Click here for a copy of the endorsement letter.

I was recently invited to speak to the Texas state lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police at their annual meeting in Dallas. I went and was thoroughly impressed.

There were probably about 200 hundred people in the delegation I spoke with. From all areas of law enforcement. Many active officers. Some retired. From city police, to sheriff's deputies, to D.P.S., the whole gamut and I was really honored to speak to them as a candidate running for Agricultural Commissioner. You know most of these people spend their entire career in the city, some out in the rural areas. But it really doesn't matter where you live. Things are pretty much the same.

I have always had the utmost respect for people in law enforcement because they risk their lives every day to protect us, to enforce laws that we have, and don't receive a lot of recognition along with pay.

As an ex-school teacher, I can understand some of the things they go through. And in the recent Trans-Texas Corridor Meetings we had uniformed D.P.S. officers there. And they weren't there so much as part of their job. They were there to earn extra money. And it's sad, in a country we live in, and particularly a state that we live in, that people that are the most important people in our state and in our country - to protect us - and to educate us - and to inform us - are some of the most underpaid people we have.

And so I really felt honored and humbled at the same time, to speak to the Fraternal Order of Police, and I think we have a lot in common. You know, we in agriculture have a lot in common with law enforcement. We try to do the best job we can. We don't make a lot of money at it. And, we fight the same problems.

In one instance particularly, I think I can really relate to police officers - this concerns kids and education. You know our education system in Texas has gotten so streamlined, away from common sense values and every day learning, that we've created a massive dropout rate. We lead the nation in high school dropouts. Over 40% that start school in kindergarten never make it to graduation. And consequently what that has created is a pipeline from school-to-prison. And the police officers are having to deal with it. Police officers are having direct contact with that every day. Because the kids aren't educated. They can't survive in the workplace. So they resort to crime. And the members of the Fraternal Order of Police have to help us enforce that.

And I think if we had a better educational system. A better state government system that put emphasis in the right places. It would not only make our lives easier, it would make police officer's jobs a lot easier.

And at the end of my remarks to the Fraternal Order of Police in Dallas, very candid remarks, I was received with a standing ovation which made me feel really good coming from a group of people I consider my peers having worked in a similar profession for about the similar amount of pay.

I was endorsed in a race that I don't think they even planned to endorse. I think the Fraternal Order of Police is a very important organization, as are all law enforcement agencies, and I look forward to working very closely with them when I get elected in November.