THE PLATFORM

1. Working through the Financial Crisis as a Community
   
   Like much of the rest of the country, our community faces a multitude of financial hardships as a result of the continuing financial crisis. While the federal and state governments work to right America's economic ship, we must rally together as a community to help our neighbors, our families, and ourselves. That means focusing on local needs like keeping families in their homes and supporting small businesses to create jobs and bring about lasting economic growth.
   
   More and more homeowners right here in Brooklyn are facing the prospect of foreclosure due to sudden loss of employment and predatory lending practices that target Black, Latino, and low-income communities. As our families struggle to deal with loans made by unethical institutions, many are unable to keep up with monthly payments. The resulting damage to credit scores makes it virtually impossible to recover from an already difficult situation. Credit reports can become a factor in obtaining all sorts of necessities-everything from apartment applications to automobile insurance.
   
   We support innovative, fiscally responsible efforts to provide financing for foreclosure rescue. We will draft a bill proposing that our neighbors whose credit reports have been impacted by subprime, variable rate, interest-only loans-or any other predatory lending practices-should not be penalized by the seven-year credit reporting law. In such cases, we suggest that the negative credit reporting term be reduced to six months or a year. Easing the requirements for negative credit reporting will make it easier for individuals to re-establish themselves financially and put our communities on the road to recovery.
   
   Economic justice as well as a "bottom-up" approach to a local economy ultimately creates positive benefits for us all. We favor de-centralized, locally controlled model of economics, emphasizing small businesses and co-ops, and cutting out corporate monopolies, wasteful inefficiency, and government regulation. A good example of this principle is credit unions. Credit unions provide a locally-run banking system that can help people more quickly and cost-effectively, while also sustaining the credit union itself.
   
   By expanding this approach to other areas, such as locally-owned grocery stores, clothing stores and food banks, we can create a vibrant local economy that is not as dependent on outside factors. These businesses can provide high-quality goods and services and help employ our members of our community at fair wages. We will turn a new page, enacting a new set of rules and practices that are fair to all business owners, workers and customers, that provide competitive yet fair prices while responding better to community needs, that will see us through hard times and jump-start real recovery.
2. Building an Education System that will cure Cancer
   
   Now that our health care system is in the process of being reformed to benefit all Americans, we must turn our attention to our education system. If we are to create the next wave of innovators, skilled laborers, and entrepreneurs, we must revamp the education system so we can raise a generation of leaders who will take us into the future.
   
   There are many movements afoot in the education field. Some experts are calling for a return to traditional practices and public district schools with increased funding. Others emphasize freedom of choice and public charter schools. Some advocate school vouchers for faith-based schools. Still others decry the lack of technology in our classrooms. Many push for new teachers and an updated curriculum that meets the challenges of the 21st century.
   
   Smaller class size, art and music in the classroom, gym, higher standards, teacher training and development, less reliance on standardized tests, more freedom in the classroom. To all of them, we say yes. Absolutely. Yes. The time has come to end the turf war bickering in the American educational system by introducing a new challenge, a focal point, for all of our debate and talent: we are going to cure cancer.
   
   Just as Sputnik drove American innovation in the 1950's and 1960's, cancer will drive us today. The disease affects so many of our family and loved ones, it's something that all of us can relate to. It can be related to all aspects of learning, from reading and writing to math and science, mental and physical health, nutrition and exercise, pollution and the environment. All innovation, all debate, all funding will focus on fostering the generation that will end cancer in our lifetime, for all time. Since we cannot guess where the child lives who will cure cancer, we must foster creativity, technology, and opportunity throughout our nation, including right here in Brooklyn.
   
   And if it helps us cure cancer, it's a good thing.
3. Securing Access to Health Care for All
   
   Congress has battled over health care since the early days of the Obama administration with the results still not determined. Although the health bill has been signed, partisan skirmishes continue and ordinary American are left to wonder how these changes will affect their lives. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, one thing is sure: when we arrive in Washington, many Brooklynites will still not have insurance.
   
