October 8, 2014
WILLIAMSON
FOR
U.S.CONGRESS
DEMOCRAT
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 6
“The Future Can Be Ours.”
480-607-9726
Dear Friend:
Today I drove more than 100 miles throughout Congressional District 6, the
district for which I will be the congressman after November 4th. I was
assessing the sign presence of our campaign.
What I noticed as I drove throughout the District was that, in certain
areas, I saw economically disadvantaged people. Yes, of course, I saw some
folks outrightly begging at certain locations, just as we see them
throughout the Valley. I have to tell you, though: Some of those human
beings were suffering greater apparent destitution than I have seen in
other parts of the Valley. One young man’s pants had a gaping hole in the
back; he was dressed in tatters. He was a tatterdemalion
right out of Les Miserables. I was surprised, to be honest, that,
because of his half-dressed appearance, he had not
yet been picked up by the police and maybe taken humanely to a shelter.
This scene was witnessed at the entrance to the Happy Valley
Towne Center across from the new Shops at Norterra as I
drove eastward on Happy Valley Road.
In other places, I saw residents who looked as though they were on a
minimum clothing allowance. There was that threadbare look: not bad enough
to look like destitution, but marginally adequate in
the wardrobe department. There was a bleakness in some areas that was
truly alarming. Encounters with Reality can sometimes be that way.
All this made me think of a letter I received from the St. Mary’s Food
Bank Alliance shortly after I won the Democratic Primary at the end of
August. In the letter I received, it was stated, as I recall, that 1 out
of 8 people in Congressional District 6 has a food security–that is, food
shortage–problem. That 1 out of 8 people in CD 6 has had occasion to make
use of the St. Mary’s food bank.
I’m going by memory on this statistic right now, because I can’t, at the
moment, find that letter. But I know when I first read the letter, I read
that part more than once to see if it was really true. Apparently, it is.
Here are some shocking quotes, as of today, from the St. Mary’s Food Bank
Alliance website at www.firstfoodbank.org:
“Arizona’s hunger rates are higher than national averages: 17.8% of
Arizonans are food insecure, compared to 15.9% nationally, and 28.2% of
Arizonan children face hunger, compared to 21.6% nationally.”
“Arizona ranks third in the country for high child food insecurity rates,
behind only New Mexico and Mississippi, with 456,760 children facing
hunger on a daily basis.”
“2 million Arizonans are considered working poor, living at or below the
Federal Poverty Guideline. This is the majority of those served by the
Food Bank’s emergency food box program.”
“Currently nearly 1 in 3 children, 1 in 5 Arizonans, and 1 in 7 seniors in
Arizona live in poverty.” (This last statistic from the website is based
on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap study of 2012.)
Within the first month after I take office in January, I will call to my
office–whether locally or in Washington–a consultant, Lisa Goin, Chief
Development and Communications Officer from the St. Mary’s Food Bank
Alliance based in Phoenix, to advise me on the food insecurity situation
in Congressional District 6. Moreover, I will ask for proposals from Ms.
Goin on what can be done to eliminate hunger in our District.
Furthermore, when I am your congressman, I will locate my District office
in a more centralized spot than Rep. Schweikert presently has his. I will
locate my office near 7th Street and Thunderbird Road, more equidistant
from the eastern and western boundaries of CD6, as likewise more
centralized on a north/south basis as well. This location will be more
representative of the income levels in the District, whereas now Rep.
Schweikert has his office ensconced in an upscale office complex on the
northeast corner of Hayden Road and Shea Boulevard in north Scottsdale, a
more affluent area, not representative of the average income in the
District. Maybe the office park in which Rep. Schweikert currently has his
District headquarters is owned by one of his real estate buddies; who
knows, maybe Rep. Schweikert himself owns that office complex. I will take
a more egalitarian approach to be fair to all of my constituents as a
whole, staying away from and not indulging in David Schweikert’s
plutocratic inclinations.
If you would like to contribute financially to my campaign, please check
out my website at: williamsonforuscongress.com. Click on “Make a
Donation” and, by means of safe and secure PayPal, contribute in support
of your dedicated Democratic candidate. You may donate even if you do not
live in Congressional District 6. You may donate even if you live
out-of-state. If you wish to send in a check, you will find the address to
send it to on the “Make a Donation” page as well on the website. The
Federal Elections Commission guidelines for contributions are that you
provide your name, your address, your employer and your occupation.
I greatly appreciate those who have donated financially, as well as those
who have donated volunteer hours–for some, that has been many–or who
have consented to put a yard sign on their property.
The Future Can Be Ours if we acknowledge that hunger is a real problem in
Congressional District 6, but that, by recognizing this, a first step can
be taken to address and solve this problem. The great English writer
George Eliot–who, actually, of course, was a woman using a pen name–once
said: “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for
each other?” In addition, Warren Buffett said: “If you’re in the luckiest
1pc of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the
other 99pc.” (“Philanthropic Quotes,” National Philanthropic Trust: Your
Partner in Giving, www.nptrust.org, as of Oct. 9, 2014).
No child and no adult in District 6 should be hungry. With your help, when
I am your congressman, we can reduce the food insecurity rate in our
District. Please vote for me on November 4th, or during the mail-in
ballot period that begins on October 10th, so that together we will
achieve this goal.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
John
W. John Williamson
Scottsdale, Arizona