For those who follow my blog www.thetalkingbowtie.blogspot.com or who follow me on twitter you know that my last blog was on January 9th as this special election period in Ward 5 kicked off and I vowed to take a break while the heavy lifting of the ward 5 campaign was underway. Well we are coming down to the wire and I am working on my return blog but wanted to take this opportunity to share my letter with you again as many of you head out to the polls to vote.
A Letter to My Neighbors
This blog is not so much a blog but more so an appeal which I think speaks to all communities and for that reason I wanted to share it with you all.
To my fellow Ward 5 residents as this campaign season is now upon I am asking that we as a ward serve as the catalyst of motivation for the city as a whole. For far too long campaigns in this ward and for that matter this city have circled around everything but what our elected officials have been sent down to 1350 to achieve. Our ward has truly never received the full respect and dignity it deserves and yet again is on the outside looking in. No matter if your issue is quality educational facilities such as a middle school, workforce housing, sustainable careers (not just jobs) or a quality of life that we all deserve those who have been tasked with serving us have fallen short of that call. One of the major reasons is that we have failed time and time again to elect someone who truly understands the importance of what is before them and us and what their job truly is. In the next 100 or so days we will again be asked to elect a member of the DC City Council and we have two options:
1. We can elect someone who is popular and known by many but who does not have the ability to truly deliver for this ward because they:
a. Don’t truly understand that this job is about being a legislator first and how to effectively legislative for the needs of our residents
b. Have no real connections with the business community in any shape, way or form so are unable to work with them to attract the needed investment in our community
c. Have no real relationships with the other important groups such as fellow legislators who are needed to push an agenda forward which will improve our ward
d. Don’t truly understand how government works and are not familiar with how to navigate through the regulatory and budgetary process to obtain things for the ward.
2. Elect someone who truly understands that to be a member of the DC City Council means that you are being tasked with being the legislative voice for our ward and representing the needs for the many communities that unite us. This includes but is not limited to:
a. Being able to draft and create legislation which will help to deliver on the needs of our communities and not just in a reactive manner but in a proactive one looking forward with a plan and agenda.
b. Being able to work with the business community to forge private/public partnerships to drum up interest in our community to spur growth and development of not just new neighborhoods and communities but also existing ones.
c. Being able to work within the legislative framework of our legislative body to push an agenda which will help to deliver results for not only current generations but also future ones
d. Understanding that the best way to provide social services and responding to constituents is by removing the negatives from the environment which lead to problems.
Our next legislator must be a problem solver not just an instigator and must be willing to be judged not on their public perception and personality but their results. Much like sports you wouldn’t send a football coach to coach your basketball team. No matter how great of an athlete they may have been or how great they are at football not understanding the ins and outs of basketball mean that they are playing out of their league and now is not the time to continue to promote individuals who will be playing outside of their league. Likewise it is not the time to so call reward someone who has been around forever waiting for an opportunity. The last thing that we need to for someone to use this seat to define or create their self, instead this seat should be more of a continuation of their work. We as a people see the problems and what we now need is a person who will give us the tools to make our world better. El Haj Malik El Shabazz one said “I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action” well my neighbors, we all live through the issue which confront us and now know what causes them, it is up to us to elect a person who will help us solve problems not just have a false since of security about where we are.
Eric J. Jones
P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
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