   We do not accept this business-as-usual mindset—not when so many of our people’s health needs are unmet. Our neighbors, our communities and our people deserve health care that does not financially break us or leave us afraid to see a physician. With this in mind, we will continue to push for universal coverage by examining any proposal, on the federal, state, or local level that expands coverage and care right here in Brooklyn.
4. Revising the Current Welfare to Work Program
   
   We support efforts to motivate and increase the workforce in our communities and develop self-sufficiency for the good of all our families. However, the current welfare to work program is demeaning and ineffective. For example, we must prepare members of our community to care for the Baby Boomer generation as they reach retirement. Real job opportunities in health care and assisted living will become available for those in need of work as long as we provide the necessary training. We will solicit creative solutions that allow us to provide for the needs of our community without debilitating the human spirit and separating parents from their children. We will support efforts to expand the definition of what qualifies as work under the current system, to increase opportunities for work that can be done from home and for non-profits that serve our local communities, using collegiate work-study programs and our own proposed school-to-work program as inspiration.
   
   Welfare to work that serves our communities is a win-win for all of us.
5. Ending Violence Against Women, Girls, Men and Boys
   
   We are painfully aware that the threat of violence—particularly against women of all ages—is a constant, demoralizing presence in our homes, our communities, our country and our world. That’s why we support increased funding of the Violence Against Women Act and an increase in the allocation of financial resources toward communities of color.
   
   We will provide both crisis prevention and preventative education to end violence in our community. By providing conflict resolution training that focuses on empowering women and educating men, we will address the violence that has been linked to masculinity, and provide a continuum of care and support designed to defuse violence at its source.
   
   By ending violence in our communities, we will create healthier families and a healthier Brooklyn. Only when our sisters and brothers stand on equal footing, without the threat of violence and discrimination, working together to create the community that we know is possible, will we all succeed. We can do it—together.
6. Creating a Resource Guide for our Community
   
   Too often our neighbors in need simply don’t know where to turn. Help may be “out there,” but they don’t know what services are available to them. A user-friendly resource guide that lists and details all the social service programs available to our constituents will be the first step in ensuring that all our citizens are properly informed and empowered with knowledge. We will never again hear “I didn’t know where to turn” in the 10th Congressional District. Not here. Never again.

THE BRIDGE

• Immediate relief for those hit by the current recession
• More targeted job creation in the private and public sector
• Develop and invest in our communities by funneling local and state aid into community banks and credit unions charged with financing “paycheck plus projects” that can put people back to work and help rebuild Brooklyn
• Cut red tape, operating costs, taxes and tariffs that disproportionately hinder the lifeblood and creative incubators of our communities, our small businesses
• Forge partnerships between small business assistance programs and local banks and credit unions to create a readily accessible pipeline for members of our community to obtain funding to start businesses, make capital improvements, and retrofit their existing facilities with green technology
• Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the super rich that have unfairly increased our national debt and led to a massive reduction in human services
• Increase the Capital Gains Tax that currently rewards short-term speculation rather than long-term investment
• Repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act to bring back banking reforms of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933
• End predatory lending and demand full prosecution of any and all individuals engaged in the process
• Help build credit in minority communities
• Prevent credit card companies from "double dipping" by charging exorbitant transaction fees from our small businesses and then charging excess fees to their customers
• End ATM fees on withdrawals that discourage people from using local banks and credit unions and give large multinational banks an unfair advantage

• Complete commitment to fair trade policies that protect American jobs, the environment and the non-American workers from exploitation at the hands of multinational corporations with no respect for human rights
• Repeal free trade policies that have hurt American families, including CAFTA, NAFTA and other agreements that failed to address environmental concerns and workers' rights in Brooklyn, the United States and abroad

