About RAP

Victor

Victor Tiffany, political revolutionary: Victor has an MA in the Social Sciences from Binghamton University. He was active in the nuclear freeze campaign in the 1980s; and after the Citizens United v FEC decision in 2010, he became active in the movement to amend the Constitution to overturn that and all related decisions. He took a leave of absence from his role as the senior columnist for The Amendment Gazette to organize a national leverage strategy on behalf of Senator Bernie Sanders. He wrote for the Syracuse Progressive Examiner until they went out of business in June of 2016. While studying the illegitimate Supreme Court decisions that granted the rights of individuals to associations and established the doctrine that money spent on electioneering is protected by the First Amendment, he became aware of how far from the Framers’ vision the United States has become. He resides near Ithaca, NY. The following is a talk given by Victor in February of 2015 at an adult class of the local UU church:

Allen “Kit” Howell, political revolutionary: He is an associate professor of choral music at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. He is the proud father of 5 musical children. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts with specializations in music education (primary) and choral conducting (supporting) from the University of Oregon. He has been active as a voice teacher, vocal soloist, and as a conductor of various community and church ensembles. He spent a number of years as a general music teacher and choral conductor in public elementary and middle schools in the state of Oregon. He also has conducted numerous honors choruses and bands over his 30-year music teaching career. Because the Pennsylvania System of Higher Education believes that music degree programs are expendable, he lost his job of 18 years teaching music education at Edinboro University where he was a full professor. He took a drastic pay cut to be able to continue his college music teaching career at Millersville University. For that reason, he drives 18 wheelers during the summer months in an attempt to keep his family healthy and thriving.

His political (and life) views can be summed up with the axiom, “Do no harm, take no shit.” Freedom is essential and therefore must be available to all. Going along to get along is unacceptable. If a political position does not pass the systemic abuse/exploitation sniff test, then it must be resisted by every means necessary. To that end, he is proud to associate himself with the political philosophy inherent in “Bernie or Bust.”

Jeff Gaster, rest in power: Jeff earned a BA in Political Science, BS in Economics and MS in Accounting from University of Pennsylvania, all in three years. He went to Harvard Law School, where he earned a JD, and worked as an associate lawyer at New York firm Stroock for 9 years.

He was the youngest member of the Bloomfield Democratic Town Committee at 17. He worked with his cousin (who regarded Jeff as his nephew), who was a Democratic State Representative, for many years on many aspects of his campaigns. He was poll master of Bloomfield Student Opinion Poll at Bloomfield High and Junior High Schools which gained wide publicity through the Hartford Courant and Hartford Times. While at Penn, he worked with the Social Democrats (led by Bayard Rustin) in support of Humphrey 1972 campaign.

He independently worked on social media to promote Bernie Sanders in 2016, and joined Draft Bernie for a Progressive Party in 2017. He began a retail florist doing business, CitiFloral Inc, in Manhattan and on internet since 1986. He passed away on September 21, 2020.