tried for death and ultimately sentenced, This being said I see little evidence to warrant any real argument for capital punishment when it comes to promoting the healing of victim family members. I am sure that some may rejoice in the death of the monster who destroyed their family. Perhaps, for those it would bring true healing to them. However, if I were to speak on a more poetic and philosophical stance, I would say that a truly just civilization admitting to themselves the need for capital punishment is sad. It admits that they do not believe in rehabilitation on a grand scale and that they do not believe in the possibility of redemption and or salvation.

This all being said and being put out into the light I think I can say I would support the abolition of the death penalty. However, there are still some crimes that I am not personally sure you can come back from. Its hard to say that if it were my loved one hurt and taken from me that I personally would not want to see those responsible meet an end. Luckily, we have a judicial system that prevents bereaved family members and loved ones from being judge, jury, and executioner.

Nevada has a significant undocumented population, how will you ensure your office is accessible to all Nevadans?

Of course Health care for all includes Tribal Nations. Who as is are probably not getting the appropriate amount of support we could lend them. This is also an issue with Nevada's many food desserts which should be addressed. Like its 2022, and its crazy to think that believing that everyone deserves clean water, food, and healthcare services is radical. When did empathy become the status quo? Or was it always this way?

How would you use your office to strengthen the rights of the undocumented population and their access to their legal protections, critical public services, and quality of life?

Yeah. If you decide to come be an American, if you are motivated to work and live and dream the American dream then you deserve to be an American. Bring me your huddled masses.

Describe your understanding of the Confidential Address Program. What would be your approach to inform community members of this program?

I am unsure. I support workers being paid their fair share. I support people getting their overtime, sick-leave, vacation-time, paid breaks and being treated fairly as human beings. I support Americans getting paternity leave. Like what is up with that. We have an entire political party whose base is religious and believes in the "sanctity" of marriage and family and they are not fighting for parents to have more time with their children? It is weird?