Khalid Wright
James
Gerrish
After much research and study, I
have decided to vote for Khalid Wright for Third Ward council.
Khalid Wright is running for council independently on Line D and
is not "teamed" with any Mayoral candidate. However, I
plan to also vote for Kevin Taylor of Line E, and although the
two men disagree from time to time, I feel that as business
people, they can work together since neither of them is a pawn of
the Democratic machine and their interest is what is best for the
City of East Orange, not what is best for political bosses in
Essex County Democratopia.
Just as I immediately dropped
candidates from consideration after they blocked me from
communicating with them on their Facebook pages, I found that Khalid welcomed my questions and was not
afraid to answer the toughest questions on any topic when we met in
person on April 6th.
I also liked the answer he gave
Dhiren Shah in the Local Talk News interview of May 10th when Shah asked: "Do you know the graduation rate
of the high school students in East Orange?"
Khalid by-passed the question as
just an unimportant statistic to the more complicated problem of
improving education when he answered: "Any rate can be
improved. It's how we relate to the students. For technology and
math, we can introduce the STEM level
to the middle school." Thats the kind of answer a teacher
gives; ignore the statistics because they don't help solve the
problem. Instead, start with who you have for students, no matter
what their problems or backgrounds, and begin to build an
education for them from there.
Another thing that he said in the
Local Talk Interview was, "You rarely see elected officials except
during campaign season. I will be out and about speaking to the
citizens." Having a council person who doesn't run and hide
when he sees you coming will be a refreshing change from the Ted
Green disappearing act. I know I can meet with Khalid at my home
or at Sunny's Cafe and get straight answers from him.