I had the opportunity to attend a town hall meeting with NYS Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado this week, which was so inspiring. It was such a breath of fresh air to hear someone who is in a position of power be CARING about the least of us, be caring about families and kids, and all of us. And he wasn’t just talking about fighting AGAINST, he was talking about what to fight FOR. He has not announced what he is running for, but he’s clearly going to be running for something soon.
Lt Governor Antonio Delgado
I haven’t attended a town hall before, and it was kind of awesome to hear what neighbors are concerned with and are talking about … affordable housing, housing discrimination, preserving democracy, and preserving DEI initiatives. There were a few hundred of us gathered in the AME Zion church near my home, and people were so happy to be together.
Mr. Delgado asked, How did we get to a place where people are so turned off by the political system that people who are so morally bankrupt could get into power? The problem didn’t just start 3 or 4 months ago. He helped us to envision a world where people have access to universal healthcare and universal childcare, where healthcare is divorced from profit, where public dollars are invested in the communities that need them the most.
He talked about our shared capacity to love each other, rooted in our shared humanity. He talked about having moral courage and being inclusive. He said, “At a certain point, politics need not matter. Morality needs to matter.”
They said that we could record it, so I took the liberty of making a voice memo, which I share with you. (It’s about 11 min long.) Here is a transcript of it (I did my best!). I know that he is a politician, and that it is hard to trust any politicians right now. You might not agree with him – or with me, for posting this. But I thought he was a breath of fresh air.
And if you want to hear him yourself, he is doing another town hall meeting in Inwood this Sunday at 2 pm. You can get more info here.