I went with her and her support for a tour of the dog runs of her district, which follows the Hudson River in Manhattan, and took these photos to show Yetta's personal side; I hope you can get to "know her" through my photographic efforts.
Yetta is about organization, rights, education, and especially community empowerment. She will (probably) replace Christine Quinn who started out as a peoples' person, but is now firmly in the pocket of the purely pro-capital mayor: Bloomberg. Yetta is an old school community organizer, a liberal's liberal. She is a civil rights lawyer specializing in tenants rights, runs two small business in the community, is an educator of 20 years, and adjunct professor of law and a founder of a local school for disadvantaged kids.
Her website (Click)
Note: these pictures can be freely used with credit to John Bessa
After my "walk" with Yetta and her supporters, I joined the campaign as a canvasser and "dialer." Yetta truly is a an old-school activist, in the mold of, say, Emma Goldman. Her campaign material is written, for them most part, by Obama campaign veterans so it is far more centrist than she is in person. In person, I have found she will "go to the mat" in a heartbeat when confronted with fundamental issues.
Since joining the campaign, I have spoken to many of the third district's voters, and I have developed a personal view of the Third District's issues that is independent of the information developed by Yetta's campaign managers.
From what I learned from talking to voters while canvassing the Third District is that its present representative, Christine Quinn has gone to sleep at the wheel, and most important, has forgotten about the young students of the community: there are about only half the seats available in the schools for the community's youth.
Instead of supporting the community, Quinn supports the Mayor, who has completely positioned the city as a vehicle for the benefit of global capital. This model is presented along the lines of the "trickle down theory" of economics where the wealth is "spread around" by the wealthy making everybody happy. Yeah, right, the inflation caused by the "wealth" nullifies any gains and drives the good people into poverty. And, unfortunately, even the "trickle" had dried up: Quinn is committed to keeping poverty rates high in this exceedingly successful community that includes Times Square, and borders on Wall Street's district, District #1.
The people of the City of New York have recently passed two referendums creating term limits for politicians as a way to prevent New York's perennial problem of the creation of control "institutions," the most famous of which was Tammany Hall. From what I have learned from talking to "the people" is that there is tremendous anger for Quinn for her move, in conspiracy with the Mayor and thirty other politicians, to nullify the two popular referendums. Bloomberg, Quinn, and the other politicians did this, obviously, so that they can get re-elected! Add this anti-democratic move to the education issue above, and we have a serious corruption problem in the City's government surrounding Quinn.
By joining the campaign, I have been able to get to know the crew pretty well. The campaign's manager spent a year with Obama, and exudes campaign strategy. Yetta parallels Obama in that she speaks nearly purely for change, perhaps even more so. When elected (we know Yetta and Quinn are running neck and neck), change will be the best way to describe New York. Unfortunately, however, Obama's talk about change may have been posturing
This makes Yetta the only choice: the level of parasitic corruption, the corporate liberalization that has legalized what used to put people in jail, the shift to the right of the so-called liberals of New York (which I have detailed in other articles) has necessitated need for change that can no longer be ignored. In America, death has become part of life: America kills. And historically, the legalization of corruption, today called liberalization, has been resolved with the guillotine or the firing squad. New York's role in the destruction of the planet through globalization, along with the destruction of Native peoples everywhere (such as the Palestinians) needs to be noted, since, historically, the only way to resolve these kinds of corruption issues has been through extreme violence.
The people of the district say that Quinn has "gone bad," but I believe it is impossible for people to change despite the adage about power corrupting completely. I believe that she started out the way she is now, but her liberalness and community stance was simply pure posturing to get votes. Or perhaps her being lesbian was mistaken for being liberal because gay causes are always associated with liberalness, but not all gays are liberal! Saying so is, of course, bias.
Yetta Kurland meeting supporters
Yetta Kurland "passing the baton" to a neighborhood runner
Constituent makes a good point!
Yetta Kurland knows that taking out the trash is big responsibility espeically when dealing with corrupt politicians.
Here we got kicked out of a NY State-run event in complete violation of our civil rights. Yetta draws the line for the First Amendment, and I believe that she will follow-up on this incident.
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