Jackson makes case for congressional seat

Dear Editor:

I have decided to run for Congress because, in 2010, the election of Dr. Nan Hayworth for Congress here in the Hudson Valley handed control of Congress to the Republicans and the Tea Party, which have a different view of what America should be and can be. Her views, and theirs, are not ours. They attack voting rights, civil rights, women’s rights, and the rights of senior citizens, not to mention workers’ union rights.

The views of Hayworth and the Tea Party are un-American and a threat to our democracy. As a Vietnam-era veteran, a member of the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans Association and President of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 817, our motto is “Freedom is Not Free.”

I was privileged enough to use my GI bill in 1973 to receive my Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University in City Planning. I have 15 years of planning experience, not only in New York, but in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Boston. For the last 22 years, I have been a small business owner in New York City, employing several people and running three businesses.

For those of you who think you don’t know me, you do. On May 1, 2010, at my stand at 45th and Broadway, a foreign-born terrorist drove an SUV into Times Square filled with home-made explosive devices. Democracy prevailed and we all dodged a bullet that day. It changed my life forever.

I entered this race eight months ago. There were naysayers who said, “You don’t have any organization. You don’t have any money. How can you win?” I said to them, “There is a reservoir of disenfranchised voters untapped by the other candidate.” My campaign has been one of grass-roots organizing, and by using methods of change to make our community strong and vibrant I hope to change the way Washington does business with our tax dollars, bring jobs to the Hudson Valley, protect Social Security, civil rights, senior rights,  and the right of all Americans to pursue the American dream.

With your vote in this June 26th Primary, I can take the fight to Dr. Nan Hayworth and her Tea Party friends to work with our President to take back control of Congress, and do the people’s work. God bless you, God bless our President, and God bless America.

Duane Jackson
Candidate for Congress
Congressional District 18