[Youth-list] Hartford Youth Runs for Mayor

[JMRab at aol.com]

This is worth a read. JMG
 
 
courant.com/news/local/hc-shanaiam.artoct22,0,2565269.story 
Courant.com
I Am...Running for Mayor
Raul De Jesus is a 20-year-old Hartford mayoral candidate. A graduate of  
Hartford Public High School, he is a police cadet, a homeowner and an altar  
server on Sundays.
October 22, 2007 
 
 
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I moved around the city 11 times, almost every year of my life.

I had  a box of toys as a young kid. I played with the toys and I had to put 
them back  in the box because I never knew when I'd have to grab that box and 
move it to  another place somewhere else in the city.

At the age of 10, I had to work  at C-Town bagging up groceries for tips to 
at least help out my parents. I'd  make about $3 and could buy at least a loaf 
of bread, a dollar's worth of salami  and some cheese. Sometimes it was all we 
had to eat for the whole day.

I  went to seven different elementary schools and three different middle 
schools.  It was kind of hard for me to get focused. I had so many distractions. I 
felt  limited because I was in bilingual [classes], so pretty much all my 
classes were  in Spanish from first to fifth grade, and when I started going to 
middle school,  all the kids were talking in English. For me it was a little 
tough, because here  I am, born here, and I couldn't communicate that well.

In high school it  was a whole different ballgame. I went there to work.

I lost a lot of my  friends in the first year. They did not make it. I used 
that as motivation  because I said I'm not going to be part of that. I'm not 
going to put myself  down there.

I was the first in my family to graduate high school, and  when I walked 
across that stage, I know it wasn't for me. I know it wasn't my  accomplishment. 
It was all of our accomplishment because that's how it is in my  family. If you 
bring a bag of chips, and you only brought one, you better make  sure you put 
that on a plate and everyone can eat from it.

We have to  create momentum in the city. We have to not just say "you are the 
future" to  kids, but show them a way to get there. We have to make sure 
these kids can say  "I believe" again.

I know I may not win in the votes in November, but  there are many ways of 
winning, and I've won. My thing is to motivate the  crowds, to motivate the kids 
that had the same upbringing as me so they can see  that if I made it out, so 
can they.

They told me once, "Raul, climb the  mountain." I said I don't want to climb 
the mountain, I want to move that  mountain so future generations will have 
one less obstacle in their path to  success.
Copyright © 2007, _The Hartford Courant_ (http://www.courant.com/) 
 
Dr. Janice M. Gruendel
Governor's Senior Policy Advisor on  Children and Youth
Co-Chair, CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet
Member,  Youth Vision Team & PK-16 Council
Home office:  203-481-9940
Blackberry: 203-824-4766
Mail to: 28 Juniper  Point
Branford, CT 06405

"The people  of Connecticut, and history, will judge us by whether we 
accepted our  stewardship simply to preserve the comfortable status quo or whether we 
seized  it with boldness of purpose. I, for one, am emboldened." Governor M. 
Jodi Rell,  CT State of the State message, 2005



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