Hello,
readers. I have not posted since last November when I got over
22,000 votes and carried Statesville but lost my first campaign
contest.
Now
I am resuming weekly updates because this summer I decided to run for
Troutman Alderman because I do not see diversity on the board and I
do see an under-utilization of our town's resources. In
November Troutman voters will choose three from among six candidates
for the Board of Aldermen. So far, my campaign is going well: I
have been, with or without recording them, having conversations with
as many Troutman residents as I can.
Some
of the other activities I will mention today are also exposing me and
my qualifications to the electorate.
In
August I sponsored an all-star basketball game to raise money for the
Amelia Boynton Robinson museum fund. I worked with the South
Iredell High School Athletic Boosters to bring together past and
present accomplished Iredell County athletes. Everybody had a
very pleasant evening, in spite of heavy rain outside. Twenty
different local businesses helped me and had their names, one each,
on the 20 players' shirts.
In early September I traveled to
Atlanta to the Auburn research library with Matriarch Amelia, and we
successfully arranged the removal of more than 10 boxes of Amelia's
memorabilia from there to Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama,
where Amelia lives. That's how she and I spent the day
celebrating 50 years after the March on Washington and the Dream
speech.
On September 9 I attended the second meeting for the
Million Youth March that will be held in Charlotte in 2014. I
want to be involved in this march because the ongoing violence in
Charlotte worries me, and I would like to prevent the violence from
spreading deeper or further into Congressional District Nine (9).
In my documentary project STR8 OUTTA CHARLOTTE, I followed two
Charlotte gangmenbers for five years, highlighting their transitions
from teen to adult.
Also
this month I attended two sessions of Connect Our Future – the
citizens' forum for giving our input about every kind of development
and change that probably will happen to our Iredell County between
now and 2050. I attended one session as a participant; at my
group's table (and at five other very large tables) we spent two
hours putting “chips” for new roads, new neighborhoods, protected
lands, etc., onto a huge map seven feet tall (you know Iredell County
is a tall, upright county). Later I went back to attend another
session as a “reporter” and collector of the wisdom of other
concerned citizens, our government experts, and the consultants
organizing the event.
