Throughout the course of my life I have experienced struggles and sacrifices that most could scarcely imagine. I am the youngest of 3 kids, born and raised by blue collar hardworking individuals in the heart of Ohio. Growing up my family never had a lot of money nor did we have many of the tangible extras that most enjoy growing up. My father is a truck driver who has dedicated his life to a career that didn't pay much, or provide many opportunities for him to excel, but what his chosen career did provide to him was stability that he so desperately wanted for his young family. The sacrifices my father has made for our family are remarkable, he gets up every day often before the break of dawn and usually in faraway cities or towns far from home. Yet he does this and he will continue to do this on a daily basis knowing that back home he has a family who depends on his meager 43 cent per mile pay. Yet while he knows the risks, he drives down the most dangerous and deadly interstates and highways every single day, yet rarely will you hear him complain.
My mother is a lifelong factory worker who out of high school dreamt of owning her own salon and being a stylist. Her passion for cosmetology and her unyielding desire to work in a career in which she could actually play a role in helping women like herself and her sisters feel confident and beautiful on the outside stems from her belief that every man, woman and child regardless of race, ethnicity, age, or other factors are truly beautiful on the inside. She grew up feminism and women’s rights and equality Yet she deferred her dreams and went to work for a company called the Union City Body Company because she knew that starting out with a young family in small town Ohio was going to be no easy task. While the struggles and the sacrifices she has made to be able to provide for her family, you will never hear her complain. I can still remember vividly picking mom up from work after school. I saw her and many of her coworkers who after a 12 hour shift walked out of their factory with a smile on their faces. I can remember vividly seeing them, some with grease on their faces, others who were limping or favoring a sore back. Everyday my mother went to work and gave 110% to that company. Yet unfortunately as the cases in countless other communities across not only the state of Ohio but across the country, she was told that while she busted her ass day in and day out for that company in that factory, she was told that the factory would be closing its doors. To this day I cannot get the image of that day out of my head. My mother came home absolutely distraught being barely able to vocalize the words she muttered, 'they screwed us...they screwed us all' and broke down in my father’s arms.
Even through the heartache and struggles that my parents faced, they never complained. They taught me at an early age that life isn't always fair but it’s up to you to play the hand you were dealt. I was taught that you are defined by your values and you are redeemed by your loyalty.
I got in this because I was touched by President Kennedy, by September 11,2001, by President Obama, by Senator John Kerry, by Martin Luther King, by the dream, by the possibility of ordinary individuals such as myself doing extraordinary things to make a difference in the lives of other people. And I am determined to restore to this community a dialogue between Youth, Minorities, whether rich or poor, black or white, religious or non-religious to ensure that their voices are heard when it comes to the decision making process within our local Government, because only then can we truly make a difference in the lives of our fellow Citizen
My parents creed is the American Creed, no one is better than, everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you. My parents taught me to live my faith and to treasure my family, I was raised to believe that anyone could make it if you just tried hard enough. I believe the measure of a man is not the road he travels, but the choices he makes along that road. My life has never been one for shortcuts or settling for less. I have held a job since I was 14 years old, like all of you I have had setbacks and false starts along the road, yet I have always held a deep and abiding faith that like my parents taught me, that if I work hard and play by the rules, my tomorrows will always be better than my yesterdays. I have been active in Politics at both the Federal, State and local levels since my early teens. I have campaigned from my heart for candidates and issues that to me are the cornerstone of pulling my fellow citizens out of poverty and back into the middle class. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Former Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards to rally Ohio Lawmakers to increase the minimum wage, a fight that I am proud to say we won. I have campaigned for Governors, Mayors, United States Senators, and yes even Presidential Candidates in both 2004 and 2008 in which case I absolutely could not imagine President Obama not being re-elected and living here on the Indiana/Ohio border I know that we as a campaign and we as a country have a lot of work to do in the coming months not only to re-elect President Obama and Vice-President Biden, but also in electing and re-electing progressive and Democratic candidates all over this nation and especially in my home state here in Ohio.
In my short 22 years on this earth, I have never seen so many people get knocked down without getting any help to get back up. And that's what this is all about. This is about fulfilling those words. Langston Hughes talked about that hand at the foundry. Well, for those that are left -- or the plow that's in the rain -- for those that are left, they deserve respect and they deserve to be listened to. And they are a metaphor for everybody else in this country and in this community who's struggling, playing by the rules, going to work, paying their taxes, raising their children, working two jobs, maybe three jobs sometimes and struggling to get ahead. In all the great movements of our nation, some of which we've been privileged to be part of, in the movement for civil rights and the movement for equal rights and the movement for the environment, people came together.
We are the future. We are optimists, we're the can- do people. We know what we can do when we put our minds to it. Let's go out and get the job done. As the Poet Langston Hughes put it brilliantly, “The Hope is There, The Sun is Rising, Our Best Days Are Yet To Come!
I grew up in a very poor town in Eastern Indiana near the Ohio border called Union City. I am the youngest of my 2 other siblings. I am the son of parents who have worked hard their entire lives on the promise that their tomorrows will always be better than their yesterdays. My parents taught me from an early age the values that I carry in my heart-- faith, family, responsibility, and opportunity for everybody. They taught me that there is dignity and honor in a hard day’s worth of work. They taught me to always look out for our neighbors and to never look down on anybody and to treat everybody with respect
To me the term organizing more specifically as related to this campaign and this election in my view is defined as not just being an admirer of President Obama, to me organizing simply put is about being an advocate for the Obama campaign and turning thin words into thick action by doing what I have done for a majority of my life for many different candidates and causes. I have a deep and abiding faith that the beauty of this country is that you are free and encouraged to stand up, speak out, and speak openly and honestly about issues and ideas with individuals like many here in Ohio who do not and probably will not agree with my beliefs, and to be able to state your opinion without fear of retaliation or revenge because an individual happens to not share my beliefs.
You know we hear a lot of talk about values in politics, yet where I come from, you don’t judge their values by what they believe in, you judge their values by their actions. My Mother, has worked hard in a factory her entire life and I still remember vividly the men and women who worked in that factory with her, I seen them, some of them had grease on their faces, they worked very hard so that they could put a little bit of money to the side so that their kids and their grandkids could have a better life and more opportunities than they had growing up. Yet unfortunately these hardworking people including my Mother lost their jobs because the company had decided to outsource their manufacturing jobs overseas. It was heartbreaking to me when one day my Mother came home crying and told me and my father the devastating news. My Mother had dedicated over 20 years of her life to this company only to be given a 3 day notice that the factory would be closing its doors for good. After dedicating a majority of their lives to this company, my Mother and her coworkers in their final days at the factory, actually had to unbolt the equipment that they had worked on for decades and put it in boxes to be shipped to China. This should not happen in America.
You know we hear a lot of talk about values in politics, yet where I come from, you don’t judge their values by what they believe in, you judge their values by their actions. My Mother, has worked hard in a factory her entire life and I still remember vividly the men and women who worked in that factory with her, I seen them, some of them had grease on their faces, they worked very hard so that they could put a little bit of money to the side so that their kids and their grandkids could have a better life and more opportunities than they had growing up. Yet unfortunately these hardworking people including my Mother lost their jobs because the company had decided to outsource their manufacturing jobs overseas. It was heartbreaking to me when one day my Mother came home crying and told me and my father the devastating news. My Mother had dedicated over 20 years of her life to this company only to be given a 3 day notice that the factory would be closing its doors for good. After dedicating a majority of their lives to this company, my Mother and her coworkers in their final days at the factory, actually had to unbolt the equipment that they had worked on for decades and put it in boxes to be shipped to China. This should not happen in America.
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