• Push for green building and refitting projects within the district and throughout the nation to assure that our new homes are green and our existing homes are greener. Besides protecting our environment, such programs create jobs that cannot be outsourced and spur local spending
• Create public/private partnerships that teach and certify builders, electricians, plumbers and other construction trades in green technologies and LEED expectations so Brooklyn leads in green construction
• Clean up Superfund sites and Brown Fields in Brooklyn
• Ensure Safety at the Nuclear Transfer Way Station in Williamsburg
• Support legislation and programs to reduce toxic materials and toxic consumer goods entering Brooklyn and provide effective ways to contain and dispose of those that do come into the community
• Reintegrate the U.S. with the Community of Nations on climate change. Help the U.S. lead the effort to prevent the global temperature from rising any further
• Support a national cap-and-trade program or carbon tax to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020
  • Under a cap-and-trade program, require energy producers to purchase their carbon emissions allowances, rather than giving the allowances away. Use the revenue generated from these purchases to invest in more renewable energy production and to reimburse lower-income citizens for temporarily increased energy costs
  • Under a cap-and-trade program, support national carbon offsets, which reduce global greenhouse gas emissions much more than sub-national carbon offsets (both the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer climate bills currently include only the inferior sub-national offsets)
• Support a strong national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that requires all utilities within each state to produce 25% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020
• Support advanced Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) on a national scale, which encourage businesses and homes like those right here in Brooklyn to install renewable energy-generating capacity. Under an FIT, these generators can sell clean energy back to the grid at a guaranteed rate, thus reducing our carbon footprint our utility bills
• Do not limit the EPA's existing authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act
• Support increased investments in high-speed rail that were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• Support increased investments in local public transportation, including subways and above-ground rail, hybrid buses and more bicycle lanes
• Support increased fines for companies that violate federal environmental laws, and support more vigorous federal prosecution of serious environmental crimes
• Reward federal contractors who abide by local and national environmental laws, and penalize those who flout them; ban the most egregious and consistently delinquent companies from receiving federal contracts altogether
• Support urban farming in our own community by converting unused space to community gardens, encouraging rooftop and vertical farming and providing opportunities for our residents to grow their own produce and secure locally produced food throughout Brooklyn in our bodegas and markets

• Challenge our students and educators to find a cure for cancer. Establish "Conquering Cancer" as the lodestar we currently lack in our educational system to give our educators the anchor they require in national and local policy decisions, much like we had in response to Sputnik's launch where our national focus became science and math in order to put a person on the moon
• Change an educational system that has focused on training our children to work in an industrial economy that no longer exists in our communities to one that focuses on developing fields such as computers, health care, green energy, science and finance
• Fix and fund No Child Left Behind so it serves our schools, teachers and children and not self-serving standardized testing companies and politicians that focus on graduation rates rather than actual learning
• Restore and expand after-school programs to give our children healthy, safe and productive spaces to thrive
• Guarantee access to Pre-K and daycare throughout Brooklyn and the rest of the country
• Ensure that services and programs are in place to educate and support students with learning disabilities and special needs so they too can achieve success in school and in life
• Embrace technological innovations in all of our classrooms that assist in teaching and learning such as educational gaming, internet instruction, web 2.0 tutoring, long-distance learning and classes in computer skills and technological design
• Fully fund GED programs throughout the country to give 40 million Americans the skills they need to obtain work and pursue higher education, including many right here in the 10th Congressional District
• End the paradigm of charter schools in competition with traditional public schools and replace it with a focus on expanding freedom in the classroom throughout all public schools so teachers have the power to determine what works in their classroom
• Demand that the Department of Education analyze the positive teaching and learning techniques that charter schools have introduced, using them as incubators to improve traditional public schools
• Increase parental involvement in our schools because parents are a child's most important teachers, and what is taught in the classroom must be valued and understood in the home
• Students who remain enrolled in high school should have the opportunity to participate in paid internships underserved communities and markets and will help address community concerns, such as providing assistance to teachers, nurses and non-profits in exchange for college credits and income
• Explore new incentive programs to attract and retain experienced teachers in our lowest income classrooms, such as providing discounts that increase annually for their own children to attend college in New York State. (Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that an experienced teacher has the most significant impact on learning; more than teacher to student ratio, more than the best textbook, even more than funding)

