Dear editor,
Canvassing our warm and authentic neighborhoods in Kansas House District 37 with Aaron Coleman this fall has shown me what public service really looks like. One day, we came to a house with a sign up supporting one of Aaron’s write-in opponents. I’d figured we’d skip any such homes, but Aaron went up and knocked on the door. As I stood behind him rather apprehensively, I saw a beautiful exchange, with Aaron listening respectfully to the woman’s concerns. and explaining why he was still running and why he was the best candidate for the job. At the end, he accepted that she might not be ready to support him this time around, but expressed the hope that after he’d served two years and done a good job and shown himself to be a better man, she’d give him her support for the next two years.
Another man opened his door and said “I’ve heard all about you,” — then stepped out on the porch and said, “Just keep doing what you’re doing; you’ve got my vote.” After many similarly-uplifting encounters, I’ve realized most people live in the present and plan for the future. They’re less interested in a leader’s past mistakes than in whether they can count on him to forge ahead and keep working for the public good, undaunted by criticism and setbacks. By refusing to scurry into a hole under the blaze of sunlight, Aaron has proven his mettle as a man and not a cockroach. People are seeing that he won’t hide, and will indeed talk and listen to anyone with something to say to him.
Those of us feeling the strongest need for single-payer healthcare rejoice in having a champion who, by remaining in the race no matter how high the criticisms pile up, and just patiently knocking on door after door, is proving his single-minded commitment to staying the course. As a mother of a child with type 1 diabetes, and of a young woman of childbearing age. I see how important it is for everyone to be able to access lifesaving — and quality-of-life saving — care and medicines, and I gladly throw my support behind this energetic young man who sees it, too, due to the mental health struggles of a couple of his loved ones, including his older brother who died of depression a year ago.
Back in 2016, when Bernie Sanders campaigned on a promise of universal healthcare and tuition-free higher education, people kept saying, “How you gonna pay for all that”?” Aaron, today in 2020, is laying out a practical plan for prioritizing education over incarceration. He explains that for 50k, the cost of imprisoning someone for a year over cannabis, you can instead pay the cost for five people to get two-year degrees at KCKCC. So legalizing cannabis creates two revenue-streams: the savings we get by dramatically reducing the incarceration-rate, and the income we get by taxing the now-legal sales.
Our young people are heading into economic, societal and environmental challenges that we ourselves have never faced and can’t prepare them for. It goes beyond just saying “make American” and “buy American” when, as former 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang has said, the new creator of unemployment is not cheap labor but our own technological success. And a thriving economy without a thriving planet is just a house of cards about to collapse. We need young leaders with the flexibility, and fresh vision, to craft policies merging technological advancement with an increase in human and ecological well being,
Aaron Coleman is one such young leader, and we’re very lucky to have him with us here in the Dotte! Vote!
Susan Stevens
Kansas City, Kansas
