Click HERE to see the election results for City of Austin, Texas November 6, 2018 election.
Our campaign won 6,532 votes from people who believe human beings are capable of more.
On this website is the platform they voted for.
In the spirit of keeping a reference point, the text & copy, & design of this website has not changed since the 2018 election. Some pages have been hidden, due to their redundancy. You can use WayBackMachine if you're curious about what went on during the election. There's also some media you can download or just search.
Our vision for Austin
"This is about investing in quality of life for ALL people.
#WeAreTheMayor is the unity campaign with the plan of action to liberate us from this broken system.
Food, Energy, Housing, and HealthCare should not be industries, they should be PEOPLE-owned resources. With our cooperative and equitable strategy, everyone wins and no one loses."
- Travis Duncan
Values
One City, One Family
Optimism & Ambition
Small Town Spirit
Ecological Wisdom
Never Stop Learning
Creativity
Listening
The Four Agreements
Everything is Connected
Forgiveness
Ubuntu Philosophy
The Future Starts Now
Spirituality
Responsibilty
One City, One Family
I believe that we are one human family. In a healthy family, we look out for each other, because we care about the well-being of everyone, and in a thriving family, everyone is taken care of.
Families operate under certain agreements, or fundamental 'rules'. It is with these common understandings that we reach a place of high functionality and mutual success for everyone. In Austin, our common understanding is that we all chose to live here because we love something about this place. Regardless of that specific something, we share this common thread of love for our city.
Each of us can likely also identify challenges we face, where various misunderstandings between us cause division, discord, or dissonance.
I believe that if we shift our focus on realizing that we are one family who has chosen to cohabitate this beautiful city, we will find better solutions for all people, since we have one common goal: the success of the whole.
Ubuntu Philosophy
Ubuntu is a ancient word used widely across Africa, meaning "unity within community", "I am who I am because of who we all are", an embodiment of the universal understanding of Oneness and everything being connected on a holographic and quantum level, and how this relates to approach to our social structure.
Through this belief system we receive clarified understanding about the state of our city. We have homelessness and suffering because of our collective choices. We are in a state of division and challenge only because we have chosen this to occur. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. Our wealthiest among us is only as wealthy as the poorest among us. We are judged not by how many millionaires our city boasts, but by how we treat our needy and desperate. Only once we take care of the sick, elderly, and troubled will be truly thriving.
The mindset of Ubuntu truly empowers us to take responsibility for our collective health as a conscious choice, and gives us a standard to aspire to.
This transcends economic metrics and revenue statements, this is about the value of all life, and the quality of lifestyle that all our people enjoy, the power of our compassion for one another.
Never Stop Learning
Not ONE person knows everything. This is the strength we have as a community, and the power the internet has brought us. We now have the power to learn anything at anytime from anyone.
I believe in being humble, having an open mind, and embracing the miracle of growth and expansion of the mind.
I personally have much to learn from you, and I look forward to you sharing.
Creativity
My life has been full of artistic expression, where I've always appreciated the magic of creative thinking and improvisation as a connection to the connected web of the universe. I believe we are all artists at heart, especially with the understanding that we are literally creating our reality with our thoughts, words, and actions. We are the manifesting paint brush on this limitless canvass called life.
Creativity must play a more central role in our city governance, so we are not bound by traditional thinking. It is through our playful and innocent childlike nature where we will find the most universally beneficial solutions and the most genuine relation with our fundamental nature as people.
I am open to anything; I am not bound by any conventional thought patterns; I embrace the art of play and experimentation; I embrace my heightened ability to tap into a more youthful mindset, which is crucial when planning for the prosperity of future generations.
Optimism & Ambition
The time has come for a new wave of optimism and ambition. I believe we are capable of achieving a greatness beyond where we currently remain. We must step beyond our comfort zone, ask difficult questions, and seek to push ourselves farther than our previously perceived limitations.
We MUST be positive-minded about our chance for success. Just because something hasn't been accomplished before is precisely why it's worth attempting. Utopia is only an unattainable destination if we believe it is. Now, we must reach for the best possible outcome, create a positive environment in which to raise our children, and be the most encouraging and inspirational leaders we can be.
Big City Life, Small Town Spirit
Austin is experiencing tremendous growth, in our rising population, infrastructure, investments, and culture. We are becoming a diverse and dynamic international destination, where culture, innovation, and excellence are praised.
I believe we must maintain the mentality of a small town in this period of growth, where we take a sense of pride in our neighborly connections. Take some time on your daily routine to say hello to strangers, help visitors when in need, meet your neighbors and nearby business owners, and remember that YOU are a co-creator of this city. Small town is an ideal that cherishes community strength, trust, and building long-term relationships. Let's treat each other like we will see each other everyday. Let's act like we're accountable for all our actions, words, and energy we bring to our daily life. It's this accountability that keeps our community more connected, safer, and a fun place to call home.
Ecological Wisdom
I believe that our planet is sacred, and that in this modern world we have lost a respect and gratitude for the blessings we've been given. Our system of economies have neglected the health of our environment in the place of short-term profits. We are clearly seeing the effects this has on our natural world, and also the damaging consequences this system has on our health and wellness.
