Tomorrow is primary day for the State of Alabama and I'm on the ballot as a candidate in the 7th Congressional District of Alabama race.
I have gotten to know many of you here in the past few weeks. I appreciate your warm welcome and dialogue. I also appreciate the tough questions that you have asked about where I stand on the issues. I am thrilled that we are able to utilize technology to communicate and that I've been able to talk about why I'm running for Congress.
I am so grateful of the support I've got from so many bloggers. This is the wave of the future. For those that don't participate shame on you.
I also want to make sure that I thank our current servicemen, servicewomen and veterans like my brother on this Memorial Day.
As I've traveled the district, it pains me to see the lack of access to technology in my District. In Wilcox County, one of the poorest counties in America, I talked to a lady that just got dial up. I have two cell phones and on any given day neither of them work in these areas. Some of these areas are 20 and 30 years behind. It's shouldn't be that way. We need better broadband access in the 7th Congressional District. I'm prepared to make that a reality. People cannot apply for jobs without the capacity to access. We live in the dot com era. There are some people that cannot do certain things online that we are accustomed to like online banking, making reservations for trips, online education. If you go online you can save money. We are talking about basic life needs that technology can provide.
We also need better transportation in our district. There is one place called Gees Bend where children have to get on the school bus at 5 in the morning and have to take a ferry across the water. If you miss this ferry you have to drive an hour an hour and a half to school. The ferry only comes a few times a day. The people are not able to do it because of poverty and gas prices. If we build a bridge over the water it will take 7 to 10 minutes. Unfortunately there are some people that do not want to see progress in this area of the country.
Light rail is another area that I hope to bring to the 7th Congressional District. This would provide a number of opportunities such as jobs as well as better travel. It would promote regional cooperation and job sharing. We have a traffic problem in our region like many other areas. We need to work together to change that.
I don't see this as a race but rather a journey. I have seen things in this journey that are painful and disturbing. Critical health care is another need. There are some places where residents have to travel an hour if you are suffering from a major illness. It sounds very primitive. We need an action plan. Not another plan without funding. We need service. People in these areas have been left out.
Environmental issues are also important. I was asked about the oil spill last night on the Kudzu Vine show. Alabama touches the Gulf of Mexico. Our beaches are popular and beautiful and now endangered. This is a very unfortunate issue especially when BP knew there were some problems. The federal government needs to do a better job of making sure these corporations take care of the environment and take care of their operation and make sure these incidents do not happen. I remember the Exxon Valdez and when we were told by the Federal Government this would not happen. The mega companies have a duty to take care of the people's needs and the environment. They need to be challenged. We need to warn other companies that we are checking them out. We hope that we can survive this.
We are thankful to receive such a broad range of support: from the bloggers, to the many seniors and veterans, The Demopolis Times which is a small hometown newspaper. It doesn't get any better than that.
We won't let you down if we make it to Congress.
Our campaign has worked hard to communicate via the newest tools of technology.
And if you are able please donate as a member of Grassroots for Smoot on Act Blue - You will receive a coveted Smoot for Congress T-Shirt if you make a $20.10 or more today. We still need last minute supplies for election day like water for our volunteers and one more bus to transport our voters to the polls
We need just $35 to reach our goal.
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