It doesn’t take a village–It takes you!

That will be the theme of my  campaign for US Congress 2012 that I’m kicking off in a few days with a homemade sign in my own front yard.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the past month as to whether I want to even try to make a difference by running as an an independent candidate for the US 32nd Congressional District.  (Winning would almost be like getting the Booby Prize because then I would have to go to Washington and be in close proximity with these people.)  I’m so disgusted and fed up with the leadership of both parties.  One bunch is as greedy and selfish as the other.  Neither party represents  80% of Americans.  The overwhelming majority of Congress are in it for themselves.  All you have to do is look at their votes and look at the increase in their net worth over the past 3 years while the majority of Americans have been going down the tubes many of them losing their jobs and homes.

Here in Dallas, a city located in my district, we have over 175,000 children living below the poverty line–enough to fill the .Dallas Cowboy stadium (seating capacity 80,000) more than twice.  Imagine that!  a city right here in my district with 175,000 in need, going to bed hungry.  That is a disgrace.  And this is just one city in my district.  There are other cities as well.

And how does the current US Representative of the 32nd district, Pete Sessions, represent  these children and their parents?  Not very well.  If he did, we would not have over one-third of the children in our district living below the poverty line.  And how does Mr. Sessions run his campaign?  He runs his campaign like they all do–by appealing to the richest of the rich for donations.  By holding exclusives parties that cost more to attend than many Americans earn in  month, or in some cases several months.  This is democracy?  Not by my standards.  For example, Mr. Sessions held a ski party fund raiser in Park City Utah.  How many parents of those children living below poverty level in Mr. Sessions District do you think attended that party?

Mr. Sessions is a Republican, but the Democrats do the same thing.  Until more than a few people called them on their hypocrisy, Michele Obama was was supposed to be the key speaker at a reception (Nov 1, 2011) at the Westin Oaks in the Galleria at Houston. Later in the day, she was going to be a special guest at the home of Laura and John Arnold for a private reception and dinner. John Arnold was a former natural gas trader for Enron.  The Houston Chronicle reported:  The super-wealthy hedge fund manager and his wife will introduce Obama to individuals who paid $10,000 for the privilege or couples who paid $15,000. There’s a bargain-basement price, as well — $250 per person to attend the cocktail party earlier in the evening.”

There is much more to Mr. Arnold than that. In 2001, as it was going down the tubes and thousands of American’s pensions with it, Enron paid Mr. Arnold an $8 million bonus.  When Enron collapsed in 2002, he founded Centaurus with his previous year’s bonus. How about that!  Arnold didn’t skip a beat, nor did he lose one cent of his $8 million dollar bonus.  Thousands of Enron employees were not so lucky. They lost their pensions they had tied up in Enron’s 401K retirement plan.  His company now has as much as $3 billion in assets under management.  His employees include several big name energy traders including ex-Enron President Greg Whalley.  And guess what?  Mr Arnold is part of an organization pushing to convert public pensions — including teachers, police, firefighters and others — to 401(k)-style plans.  Sure you betcha. Then people like Mr. Arnold can skim off the top and leave the rest with nothing–just like he did with Enron employees.

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Description of the Campaign that I will run.

I got sidetracked.  (The stuff goes so deep that it is difficult to not get lost in the muck.)

1.  I will not take a cent of campaign contributions–not even from the people in my district.

2.  I will begin on Saturday (March 3) by posting my first homemade campaign sign in my yard.  (I’ll post a photo of it on this site)

3,  Whether people in my district vote in the primary on April 4 is up to them.  If they are completely disgusted with both parties, I advise them not to because in Texas, if  you vote in the primary, you cannot sign the ballot petition of Independents like me.  It’s considered as voting twice.  However, if you do want to vote in the primary, you can still vote for me in the fall if I garner enough signatures to get my name on the ballot.

4.  In the months of April and May I will be walking around my district gathering signatures for my ballot petition.  At that time I will ask all who sign my ballot petition to do this:
a.  Make two homemade signs saying “It doesn’t take a village-  Vote for Emma Berry 32nd US District”
b.  Put one sign in your yard and give the sign to another person in the district asking them to do the same thing.
c.  Then instead of giving money to support me, give as much as you can to help someone in the 32nd district. who needs the help.
d.  Then contact me with the story of what you did.  Tell others about your story. Your story will mean more to my election than thousands of dollars contributed to my campaign.

AND THAT’S MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGY.  Will it work?  I don’t know.  That’s entirely in the hands of about 600,000 people who reside in the 32nd district.  But just imagine if it does work.  What does that say?  A campaign won without a cent. What does that say about the possibility for good?  It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” doesn’t it?  Not only should we pull ourselves up, we should bring others with us.  As long as we have even one boot in the boat, we can offer a hand to someone who is drowning.

Perhaps I”ll brand my campaign:  As long as you have one boot still in the boat . . .