On Wednesday, January 4, 2017, I will be sworn in as an elected member of the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee. It is an event and an honor that I do not take lightly. I ran for election earlier this year with a promise to bring “a new voice” to the Committee. To take a seat “at the table” to represent the interests of the people over my own. I was elected by a landslide with more than 36,000 votes. The people’s voice demanded to be heard.
I take my seat at the table at a moment when progressives are determined to define the Party. The election of Trump means we cannot go on like “business as usual.” I take the oath of office mindful of the trust that my community has expressed in me and my leadership. I intend to serve based on a vision of positive political change called “the Politics of Trust.”
Vasconcellos Legacy Project
In 2002, former California State Senator John Vasconcellos founded the Vasconcellos Legacy Project in Silicon Valley. He passed away in 2014 before I had a chance to meet him. His last mission in life was to establish “the Politics of Trust.” The concern was that our divisive, dysfunctional politics is based on conflict and hostility. “The traditional view that we humans are inherently evil spreads poison throughout all our politics . . . leaving us with a crippled stunted politics that no longer responds to the will of our people, and politicians who serve primarily themselves.”* “The Politics of Trust is demanding more and better from each and all of us.”*
* Quotes taken from www.politicsoftrust.net (Accessed 12/2/14)
What We Must Do Now
I believe in the power of the people to effect positive political change. We must strive to achieve “a new politics, based on our highest aspirations and a new, healing vision.”* In the era of Trump, we have no choice but to reject the old ways of politics and move forward to heal our nation. In the words of my mentor, Howard Moore, Jr. we have to “organize and fight as we have never fought before to hold this evil at bay over the next two years until the 2018 elections and defeat and remove it from power in 2020.” I look forward to working with you and all freedom-loving people in my new role. A Luta Continua!