Candidate for
Green Party County Council; County of Los Angeles; Supervisorial District 3

When George W. Bush was elected President in the year 2000, I became a disenchanted progressive. When the Republicans took control of Congress in the year 2002, I became an angry progressive. But when my worst fears began to become a reality in the year 2003, I became a motivated progressive.

Since I gained the right to vote, I had always been registered as "Decline to State." Realizing that I could not sit idly by and watch our country go blindly down the wrong path, I decided to take action. I joined the Green Party and began looking for ways to get involved. I started attending LA Greens meetings and helped plan and execute the Greens' presence in the 2003 Doo Dah Parade. But when a fellow Green informed me about the upcoming County Council election, I realized that I could do more, and that there was more to be done. Having just successfully won a rent reduction for all the tenants in my apartment building, I knew from experience that even the smallest victory could yield a tremendous impact on the quality of people's lives. With this in mind, I decided to run for a seat on the Council.

I believe that a government's role should be to create and nurture opportunities for economic and personal freedoms for all people, and to protect the Earth so that those opportunities can also be afforded to future generations. I am an idealist who dreams about a world where no person goes hungry, no child goes uneducated, and no adult goes jobless. But I am equally a realist, who knows the importance of common sense, organization, and strategic planning. I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe in, but I am also not ashamed to admit when I'm wrong.

If elected to the County Council, my top priorities will be: promoting and growing the Green Party through high visibility programs like Adopt-a-Highway; encouraging youth participation in politics through the implementation of "grassroots activism" seminars in local high schools; and coalition-building with like-minded progressive organizations.

I know that my organizational skills, common-sense attitude, and hands-on approach can make these goals, and more, a reality. Please give me the opportunity to represent and serve both you, my fellow Greens, and the Green values in which we so strongly believe.