Daryl Mikell Brooks For U.S. Senate 2008: Who is Daryl Mikell Brooks

Friday, February 8, 2008

Who is Daryl Mikell Brooks

I have been a resident of Trenton and New Jersey for 39 years and I can say in all honesty that I love this place. It has been my home and my support for a long time. It is the place that provided me with an education, with work and with opportunities. As a former host of a talk show on WTTM and Comcast, running for Congress in 2004 and US Senate in 2006. As editor of Today's News or founder and president of Positive Link, the needs of this community have always been foremost on my mind. As an activist I have sought to confront those issues that plague our neighborhoods: drugs and alcohol, guns and gang violence, an inadequate educational system and police corruption.

I seek to create relationships and build bridges between residents, business leaders, politicians and social-service agencies. I want to recognize the voice of our young people and, with everyone, to begin the serious work of change.
My friends, America is a troubled place and we have all seen too many dreams fade away in the face of hopelessness. We have millions who are impoverished, millions in prisons, and millions more without access to decent healthcare. We live in a nation where not one, but both of the leading parties - yes Democrats and Republicans - have abandoned those who need them the most in order to guarantee the privilege of those who line their pockets. But there is one thing they have forgotten; there is one thing that they have underestimated. They have forgotten that it is precisely those who struggle who built this country and it is the poor, the oppressed and the neglected who will fight the good fight to make it great.

As the president of the Poor Peoples Campaign, I have joined people of faith all across this country in taking up the banner of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to say that we must not let dreams of a better world remain dreams. We must fight to make those dreams a reality. We must always pray with our hearts, but we must also pray with our hands for a tomorrow where equality, opportunity, peace and justice are not just nice words at campaign time but the lived experience of every generation.

And what kind of prayer will that be? It will be a prayer to reform a criminal justice system that continues to measure color of skin towards verdict. It will be a prayer where all people are treated with the dignity they deserve with access to health care. It will be prayer that seeks to squash poverty, where we fight for better schools and education and where we protect affirmative action. It is a prayer to preserve this creation that God has so blessed us with and to restore cities, suburbs and country. It a prayer where we end senseless wars abroad and at home.
My dear citizens, it will always be dangerous to raise our voice as the citizens of old once did. We will always be at risk for attempting to right wrongs, but I must ask: if not now, then when? If not us, then who? The time has come for a new voice, one that places peace and justice at the very heart of its ideology. The time has come to admit that the party we have supported for so long has taken us for granted. It is time now for the Independent Party.

I ask you today for your support, your encouragement and your wisdom. I ask for the kind of support that calls people to action in November 2008 and, humbly, for the paper kind that makes it possible to run elections! I ask for your support as an African American man, seeking to authentically represent the needs of the people in New Jersey and their neighbors of every creed and ethnicity.

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IRAQ BRING TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!!

Daryl Mikell Brooks believes that we should keep pushing for a positive outcome in Iraq, while preparing for a handoff. He believes that we should tell the Iraqis that we are not pulling out immediately, but neither are we staying indefinitely. The Iraqis must build up their army and police forces, because the day is coming when Iraqis must take charge of Iraq.

Our mission in Iraq has been plagued from the start by poor intelligence, poor planning for the post-war, and a disdain for the advice of our allies and our own military leaders. The Army's chief of staff was ignored, and too few troops were deployed. The Administration failed to foresee the insurgency that followed the war, and many of our servicemen and women who were deployed were not properly equipped with body armor or armored vehicles. Troops were forced to improvise in the field and assigned to duty for which they were not trained. These and other errors in judgment have cost us casualties and made the insurgency more intractable.

What should we do? First, we must supply our troops in Iraq with everything they need to suppress the insurgency and secure the country. Second, we must step up the training of Iraqi security forces – army, border guards, building guards, police and special counter-terrorism units – so that we can turn over to Iraqis the responsibility for securing their own country. Third, we should help the Iraqi forces protect themselves through the provision of better armor and smarter security where recruits gather. Fourth, we must assist Iraqis in forming a functioning representative government, in which all ethnic groups have a voice. And fifth, we must enlist greater allied assistance in protecting Iraq 's borders and preventing the infiltration of foreign terrorists.

JOBS & TRADE

Jobs & Trade
Good jobs and fair trade are the bottom line of a nation's prosperity, and that prosperity is how we pay for the defense of our ideals. Many communities in New Jersey and across America have been hit hard by unfair trade policies and conservative legislation that have made it increasingly attractive for businesses to pack up and move out of the country with the federal government's blessings and tax relief support. This has placed many talented, trained, and dedicated workers on the unemployment rolls almost overnight. The President's tax cuts to the wealthiest one-and-a-half percent of this country have crippled the ability of social services programs to provide aid to our neighbors, friends, and relatives when they need it most. Our current trade policies need to be amended to allow fair trade and protect the workforce of America. Any future legislation needs to consider foremost the impact it will have on the welfare of all Americans.

Full-time workers should have the right to earn a living wage and we must pass fair trade initiatives to protect them. We must change trade and tax policies to favor and reward businesses that create jobs in the US, especially in the awarding of government contracts, while doing all we can to discourage businesses that outsource or set up offshore addresses to avoid paying taxes. We must also create a favorable environment for small businesses even as we correct our corporate welfare policies.

New Jersey must develop incentive packages, better infrastructure, and a dedicated workforce to position itself to lobby immediately for new business and to encourage existing employers to expand their operations within New Jersey. We have some of the largest Pharmaceutical research companies in the nation in our own backyard. By creating a favorable environment for the development of service, manufacturing, and satellite office communities, we can make the most of this natural advantage.

We should also plan for the future by encouraging investment in businesses focused on new energy technologies and renewable energy resources. Manufacturing, transport, and application of these technologies for New Jersey and the Nations can certainly be developed here, while agriculture can benefit from producing biofuel and ethanol products.

Technical training and support-service education can be administered through the community college system. Online education and support will provide even greater access, which will expand the capabilities of the community college system, cementing its role in every community.

ENVIROMENT

Environment
America's promise will not mean much if our environment is not secure. The international community of climate scientists believe the evidence for global warming is "unequivocal" and that human activity is the likely cause. A report released recently by some of our top retired military leaders warns that the result of climate changes from global warming will pose a "serious threat to America's national security." If our environment is not secure, neither are we. This is a moral issue as much as it is a security issue. Can we afford to bet our children's future on the consequences of inaction? The time to act is now.

We must invest in a new energy economy that reduces our dependence on foreign oil and other non-renewable resources that are polluting our environment. By encouraging the development of renewable, non-polluting energy sources, we can create new business and job opportunities in New jersey that stimulate the economy even as we move towards securing our energy independence and the environment.

We must take steps to conserve energy and manage its use more efficiently and effectively. We must work to reduce and cap greenhouse gas pollution and plan for the future.

Because pollution anywhere can potentially create problems everywhere, we must lead the way in formulating a new international treaty on climate change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale.