I am a 54 year old secretary, born and raised in Baltimore and a long-time resident of the city, formerly in Mt. Vernon and the Waverly areas and currently in Hamilton. I have lived in various parts of the country, as well as overseas. My husband and I have been together for over 19 years and married for 13 of them. I have been a peace and justice and anti-war activist since 2001 and have actively opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq since 2002. I have been arrested and jailed many times in connection with these activities as I actually believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution. I also know that if I do not vocally oppose my government when I believe it is wrong, we will lose that most precious right of all, the right that makes us different from any other country and which I know we all cherish - the right to speak our minds publicly, the right to assemble peaceably and the right to petition our government for redress of grievance. I have been active with the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore since 2002, a member of the Maryland for Peace Spokescouncil, a member of the Steering Committee of the Maryland Coalition to Stop the BGE Rate Hikes, as well as a member of the Maryland Universal Health Care Action Network (MDUHCAN). Most of all, I am proud to be a member of the Maryland Green Party - the only political party in this country that stands for Grassroots Democracy, Social Justice, Peace and Nonviolence and Environmental Wisdom. What makes me different from the run of the mill politicians is that I am not, and never will be, one of them. Now, more than ever, we must elect individuals who are not part of the old corrupt system that is failing us so badly, who are willing to re-make that system and take it back to what it is supposed to be - a system of representation for PEOPLE, not corporations and special interests. I am outraged that our system of government no longer functions as it should because of the huge amounts of money infecting it. Politicians from both major parties have created and bought into a system that ensures they must raise enormous sums of money to be elected and keep on being elected. The corporate and special interests that pay those huge sums of money into their favorite politicians' campaign coffers are doing so because they expect something in return - legislation that favors their interests over the interests of ordinary working and poor people like ourselves. The politicians are more than willing to participate in this corrupt system of legalized bribery because it serves their ultimate interests - to maintain a lifetime career in politics and to keep their seats warm for their handpicked successors. Meanwhile the corporations that really own us and our lives keep getting bigger and more powerful and we keep getting poorer and more disenfranchised while our system of supposedly representative government is subverted to favor the interests of the already wealthy and powerful who will never be wealthy and powerful enough. The City of Baltimore has been in the long-time grip of one party rule - as has the state of Maryland. Ask yourselves this question? If this so-called liberal state and city, long controlled and ruled by Democrats, cannot re-regulate a rapacious corporation like BGE/Constellation, cannot craft a universal healthcare system modeled on the excellent VA system, cannot manage to adequately fund Baltimore City schools while other school systems in the state excel, cannot manage to put enough police on the streets of Baltimore and institute real community policing instead of just talking about it - then why do we keep electing these people? You have another choice. Vote for people like myself, especially Greens, who are not part of this sysem of corruption and cronyism. When a Baltimore City Councilperson like Kieffer Mitchell is the only vote against releasing funding for a study to examine the feasibility of a municipally-owned electric utility (as he did in 2006) - vote him out! When the Baltimore City Council votes to give the 13th councilmanic district seat - not to a community activist who actually lives in the district - but to someone like Vernon Crider, who according to his voter registration, property tax records and motor vehicle license doesn't even live in that district (his claims to the contrary notwithstanding) - vote them all out! When the current President of the Baltimore City Council, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, occupies her taxpayer-funded time figuring out how to support her buddy, Sheila Dixon's bid for Mayor, by playing political musical chairs with Council committee assignments - vote her out!

If you are sick and tired of being shafted by the politicians you vote for over and over again - then stop voting for them - and VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who will stand up to BGE and lead the fight to take it back and make it municipally owned - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who will pressure the state legislature to create a real state-wide single--payer healthcare system (not insurance coverage) modeled on the VA system - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who will create a council of neighborhood activists from all over the city, who will be her most important advisors - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who believes that the Thornton decision really means those millions of dollars should be released to our city school system, who believes that an elected school board will make a positive difference, then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who believes that police should know their communities, should walk in them every day, should help the people in those communities and not harass them - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who believes in decriminalizing or legalizing drugs, who understands as you do that the "war on drugs" is failed policy and will always be so - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who believes that drug addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue - and who will work to make that the city's policy - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone to revolutionize the way we look at renewable energy and conservation in this city - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who knows without a doubt that the lack of well-paying jobs in this city is the root cause of poverty, drug-abuse, the abysmal city school system and the hopelessness of far too many of our neighborhoods - and pledges to make bringing well-paying jobs to all of Baltimore's neighborhoods her number 1 priority - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who thinks that developing the Inner Harbor and Harbor East is undoubtedly good for the corporations that are developing them, but is ultimately doing nothing for the real people of this city - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who will ensure that corporations who want to do business in this city pay all the income taxes they are supposed to pay - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who will lead the fight to keep slots (which are coming to Maryland because the horse racing industry wants them) out of this city, then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who knows that corporations and special interests declared class war on us a long time ago and will do everything in her power, will make every decision with that in the forefront - to put a stop to it - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want someone who believes that everyone of us - regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation - deserves equal protection under the law and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect - then VOTE FOR ME! If you want to see Baltimore become OUR CITY again - with our voices and our communities taking it in the truly progressive direction WE want it to go - then VOTE FOR ME!