total time: 5.2 minutes
total words: 912
[Bears]: Good news about the money too, so we'll get there. Before I start, I want to shout out our Council Vice President, Kit Collins, who is here. All right. Now, I know everyone's just here to see the giraffes. We're going to do three things before then. First, you're going to listen to me for a minute. Hopefully you'll donate if you haven't already. And then we're going to take a photo right around here so that we can show everyone how many people are psyched for this campaign. correct. It's a beautiful evening to be here with all of you, my neighbors. I want to thank the McGordys for hosting us, and I want to thank everyone for everything that they've done so far to build the foundation of this grassroots campaign to invest in Medford. I want to talk a little bit about why we're here. We're here because we see the impact of chronic underfunding around all of us, all around us every day. Kids without the resources they need to thrive. Schools in desperate need of maintenance. Teachers and paras who aren't paid enough. Not enough teachers and paras and staff in the first place. Streets and sidewalks in such bad shape that people are getting hurt and everyone's cars constantly need repairs. A 60-year-old fire headquarters without the proper living quarters and gear storage to keep our firefighters safe. Not only do we see it, the numbers lay it out. We're the fifth lowest in per capita spending of the 97 cities and towns with more than 20,000 people in Massachusetts. 92nd out of 97. Fourth lowest residential property tax rate of that same group, 93rd out of 97. And we're one of only 20 cities out of all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts that has never even tried to put an override or a debt exclusion on the ballot. Even the people who passed Proposition 2.5 in 1980 thought that these votes would be happening regularly. It wasn't that we should starve government, it was just that people should know what their money's going towards. And we have those items on the ballot today. We're here because it's time to turn the ship around and invest in Medford. Medford residents have been clamoring for the chance to vote to invest in our city, and elected officials have finally delivered by putting questions six, seven, and eight on the ballot on Tuesday, November 5th. We need to spend the next two months pounding the pavement, raising money, and talking to our neighbors about why we need to vote yes to invest in our schools, our streets, and our fire department. Now, this campaign is not going to be easy. Some people may have seen the latest attack line. Stop the scam. Well, let me tell you now, I think calling the hard work of people coming together to invest in our community a scam is just plain weird. Our kids are not a scam. Our teachers and our firefighters are not a scam. Walking or rolling or driving down the street safely is not a scam. Doing the right thing for our city is not a scam. So we're going to push back and we're going to push back hard. We'll be correcting the record and busting these myths every day. And we'll have resources to help you do it at investinmedford.com. There's stuff up there now, go check it out. There's gonna be even more rolling out over the next few weeks. I need each and every one of you to be ambassadors for the truth here in Medford. So sign up, most everyone did at the front, get trained on the facts and make sure you can step in and correct the record when the lies start coming out. But pushing back just isn't enough. We need to fight back in order to win. That means we need to get the facts out to as many people as possible, especially with so many people voting by sending mailers and spending enough money to do this campaign right. Our fundraiser goal was $50,000. I want to thank everyone who's already given and raised over $6,000 just in the first two weeks of this campaign. I especially want to thank Dave McKenna and Nicole Morell, who gave $1,000 each. Thank you. I wrote a check tonight for $1,000 from my campaign funds because winning this campaign and investing in our future is way more important than me getting reelected. So I want to thank everyone who's already donated. Please donate if you haven't and get the word out to your neighbors. I'm hoping we can raise another $6,000 tonight on our path to victory. Thank you so much for letting me share my thoughts with you tonight. I'm just so excited to talk to everybody, talk to our neighbors, and especially celebrate with some homegrown entertainment. I love this city. We have a truly transformative opportunity to build a better future for Medford and I'm glad to be here with you over the next two months to make it happen. Last week I was reminded of some great words from a great campaign. I'm fired up. Are you fired up? I'm ready to go. Are you ready to go? Fired up. Ready to go. Fired up. Ready to go. Let's win this thing. Alright, now we need to take that photo so folks could gather here.
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total time: 5.2 minutes total words: 912 |
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