I choose to run because Milwaukee County needs a voice for positive change, today, now.
I have deep root here, from my great grandfather, who was a tenant
farmer on 60th and Oklahoma, to my children, who learn and play here,
five generations of my family have lived in Milwaukee County. Always we
have had hope and the belief in progress toward a better tomorrow, even
through depressions and world wars.
Scott Walker’s political allies have given up trying to solve the
problems of poverty, low employment and poor education in our
community. Milwaukee County government is overburdened with the human
fallout from our inability to face our social problems. Many in our
community have lost hope and the belief in progress toward a better
tomorrow.
The politics of Scott Walker and his political allies are the politics
of division and decline. Scott Walker’s thoughtless dedication to the
single minded message of “no new taxes” masks human misery behind sound
bites. His budget cuts, more often than not, hurt the disenfranchised
and the powerless and diminish the assets bequeathed to us by our
progressive forebears.
Milwaukee’s once proud record, of clean government, progressivism and
solidly conservative “pay as you go” budgets, has faded into history.
Milwaukee’s socially enlightened ancestors insured progress continued
to be made, even in the teeth of the Great Depression. If we
could keep the parks functioning in the 1930s, what excuse does Scott
Walker have today?
Our region’s body politic has been cowered into crippling government’s
anti-poverty role by neoconservative radio entertainers who mask
vitriolic animosity against impoverished minorities with phrases like
“the lack of personal responsibility” and “the tolerance of the thug
culture”. They and Scott Walker’s other political allies take a
noticeably vindictive attitude toward peoples living in our poorer
communities, a peoples who, more often than not, are of non European
origin.
A viscous discontent is spurred by these radio entertainers, who feed
upon the politics of division and decline. They and Scott Walker’s
other political allies have used thinly veiled racism to keep working
people of different ethnicities at each other's throats and to keep
them from asking hard questions about the real distribution of power
and wealth in this community and this nation.
We can never resolve the problems facing Milwaukee County until we make
a dedicated and collective decision to empower our poorer neighbors. A
government that turns its back to the disenfranchised and the powerless
has no moral authority.
I am not a starry eyed young idealist, yet I choose the politics of
hope. I believe in the ability of the people to grow and change for the
better. I believe that given the right tools, education, and
opportunities anyone can be transformed into a productive and
beneficial member of society. I believe we all have a place in society
and we can all contribute. I believe in the people.
I will sweep away the old order, an order that has lost its moral
authority. I will restore the moral authority at the Milwaukee County
Courthouse. I will recruit the best and the brightest in our society,
those who are willing to serve the public good, regardless of outward
appearance or political association. I will do my best to build a
lasting and sustainable society where our children, and our children's
children will always have the hope, the love and the knowledge required
to make Milwaukee County a better place.
--
Joe Klein
Candidate for Milwaukee County Executive
http://www.joeklein.org
This correspondence is authorized and paid for by Friends of Joe Klein, Mary Jo Klein, Treas.
3425 N. Bartlett Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. 53211; +1 414 375 0313