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2000 Great American Think-Off Finalist Biographies

Is Democracy Fair?

John Staub and Peter Hilts say yes, it is.

John Staub is a 25-year old home builder and recent Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Sisseton, South Dakota. He’s a graduate of Concordia University in Moorhead, Minnesota, who majored in physics and philosophy -- a combination of studies that balanced each other well, he said. Staub returned from his Peace Corps volunteering in December 1999 and is working for his family’s contracting business, building homes for re-sale in the Sisseton area until he begins a graduate program in public policy in the fall of 2000. In his essay, Staub draws an analogy of regulating traffic at a busy intersection, showing how anarchy, dictatorship and democracy could be applied in the flow of traffic.

Peter Hilts, 33, surprised this year’s judges who had selected his essay in a blind-juried process. It turns out Peter is a past Think-Off winner, having argued successfully in 1994 that life does have meaning. Life’s meaning has been enriched around the Hilts home since his last Think-Off appearance. He and his wife have since had two children and adopted three Ethiopian children. That adoption process figures into his essay that compares the democratic process in the United States with that of Ethiopia. Hilts teaches at the School of Environmental Studies at the Minnesota Zoo through the Apple Valley Eagan school district. He is a resident of Lakeville, Minnesota.

Kristin Talbott and Andy Dehnert say democracy is not fair.

Kristin Talbott, 33, is a marketing representative who has lived in Portland, Oregon her entire life. She discovered the Think-Off question on the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center’s web site while surfing the Internet one day, and was prompted to pen her essay that claims democracy is not fair if it is used by citizens to deny other citizens of certain freedoms. She cited her observations from on-line discussion groups and the seeming contradictions of some participants who object to government intrusion into their lives, yet support candidates who would impose laws that restrict the freedoms of others with dissenting views.

Andy Dehnart is a writer living in Chicago and the community producer for thepavement.com. He writes for Salon and Online Journalism Review, and is a columnist for Ironminds.com and the TV critic for Student.Com. Andy, 22, begins work on his MFA in nonfiction writing in June at Bennington College. A 1999 graduate of Stetson University, he majored in journalism and edited the weekly newspaper there for two years; both years, it was named Florida's top private college paper. In his essay, Dehnart explains the reasons he didn’t participate in the March Illinois primary election, and how democracy has become too mired with economic influences to be fair.