This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Powell. A true leader with vision and passion that is desperately needed in Brooklyn. Powell is currently up against the infective Edolphus Towns. Powell is dedicated to returning a much needed progressive voice to the 10th District.
In the words of Kevin Powell:
As an activist and organizer for 25 long years, I have proven myself an effective agent of change, able to make a profound impact on the issues that matter to the American people. I have worked tirelessly on voter education and registration, cases of police misconduct, education, prison reform, employment policies, and relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina and Haiti. For many years I have made extensive inroads on violence prevention among young men and ending domestic violence and sexual assault. Most recently, I helped to negotiate the release of 6 young Brooklynites unfairly detained in Antigua and Barbuda. My life's work, my great calling, is to be a servant of the people, and I am relentless in my mission to help us help ourselves.
Being a long time resident of Brooklyn Kevin Powell not only knows the needs of the constituents but has lived a life which empathizes with those who have the least in his community.
Kevin Powell is an activist, writer, public speaker, entrepreneur, and, currently, a 2010 Democratic candidate for Congress in Brooklyn, New York. A product of extreme poverty, welfare, fatherlessness, and a single mother-led household, he is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey and was educated at New Jersey's Rutgers University. Kevin Powell is a longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York, and it is from his base in New York City that Powell has published ten books, including his new title, Open Letters to America (Soft Skull Press). This book is a collection of essays that examines American leadership, politics, and various social issues in the era of Barack Obama.
His platform is something any proud progressive would be happy to support.
Which include:
More targeted job creation in the private and public sector
Forge partnerships between small business assistance programs and local banks and credit unions to create a readily accessible pipeline for members of our community to obtain funding to start businesses, make capital improvements, and retrofit their existing facilities with green technology
Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the super rich that have unfairly increased our national debt and led to a massive reduction in human services
Push for green building and refitting projects within the district and throughout the nation to assure that our new homes are green and our existing homes are greener. Besides protecting our environment, such programs create jobs that cannot be outsourced and spur local spending
Support a national cap-and-trade program or carbon tax to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020
* Under a cap-and-trade program, require energy producers to purchase their carbon emissions allowances, rather than giving the allowances away. Use the revenue generated from these purchases to invest in more renewable energy production and to reimburse lower-income citizens for temporarily increased energy costs
* Under a cap-and-trade program, support national carbon offsets, which reduce global greenhouse gas emissions much more than sub-national carbon offsets (both the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer climate bills currently include only the inferior sub-national offsets)
Change an educational system that has focused on training our children to work in an industrial economy that no longer exists in our communities to one that focuses on developing fields such as computers, health care, green energy, science and finance
Fix and fund No Child Left Behind so it serves our schools, teachers and children and not self-serving standardized testing companies and politicians that focus on graduation rates rather than actual learning
Embrace technological innovations in all of our classrooms that assist in teaching and learning such as educational gaming, internet instruction, web 2.0 tutoring, long-distance learning and classes in computer skills and technological design
Create four pilot community centers throughout the district that house community education, public health initiatives, and allow open public space for dialogue about the future of our district. These centers would host classes on issues such as financial empowerment and responsibility, health and nutrition, exercise classes, foreign language instruction, continuing education, recycling, tax preparation, immigration counseling, and anti-violence workshops to help create a community that shuns violence and learns to heal, together
Increase access to health care by immediately rolling traditionally uninsured and vulnerable populations into Medicare until we finally secure universal healthcare under a single payer system
And so much more. Please visit his site to learn more.
At this point Kevin could desperately use our help to push his campaign along. With already strong support from within and out of his community he has run a strong campaign. But unfortunately as we know it takes more than support to get over the finish line in today's politics, especially when challenging an embedded incumbent.
This is why I am asking you to please donate to Kevin Powell's campaign and lets get a better Democrat into office in Brooklyn.
Please donate here.
I am not apart of his campaign, just a person who believes one man can make a difference.