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An open letter to mayoral candidates Luke Ravenstahl and Bill Peduto:
I’m young, gifted and black. Why should I vote for you? What do you have to offer me?
You both have track records, but what have you done for me lately? I’m young, gifted and black, and there’s one thing I know about most candidates in Pittsburgh: They must not know about me.
You say you represent me. But let’s make it plain:
Most of the folks in my community live paycheck-to-paycheck and ride public transit to work and school. What are you going to do about the Port Authority’s crisis before you take the mayor’s office next year? (You are both in office right now!) Or must we be a sports team to get your attention?
What are you going to do to ensure that black people don’t get exploited when Wal-Mart arrives in the East End? We’ve all heard stories about Wal-Mart’s horrible employee relations. We all (should) know that Wal-Mart is facing the biggest corporate lawsuit in the history of sexism.
What are you going to do to make sure the New Granada Theatre, in the Hill District, is rebuilt immediately? As in, yesterday?
What are you going to do to make sure gentrification does not happen, and that every neighborhood doesn’t have to change its name — like East Side and North Shore — just because white and/or rich folks want to live in the city again? And if you plan to do nothing, what will we rename Downtown once all the condos are built?
What are you going to do to ensure that, whether a citizen is disorderly or not, it will never be acceptable for a police officer to put a gun to a little girl’s face?
What are you going to do to make sure the graduating class of the police academy is never again all white, and that each class actually reflects the ethnic makeup of the city?
We have a 50 percent black high school dropout rate, and a ridiculous homicide rate among black boys barely old enough to have a wet dream. What do you have to offer to the Pittsburgh Public School system? Would you push for the creation of an all-black-male city high school? (Since we’re into comparing cities for arena deals and gambling opportunities, note that a school designed solely for black males worked tremendously in Milwaukee.)
You’re not running for the school board. But really, if you all don’t care enough about black life (or death) to declare a state of emergency in the public safety and school systems, we can find some people who do.
These issues are as much about race, class and gender as they are about the race, in which everyone is clamoring to prove how much they represent us.
I’m looking for the progressive Pittsburghers who are tired of racism, and who are not afraid to acknowledge that it still exists right here in this city.
I’m looking for the sisters in Pittsburgh who are tired of the absence of women in decision-making positions, and on boards that are not nonprofit organizations.
I’m looking for my South Asian, Latino and African brothers and sisters who are tired of the isolation of immigrant communities here. I’m looking for the citizens who are tired of our well-being and public services being sloshed off … while promises of gambling revenue fill our ears but not our coffers, and cause more problems than solutions.
Many of us might be more willing to pay our taxes — or even have them increased — if it actually meant an increase in the public good. We need to see some results.
I am looking for the people who are going to get up in some folks’ faces. And I am personally looking for all of the people who are ready to shift our collective history in another direction — to vote. Vote people in, vote people out. No one is irreplaceable.
Many of us are young, intelligent and ready to rumble. We are not going to sit by and watch the city repeat mistakes from its past. So what will be our measure of those running for office this year?
And what, candidates for mayor, do you have to offer us?
Dr. Goddess says: Thou shalt not “ever, for a second, get to thinkin’ you’re irreplaceable.”
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2007.
Why do you want to deny anyone the right to live anywhere? You say you don’t want white people in your neighborhood. Then you say you want a mayor who will stop racism. Your point of view seems either schizophrenic or just full of poop.
You should call me: 412 298 3432. We’ll work to get another voice on the ballot for mayor and other offices. I’d love to have you as a running mate.
Getting in the face of others is something that I’m doing. And, when you do it, I want to be behind you offering support as well.
http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com
Mark @ Rauterkus . com
Hope to hear from you and others soon.
Mike: You really need to actually read my article(s) instead of making up statements or ideas and attributing them to me. There are already White folks who reside in the Hill District. And not just in “the bluff” (or the buff, for that matter). By the way, you offered a sincere response to my last article and my response was long enough for an article, so stay tuned.
Mark: I may give you a call; but I already practice what I preach and I’m not interested in running for office (contrary to popular belief or encouragement, for that matter).
Don’t you think the paycheck-to-paycheck crowd you just spoke of could use a WalMart within walking distance? Especially if there is a Port Authority crisis? So Wal-Mart’s getting sued. S*** happens, and we’re seeing justice served through the lawsuit right? Aside from that, WalMart helps more poor people through low prices as well as reasonably fair employment practices than are hurt by, um, what else was wrong? Some folks think it hurts small business, but the truth is that it hurts INEFFICIENT business. It raises the bar on the level of service any competing business needs to provide. About the lawsuit, it is statistically likely that in the aggregate, wages for employees who take major leaves (like maternity) are likely to be less than their non-leave-taking counterparts will be, especially as the position becomes harder to staff. And in a free country, shouldn’t an employee and employer be free to decide the conditions of their working relationship free from government entanglement?
