Monday, September 16, 2013

Journal of Shawn Eckles' Campaign 2013 Report #1

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.

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