Dear Editor:
I am Anne Hirsch running for District 5 City Council. I want to thank all the people who are supporting this campaign and that of Eritha Akile Cainion for District 7 City Council. If you have not yet voted, vote Aug. 27 for Akile and me to put reparations to the black community into the General Election Nov. 2.
The people of St. Petersburg are excited about reparations to the black community winning in St. Petersburg in 2019! They want St. Pete to be the first city in the country to pay reparations to the black community. They know that reparations is the best way to heal the divisions of the past and allow the city to move forward united.
Akile for District 7 city council and I, Anne Hirsch for District 5, call for the land under the Tropicana Field to be returned to the black community with an infusion of capital to restore black community economic development and affordable housing that was destroyed to build that dome.
Our campaigns will put economic and political power back in the hands of the black community and into the hands of all the working people of St. Petersburg.
The current city government is controlled by the big money developers who have come into St. Pete to make a profit at the expense of regular people and the neighborhoods. They fund the campaigns of those who then do their bidding!
Akile and I will put the voice of the people in city hall to contend with the current city officials whose policies are pushing out the black community, raising rents and increasingly making it impossible for working people and small businesses to survive in this city.
With the exception of The Weekly Challenger and Black Power 96, local media is colluding with the corrupt politicians! They have refused to cover anything to do with the campaigns, except for an offensive comment by one non-factor candidate in District 7.
The corporate-owned media don’t want the people to know about these campaigns. They want to keep the people in the dark about the only truly progressive campaigns in this election.
They are failing!
Akile’s interview challenging a local news channel reporter’s questions went viral when she refused to be pulled off-topic and clarified that the real issues in this race are the horrific conditions of poverty, police containment, and destruction of any economic development in the south side black community by the city. She let him know the path to healing the divide that built the white community at the expense of the black community is reparations!
The platform of reparations and economic development resonated around the nation and the globe. In one week, $13,000 was donated to Akile’s campaign.
This people’s platform has attracted dozens of volunteers who have been out in force with the only campaigns actually on the ground meeting the people daily. These volunteers have distributed thousands of newspapers published by the campaigns to inform the public about the demands of the black community.
We and our volunteers have been going door to door to talk to the people, making phone calls, attending candidate forums and weekly meetings hosted by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.
These people-powered campaigns have caught the imagination of so many who are dismayed to see the direction this city and this country are heading. These are people who are seeking real solutions that get to the foundation of the problems facing the city. They are tired of big money and the people big money puts in office running our city at the expense of the people who live here!
Reparations to restore economic development to the black community of St. Petersburg will benefit everyone in the city, and the people know that!
We expect to go on to the general election! You can make sure that St. Pete becomes the first reparations city when you vote for Eritha Akile Cainion for district 7 and myself, Anne Hirsch, for District 5!
Vote Aug. 27 to make the south side black again! Unity Through Reparations!
