Thursday, October 8, 2009

Why am I running for City Council?

Tonight I have a little "meet and greet" at Nicole LaChapelle's house and the last couple of nights I have stayed awake thinking about what I want to say. I spoke with her early this morning, while she was at work, and she said, "Keep it simple. Who are you? Why do you want to run?"

Last one first: Why am I running for City Council?

One of my favorite mayors in America is Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. He often says, "Democracy is not a spectator sport," and I like that a lot. Action is the antidote for despair, for alienation, for feeling powerless. There are a lot of things that make life tough for most of us, but getting involved, reaching out, finding out what is positive always makes us a little happier.

I'm running because this town represents what has made America great-making things. And we are still making things here-just look at the fantastic bear project and all the amazing artists here. When so many people have been leaving small towns for a long time now, Easthampton's population has grown. I think the future belongs to towns like this that have found a way to transition from an mainly industrial town to a creative, local economy. I see no reason, with our manufacturing infrastructure and skilled labor force why we wouldn't be a great place to attract green business. So I want to build on what has been done by the great work of our local government and throw my hat into the ring with my ideas and perspective.

Second: Who am I?

I grew up in Brookline, MA and had an unusual upbringing. My parents were Macrobiotic and we had many people who lived with us from all over the world who came to the East Coast to study Macrobiotics. I was often ashamed of my upbringing, especially in school, where it is painful to be different at all. Because we were vegetarians (among other things) some kids from school put a bloody steak inside my desk that soaked my school papers. I became pretty shy, somewhat natural for young girls, but also because how we were living was pretty different from the rest of people I knew. It was only later when I found out how many people felt exactly the same way.

But I loved all the people growing up and it was quite fascinating. I loved being home more than anything because there was so much going on and such interesting people. I studied English literature at UMass Amherst and stayed in the area because I ended up building my business here.

My father was very political and I often remember political conversations at the dining room table. My mother is incredibly kind and always invited people who didn't have places to go for Thanksgiving and Christmas. About ten years ago I started really becoming interested in politics and public service. I felt the way I did when I was growing up, stimulated, excited, eager to make a difference. Public service connects you to the rest of humanity, better than no one, less than no one. It is part of my personal family legacy as well as part of all of our history as human beings and Americans.

1 comment:

  1. Andrea If I lived in Easthampton I would certainly vote for you and will share that feeling with others I know living there. You would be a great asset to any town government. Best of Luck! Carol

    ReplyDelete