• Create four pilot community centers throughout the district that house community education, public health initiatives, and allow open public space for dialogue about the future of our district. These centers would host classes on issues such as financial empowerment and responsibility, health and nutrition, exercise classes, foreign language instruction, continuing education, recycling, tax preparation, immigration counseling, and anti-violence workshops to help create a community that shuns violence and learns to heal, together
• Increase innovative anti-gang initiatives
• Restore and expand after-school programs, including sports, music, art and tutoring
• Expand access to adult education to equip Brooklynites for a changing economy
• Increase anti-violence and conflict resolution education
• Ensure age-appropriate sexual education programs for children and adults to reduce unwanted pregnancies and STDs
• A resource guide for our community that lists and details all the social service programs available to constituents to ensure that all our citizens are properly informed and educated. We will never again hear those heartbreaking words, "I just didn't know where to turn"

• Increase access to health care by immediately rolling traditionally uninsured and vulnerable populations into Medicare until we finally secure universal healthcare under a single payer system
• Expand the concept of health care, currently seen as only a problem of physical health, to include wellness, preventative medicine, psychological care, dental care, obesity prevention, access to healthy fruits and vegetables and any other intitiative that improves the body, mind and spirit of Brooklynites. We believe our pilot Community Centers would be a perfect location to provide these services
• Work with health care providers in the 10th Congressional District to create an alternative fee structure to provide service for those who are currently unable to afford insurance and not yet covered by our Medicare expansion
• Secure funding to place a nurse in every single Brooklyn school so our children are guaranteed to have at least some opportunity to consult a health care professional
• Pursue new holistic models of health care that emphasize nutrition, self-care, prevention, and comprehensive healing rather than symptom suppression and over-reliance on pharmaceuticals (www.holisticprimarycare.net)
• Recognize the excessive costs and limitations associated with insurance-based medicine for basic primary care and develop models of care that facilitate holistic approaches and enable practitioners to restore the healer-patient relationship

• Address rising childhood and adult obesity and related health concerns such as the significant rise in Type II Diabetes throughout our communities by supporting local, state and national programs to highlight the issue and provide locally based solutions that address health and wellness through nutrition, exercise and outlook guidance
• Work with non-profits, businesses such as FITTERWITH, and health experts like Jeff Halevy, that are focused on providing preventive health care and fitness guidance to improve the life expectancy and quality of life in Brooklyn communities
• Introduce educational programs focused on teaching our teachers how to live healthy lifestyles, and how to pass this choice to live healthy onto their students -- our children
• Support local and organic based food providers by creating more public space for farmers' markets throughout every community and expanding New York's policy of accepting government assistance at green markets throughout the nation, along with making the process easier and more utilized right here in New York
• Push forward with the New York Foodshed program in order to expand both our access to fresh food and collective purchasing power

• Protect Medicare from any cuts in services or tightening of eligibility requirements
• Simplify the overwhelming Medicare paperwork and red tape and provide assistance to seniors with questions about their coverage
• Increase senior housing options and improve the care and cleanliness of group homes, assisted living facilities, and hospices so our seniors can be confident that their community cares for them every step of the way
• Prosecute and publicly shame any financial institution that takes advantage of seniors
• Provide frequent opportunities for seniors to sit down with Kevin Powell in their own homes so they can voice their concerns directly to their congressman

• Increase federal, state and local support for members of our community facing disabilities of any kind
• Punish business owners and agencies that discriminate against anyone facing disability
• Improve educational, employment, transportation, housing and community opportunities for those with disabilities
• Eliminate the stigma facing those with disabilities by increasing education and community awareness programs

• Work with drug companies to provide affordable access to treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS in America and the rest of the world
• Increase education for all communities about the importance of HIV testing and about how to prevent the spread of HIV
• Eliminate the stigma and discrimination facing those with HIV/AIDS by community engagement and creating social networks that bring together individuals and families whose lives have been impacted by this pandemic
• Increase funding for the Ryan White Act of 2009 that assists those living with HIV/AIDS in our communities

