I am Alex Ritchie I work as a procurement specialist for AT&T I have worked for this company for 35 years in its various names Pacific Bell, SBC etc. I have no particular religious affiliation but do consider myself a spiritual person. My leisure time is spent riding bicycles both road and mountain, riding motorcycles both as a commuter and weekend getaways, I collect books and have a great passion for music. I have no political affiliation i am an independent. My views tend to lean to the left. I think the state of American politics is rather sad, people don't seem to trust politicians, there is not a whole lot of difference in candidates in general, we tend to focus on single issues ie abortion, death penalty(when it was a hot topic) etc....,and i am not very pleased with the present administration. Issues that are important to me ( here i go single topic man) the Iraq war, the environment, the economy and the need for a viable third party. What i would like to achieve through my Purple States experience is to show that our democracy works and that we are allowed to express our opinions freely and openly and through honest and open discussion ordinary citizens can let our politicians know what issues are important to us. I am looking forward to having dialog and learning from people from all over the country who have different opinions than myself, that's how democracy works.