Speaking of government entanglement, why should it have anything at all to do with the rebuilding of a theater, (or arena or stadium, for that matter) except for making sure the result is within established building safety and fire codes? Why should anyone except the owner of a building be responsible for its finances and operations? If the neighbors of a stadium pay should subsidize its costs on the premise that their neighborhood is improved, perhaps you’d knock on your neighbor’s door and ask them to pay for your landscaping or other improvements to your house, since it will ‘benefit them’ by improving their neighborhood? What if your neighbor came and asked you?
As for renaming sections of town, well, so what? Even if they gave downtown a name, having something to do with its shape maybe, like the Triangle maybe, people would still call it downtown, and still know what you meant if you said it. If it changed so much, it could be old downtown. Whatever. Do you want your property to rise in value? Probably not, if it would take an act of legislation to change your income. For those not yet dependent on socialism, freedom to choose and change is preferable.
Of course I agree police should not point a gun at a child. Unless that child is pointing a gun at people.
The police academy question is racist. Whether one class is all-white or all-black shouldn’t matter. The real question should be the quality of the protection we get. That we ALL get. Shouldn’t the police in your neighborhood reside in your neighborhood? Would you trust someone else’s pit bull to protect your kids?
Government has caused most of the ills that seem to be troubling you, yet you call for more government action when you ask for a state of emergency. If you’re truly gifted, maybe you’ll try to find some way to improve education outside the schools. Our young minds are not limited by capacity, but by availability. Our public school system is a product of government planning, which worked so well for Pre-WWI Germany and Post-WWII Russia, didn’t it? While it was a method for progress in those countries, our free system had surpassed both, as evidenced by our ability to turn our peacetime tools to making wartime products capable of reaching the opposite side of the globe, while these supposedly omnicient government planners could barely feed their populations and point rifles at their neighbors, as well as their own citizens. Sound familiar? So are you really calling for an increase in this socialist endeavor?
Poverty programs are designed to:
1. Make lawmakers look like they care
2. Manage the problem not solve it
3. Keep bureaucrats employed
The free market:
1. Rewards productivity
2. Rewards efficiency
3. Penalizes discrimination
4. Meets demands of the masses every day
5. Works without central planning
In a free market, every dollar is a vote. Without a (poorly implemented) public school system, there would be a market for educational services, and through competition those who met the demand best would be rewarded most. Instead, with the current system every taxpayer is forced to pay for a substandard service. One that today enjoys a defacto monopoly on education.
Another difficult truth is that not every child or teen wants to be a student. Graduating our high schools is certainly not the guarantee of success it used to be. So why should the students who want to learn be subjected to the ones who don’t? If you had to pay a fair price to attend a class, chances are you’d want to make sure you got your money’s worth. If you got it for free, you might be less inclined to learn, since you could always take it again for free. And if you’re forced to go against your will, you might show your distaste for such coercion by disrupting the learning environment for those who seem to like the same system that violated your freedom. Indeed, such a disruptive influence should not only NOT be forced to attend involuntarily, but should find it uneconomical to gain access to disrupt the class.
Someone recently said they learned all they needed to know in Kindergarten. This isn’t far off. Once you learn to read, you’re ready to consume information. And today the internet freely provides information that was unavailable to kings or dictators half a century ago. If someone has an interest and an internet connection, they can learn something new. Faster and better than the public school system could ever possibly plan to teach them.
I don’t mean to bring you down, but to focus you on the sources of the problems you seek to solve. Sorry for the long-windedness, and for just being a poor white guy who thinks we can all be rich if we’re each free to pursue happiness, not forced to learn from the same system we’d outperformed a century ago.
You state: Many of us are young, intelligent and ready to rumble.
In one of your articles you say “give the devil his due.” Maybe you are the devil. Why do you always talk about fighting. Maybe it is this attitude that causes young blacks to kill young blacks. Look at yourself. All your arguments are about race. That is a racist position. Why don’t you talk about the outstanding minds and souls of people in your communities? Who are the people in your communities that we should be watching for their good works and ideas? Why aren’t you using your position to promote someone? Instead you just complain. What are the steps that need to be taken to start solving the problems you delineate. Is fighting the only solution you can propose?