• Redirect incarceration dollars toward education spending and enhance alternative strategies to lower incarceration rates. These actions will reduce the rates of recidivism, while creating opportunities for success
• Abolish capital punishment
• Address New York's disproportionate use of the stop and frisk policy in communities of color through a multi-pronged approach
  • Target precinct-level training on the appropriate use of this policy, including education about cultural diversity
  • Collect officer-specific data about his or her use of the stop and frisk to determine whether the officer properly utilizes the procedure
  • Educate the community about our civil liberties in order to protect us from law enforcement abuse and allow the police to more efficiently conduct their important work
• Reform sentencing policies contributing to high racial disparities in the court system, particularly in communities of color
• Create a task force designed to address the growing number of public trespass arrests and resulting non-violent convictions in our communities
• Expand work release, probation and community service programs for non-violent offenders to keep families together and allow for continuous employment
• Provide community-based alternatives for youth with non-violent convictions
• Reform our bail system which currently keeps people who have not been convicted of any crime in jail when they cannot afford to make bail, ultimately impacting families, employment and community ties
• Address the root causes of crime in our communities in order to keep good people with limited opportunities, education and guidance out of the prison system in the first place

• Treat drug addiction as a public health issue, not as a felonious criminal offense
• Equalize crack and cocaine sentences
• Legalize medical marijuana and revisit the practical socioeconomic and criminal justice benefits of decriminalization
• End the loss of civil liberties and educational benefits associated with drug prosecutions
• Reduce soaring incarceration rates with sensible sentencing guidelines
• Increase education programs for drug and alcohol prevention focused on maintaining mentally and physical healthy lifestyles, not simply criminal punishment

• Maintain and expand rent stabilization
• Protect Title 8 (access to affordable housing) and Section 8 from any governmental cutbacks that would cause harm to our neighbors
• Address gentrification with humane locally oriented solutions
• Provide more assisted living opportunities focused on creating positive and inclusive experiences for members of our community facing extreme poverty, illness and disability
• We support a new vision for large public housing units based on the foundation laid by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities at http://www.clpha.org/future_of_public_housing_policy_framework
• Redefine government assisted housing as a step in one’s life rather than an end to itself by providing educational and employment opportunities to those in need and helping turn renters into owners through fixed, fair and honest paths to home ownership for Brooklynites

• Complete concrete plans to bring troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan by 2012 and change national security policies to be more cautious about intervening in local conflicts
• Act as a peacemaker and not an instigator in the Middle East, including redoubling our efforts at working with both Israel and Palestine as equal partners looking for peace, security and development
• Sign on to the International Criminal Court Agreement
• Direct our foreign policy toward non-violent and multi-lateral solutions
• Propose American and multi-lateral action to end genocide in the Sudan, the Congo and the rest of Africa and the Diaspora
• Increase American and multi-lateral action aid to stem the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Caribbean
• Work with pharmaceutical companies to provide inexpensive drugs for AIDS treatment throughout the world
• Assert the African Diaspora's firm place and role in the global economy by highlighting the positive developments and success stories in Africa
• Work with non-profits to sustain and support value based leadership by empowering positive leaders willing to pursue a new vision for Africa
• Advocate favorable trade agreements among the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and South America
• Implement fair trade policies with the world's two largest markets, China and India
• Demand debt cancellation for third world nations, with an immediate focus on Haiti
• Provide more than trivial support to Haitians from transparent grass-roots organizations taking the leadership in rebuilding after the earthquake's devastation
• Greatly expand the Peace Corps as a force promoting youth service, training and employment. Create paid national and international service oppoortunities for all who are willing to work in a respectful and disciplined manner to solve conflicts
• Support organizations and companies pushing mobile telecommunications service throughout the world, particularly in the emerging markets of Africa to expand communication, develop democracy, increase educational opportunities and improve quality of life (more information)