I believe our Mother Earth is a divine, living being. I believe that we belong to Her, that we are merely gardeners, here to assist the natural process and enjoy her abundant bounty, while only taking what we need and nothing more.
The time has come to remember the wisdom of our indigenous ancestors, study and honor the traditions of this sacred land, and restore a sense of stewardship to the land we call home.
Our children will thank us, as will all the living creatures who share this Earth with us.
As the city of Austin, we now have the opportunity to show the rest of the world how a city can become a place of resonance with Mother Earth, and we can educate and export this wisdom, leading our human family back to a healthy state of being.
Listening
Being the Mayor is an important job for many reasons, and one of the most important skills is the ability to listen. This not only includes hearing with our ears, but listening with our heart and keeping an open mind. Listening is the embodiment of change in motion. If we truly listen to each other with empathy and compassion, we can begin to understand each other on a deeper level and get closer to the universal truths underlying any situation we face together.
I promise to listen to you, as many of you as I can. I promise to be present and hold space for your dreams, hopes, ideas, fears, pain, and lessons. I vow to be adaptive and learn when to implement this new awareness into action that will improve the lives of all people.
Spirituality
I believe we are spiritual beings having a physical experience; we are interconnected by an energy field of higher consciousness, offering us an infinite resource of abundance and transformational abilities.
We are not just a pile of inanimate matter milling around a random universe of separated collisions. We are intentional and powerful; we are a divine and intelligent technology mirroring our inner selves to an outer world, connected and participating in multi-dimensional conversations and co-creations of light and love.
I believe LOVE is our highest essence, and as we evolve as a species, we will become increasingly on a path of choosing unconditional love and appreciation for all manifested reality, and we will radiate this high frequency vibration into the universe, causing our planet to no longer become a haven for fear and destructive energies. Our long arc as a planet is to choose this path of high frequency love vibration and in doing so we will cause a ripple effect of awakening and abundance throughout our holographic universe.
How this relates to our choice as the city of Austin is precisely in our need for healing of our spiritual experience, and re-establishing a divine connection with our planet, of which has been cut-off and damaged by our medieval traditions guided by the fundamental mis-understanding that we are born sinners, and through our structures of money, government, and religion that have systematically divided and conquered us into fear, submission, slavery, war, oppression, guilt, injustice and inequality. It is exactly this pain that now resides now in our DNA and confuses our interactions with each other; we deeply feel the transgressions of our ancestors rearing their ugly histories and forcing us to make a choice.
It is incumbent on us focus with the readily available and powerful tools in the realm of healing, to reinvigorate our spirit and reclaim our birth-right to become free on the land and fully expressive of unconditional love.
Responsibility
There may be many instances where we feel the need to identify whose fault something may be. Perhaps we can clearly identify why we have injustice, inequality, and conditions of despair and division. However, seeking to place blame on another only distances us from a solution. Our true power resides in the awareness that we are responsible for our own perspectives and actions, and no one else's. Only we can make the individual choice to become responsible for our future, and when we do so, we become stronger and more capable of change.
When we embrace our personal responsibility, we encourage others to do the same, and we create a contagious spirit of empowerment. Once we create this powerful web of personally responsible community, anything is possible, as we no longer feel the need to wait for our salvation, we simply work together to create it.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is probably the most powerful tool for human evolution known to us. With forgiveness, anything is possible. When we embrace our reality with grace and acceptance for what is, we become more empowered to do something different than before.
There is a difference between acknowledging truth and resenting it. Simply acknowledging the mistakes of our elders is not a judgement or condemnation, but merely a starting place to initiate our process of healing and transformation.
Everything is Connected
Popularly accepted science of the 20th century gave us to very damaging and incorrect assumptions: (1) we are all separate and (2) competition is what fuels evolution. We now know with definitive evidence that (1) Everything is connected and (2) Cooperation is the highest form of life that drives evolution of a species.
The reason why the old science got us intro trouble is that we used to believe that another persons suffering has no impact on our life, and that inequality and violence are fundamental to our nature. We see this tragedy manifested in our society today, and the time has come to set the record straight and correct our false assumptions.
All of us become happier and more abundant when more people are happy and abundant. Just like the cooperation of billions of cells in our body work together on a highly specialized and sophisticated level, we too can build a society where everyone is valued equally and holistically for their contribution to the health of the collective. No role is too small to play, and no role is morally superior to another. Everyone has a purpose and everyone is valuable.
The Four Agreements
A profoundly powerful book by Don Miguel Ruiz, sharing the ancient wisdom of the Toltecs:
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
3. Don't Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best
The Future Starts Now
Every choice we make now determines our future outcomes. Our children are counting on us to make responsible choices that create an environment for them that increases their freedom and individual sovereignty rights. We cannot make the choices of the future, as those are future generations to make. What we can choose now is how to design a society that empowers everyones ability to live a dignified and abundant life, where everyone has the same opportunities to realize their brilliance, their genius, and live their purpose.
Whether we like it or not, we must make these choices now. We are not immune to these choices. We can either choose love or fear. The time is now.