“I am running for president. I intend to stand up and fight for working families all over the country.” -Bernie Sanders
My friend and one of my heroes, Bernie Sanders, is running for President of the United States–and I am very happy for it. We need a strong, loud, courageous voice with the platform and the megaphone of a presidential campaign who is unbeholden to the rich and powerful to tell the full truth about what is happening to our country and our people.
The Koch Brothers and their ilk, the radical right-wing Republicans with the assistance of the highest court in the land are quickly dismantling our democracy. Money now outweighs the voice and votes of the people in elections. The aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown, recession, depression showed that. While our people lost their jobs, their homes, their pensions and, in way too many cases, their lives, those who caused the meltdown got more bonuses and more wealth.
The dismantling of our democracy has played hell with our lives. The evisceration of our labor movement and collective bargaining has led to 35 years of stagnant wages and a declining quality of life and insecurity for our families.
The dismantling of our democracy has destroyed an economy based on a large, deep, strong middle class. More and more our economy is based on obscene oppression of workers and the consequent impoverishment of workers.
Bernie will tell these truths and intensify his fight to change these truths.
I’ve known Bernie Sanders since 2003 when he and Vermont Jobs With Justice sponsored the first mass meeting on the just introduced Employee Free Choice Act. We held that wonderful event on the floor of the Vermont state legislature.
He is a loyal and true friend, a bold and brave political leader, and a man of his word. He is a man of old fashioned and old school values like working for the common good, integrity, honesty, transparency, solidarity, fortitude in struggle, and fighting for “the least of these” as the Bible says. He does not give up nor give in, he never loses faith. Bernie’s dedicated his whole life and being to the betterment of all of us, and we’re lucky to have him.
He and I both have worked to add power to the struggle of Florida fruit workers through the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. I had the great privilege of sitting in Bernie’s Senate office when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the McDonald’s Corporation signed an agreement giving the workers more pay and better working conditions in the fields.
- Do not dismiss Bernie. We must first make certain that he has the opportunities and means to speak loudly for social and economic justice. Listen to your better angels, to the light within, to the still, small voice that calls for your best.
- Do not dismiss a person speaking the truth of your life for the future of your kids and grand kids.
- Do not dismiss a person who will always fight for you and for us.
- Do not dismiss your friend and brother.
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