• Help fully fund veterans' assistance and domestic programs by ending the war expenditures in the Middle East
• Hold the Pentagon accountable for its consumption of three quarters of a trillion dollars each year in order to provide a real check on American military diplomacy throughout the world
• Engage in multilateral nuclear non-proliferation efforts
• Fully fund and upgrade domestic port, air, and infrastructure security measures

• Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act
• Repeal the Military Commissions Act
• Limit the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision granting more electoral influence to corporations and special interests, and redirect more power to the people
• Impose stricter oversight and increased education to end New York's racially biased implementation of police "stop and frisk" tactics

• Absolutely protect a woman's right to choose as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade from any direct or subtle limitation
• Support the Congressional Women's Caucus on issues which have a significant impact on women
• Follow the lead of the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009 and pursue initiatives that guarantee pay equity for women and men
• Pursue policies that incentivize companies to provide workplace flexibility and parent leave without loss of benefits
• Continue to push for the inclusion of women and girls in all discussions around American public policy and in all levels of government, and support organizations such as The White House Project that work to this important end

• Connect women and girls with the resources they need to heal from all forms of abuse, including the one in four whom have suffered from sexual abuse (www.rainn.org and www.nsvrc.org)
• Connect men and boys with the resources they need to heal from all forms of abuse, including the one in six whom have suffered from sexual abuse (www.1in6.org)
• Immediately sign the long overdue International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) re-introduced by Senators Boxer, Susan Collins, Snowe and Kerry as well as Representatives Delahunt and Poe. Although an I-VAWA was sponsored by then-Senator Biden in 2007, it has never passed
• Convene a United Nations Summit on how to eliminate violence toward women, girls, men and boys throughout the world. The summit will bring together 300 young people from America and the rest of the world in November 2010 and put forth a clear plan of next steps and practical solutions, including engaging with the mass media culture
• Together with mental health professional and domestic violence activist, Stacey Bellem, directly engage leading American figures in the domestic violence movement to integrate both gendered violence and mental health theories in the work being done to address women and men, girls and boys, victims and batterers in our society today. This psychosocial approach to prevention and treatment of individuals impacted by gender based violence will aid in the healing of all people touched by this human rights and public health issue
• Because of his resume in the world of media, pop culture, and entertainment, Kevin will be an outspoken and consistent voice against violent, sexist and misogynistic images in film, television, music, and video games. A writer and artist himself, Kevin strongly supports the right of freedom of speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment. However, he also believes in responsibility within the mass media culture, and understands its power to shape the minds of impressionable young people

• Support legislation to assure equal rights to the LGBT community in all areas, including marriage, adoption, housing, employment and immigration rights
• Ensure human rights across the spectrum, focusing on what unites us and not what divides us
• Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act
• End the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy in our military and recognized the contributions of all the brave men and women who serve our country

• Change immigration policy from a paradigm of protectionism and fear to one of pragmatism and opportunity
• Fully fund USCIS to allow our immigration service to modernize its systems, eliminate its backlog of applications, and assist millions of Americans currently eligible for citizenship
• Create a fair path to citizenship for those inside our borders that focuses on integrating law-abiding immigrants into our national fabric and strengthening our communities
• Reduce corporate America's ability to use immigrants as economic pawns by ensuring that companies pay workers fair wages
• Promote unity and harmony by strengthening the lines of communication between local government, law enforcement, and immigrant communities

• Guard against any snap decisions until the feasibility study is completed
• Fully examine all investment alternatives
• Evaluate New York City's transportation infrastructure as a whole

• Explore alternative tort reform measures to reduce the crippling costs faced by our physicians while protecting patients' rights

• Make unionization fairer and simpler to provide strength for our families and community
• Fully support the efforts of groups to unionize to expand worker's rights, improve work conditions and increase wages
• Pass the Employee Free Choice Act to make unionizing simpler, fairer and more streamlined

• Maintain net neutrality by preventing Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down web content based on its source, ownership or destination
• Keep a level playing field so small startups can compete with larger telecom companies to improve service and spur innovation