Candidate for
For Member of City Council; City of Berkeley; District 2

The purpose of Democracy is to help the least of those in society live up to their full human potential. Those without homes cannot live up to their potential.

A new agenda, meaning new leadership, is necessary to create a truly democratic governmental process. Specifically, chief of all concerns of Berkeleyan's, should be the shorter-life expectancy of those who live in the flatlands, this according to the City's recent Health and Human Services Report. One may infer that resources are not available, or that many in the community view their lives as not as much worth living, where living become merely a matter of habit.

These health disparities indicate ever deeper confusion about how to address the problem with the mythology of race, and gender, specifically related to concepts of family. To tackle the more entrenched areas of both West and South Berkeley, to create a more livable and safer community for all, we must first deal with the problem of unequal representation. Greater cooperation, to bring about true democracy, can only come about from more direct contact with those most in need.

Thus campaign after campaign cycle, those who do not vote, but need most to, are simply ignored and used for purposes of the agenda of others. In short, it is not enough to continue with failed policies, for example, of giving harsher criminalizing treatment to those struggling with drug addiction. Not only does this approach (which strongly suggests scapegoating of minorities), exacerbate entrenched social divisions, it also justifies continued unequal pay and treatment, thus ensuring the seeds of alienation are sown.

Questions such as the social infrastructure, matters related to safety (given the size of the district), can be better addressed by a different approach to community policing. If the police are viewed by the community as more of problem than the solution, true cooperation can never be. Many innocent people are simply caught in the crossfire. This crossfire has been created by a political philosophy which increasingly places an ever greater emphasis on material success at all costs. Such an approach, ignores the relationship between the deterioration of the lives of many residents, and the consequent adverse affect on t