Please rec Donna Edwards' latest diary & support her campaign.
Why I'm running for Senate • Daily Kos endorses Donna Edwards
for Senate in Maryland • Carol Moseley Braun
'The Dean of Senate Women' Is Leaving Washington
Godspeed, Senator Barbara Mikulski
Edwards touts historic significance of Senate campaign :: Speaking at what was her first major public event of the campaign, Edwards repeatedly noted the historic significance of electing an African American woman to the seat that will be left vacant in 2017 by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski's retirement.
"I can tell you, today, that the voice that’s missing -- my voice, our voice that’s missing -- is the voice of an African American woman who has raised a son on her own," Edwards said at an event to announce the endorsement of seven members of the Prince George’s County Council.
"It's the voice of an African American woman who understands what It means to juggle the electric bill and the mortgage and the rent and pay for day care," she continued. "When that voice is missing from our decision-making table, it means that all of our voices are not heard when it comes to public policy making."
Edwards, if elected, would be the first African American to represent Maryland in the Senate and only the second black woman to serve in the chamber. The first, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, has endorsed Edwards.
more beyond the orange equalicue
Joan Walsh attended Netroots Nation in Phoenix and says "Edwards’ speech was a clinic in the way a progressive politician can seamlessly integrate the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement into an economic populist appeal. I’ll quote it at length below."
Hello Netroots Nation. Good evening. It is so great being back with you. It feels like being back home. I want to thank you so much. All I have to say is that I’ll meet you in St. Louis after I get the nomination.
Before we start, I want to acknowledge the four Marines who were killed today in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
We don’t know all of the background. We’ll find that out over a few days. But it’s a reminder, yet again, that every single day 88 Americans lose their lives at the end of a gun.
If we would observe another moment of silence, in addition to the four Marines, for Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and countless other of America’s men, women and children, whose lives have been lost at the end of a gun, sometimes even at the hands of law enforcement.
It would have to be another moment of silence for the families of the fallen from Newtown to Aurora, Ferguson, Baltimore and the senseless, massacre in Charleston and now in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It would be a moment of silence for every police officer killed in the line of duty and for their families, families that worry every night whether or not their loved ones will come home. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of just observing a moment of silence. It’s time for us to turn that moment of silence into action.
Sometimes it seems like the people who are seeking justice in a system that is really unjust — that we are on the opposite sides of the issue. But it turns out that our hopes, dreams and aspirations for our communities are the same everywhere – a safe home, a safe neighborhood, a good school, a decent job, and an end to the gun violence that’s all across our streets.
The solutions are not simple ones. They are complex solutions. They require leaders who are willing to do a whole bunch of different things at the same time. [my emphasis]
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