The election is over and all the hard work and machinations of that will soon fade from memory. The people who voted made their choices and that is what it is. I congratulate everyone that won regardless of how they did so or what efforts they put in. However, I want it known that all issues I had with them up to this point, retain their merit and still exist. I haven’t forgotten nor I hope will any of my supporters.

I spent around $1500 of my own money with a little help from co-workers and associates. Not one penny came from any elected officials. I walked countless miles and distributed over 3000 pieces of literature and talked countless hours with a variety of fellow citizens. Dogs of every stripe and size were ‘good dogs’ alerting their masters to my approach and knock. I wrote some 65,000 words for the citizens in which to utilize to make an informed decision. Perhaps some took it in and used it to not vote for me and conversely they read it and used it to vote for me. I’m convinced I would’ve gotten more votes if only I’d gotten word out to more people door to door but, my 54-year old hip and funds ran out. So it goes.

 Autumn Rehl and Treva Draper-Imler were my two chief assistants. We had several meetings to formulate strategies and hash out ideas. Their brilliant minds and contagious enthusiasm were a bubbly tonic to my exhausted and sometimes acerbic self. (To be fair, I also held them up sometimes to and made them laugh) They were the lynch-pins that held this train together and kept it from derailing. God bless them and thank them for their help. It was immeasurable.

Scott Wright, Deana Hutchison, Shelly Willis, Autumn Rehl and Jim George were helpful in getting literature passed out, as mentioned before, and I thank them for that and their support.

For all those on Facebook who supported me by ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ things and all their kind and supportive words, I thank-you all.

 I think I well-explained how I felt about Leslie LaCorte and why I supported her. I don’t just believe she is people-centric, I know she is. She is a good person and that is key in a true leader. Without that you’re just going through the motions. Going through the motions is simply an inorganic portrayal for some inner reason not related to that which you’re pretending. If Leslie is the queen of malapropisms or isn’t a walking dictionary or thesaurus (like me), it doesn’t matter because she’s genuine and true blue. That is where you start, that is the beginnings of good things. Without it you’re just a pretensive shell and that to me, is not worth the gas to drive and cast a vote for. I congratulate and applaud Leslie on the hard work she put into her campaign and giving it her all and striving to reach the destination in the first place, not allowing Kim Maggard to feel once again like she was the annointed heir-apparent of Whitehall. Good for Leslie LaCorte she didn’t allow Kim Maggard to run opposed. For that alone she deserves a standing ovation and a level of respect and admiration that should never abate.

Growing up, I watched alot of movies. Of them I always enjoyed Frank Capra movies. He was most known as the director of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, the idealic tale of a man finding redemption for himself in coming to understand the power and impact of one’s life on the world around him through his actions. Capra’s takes on humanity were always kind of corny (called Capri-corn) but highly idealistic and  so American with heroes and bad guys. My favorite of his was ‘Meet John  Doe’ starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Its the story of a reporter who makes up a letter printed as a story before leaving her job at the paper. She writes of a man who’s going to commit suicide at midnight on Christmas Eve by jumping off City Hall tower to protest man’s inhumanity to man and the general awful state of things. The letter is printed and it touches off a firestorm of interest in saving this ‘John Doe’. Because he doesn’t exist, they hire a hobo, played by Gary Cooper, to pretend he’s John Doe and suddenly a movement arises. Its one of the kindest, sweetest, most generous movies I’ve ever seen and is the one movie closest to my heart. You really want to know me? Watch ‘Meet John Doe’. I watch it every year on Christmas Eve.

I believe in my fellow man, all of them and we have an obligation to each other. I believe we have an obligation to bring light to the dark and that the only reason to look down on someone is when you’re bending to give them a hand up. I believe that our fellow of God’s children are and should be our chief focus. Anything else is a slap in the face of our creator. Soooo, when people do things for selfish reasons or forget our #1 focus, I take issue with it. When the pursuit of billions of dollars takes precedence over that of our fellow human beings, that is a sin (unless you use those billions to help them). I believe if we can’t live up to principals we espouse and believe in regarding humanity then we might as well stop kidding ourselves, bullshitting others and let the careless, inhumane, genocidal slaughtering begin, because there are no half measures. You either care or you don’t, you either do or you don’t. When people derisively complain, ‘They need to tear out those Fairport apartments!’, I remember that those complaints weren’t heard when they were filled with white people. I also consider the fact that they are currently filled with human beings, people who have their lives and are trying to find happiness within poverty. When I travel through Woodcliff, I see nothing but 10 boys playing football in a front yard or kids chasing each other around the tree, finding happiness in their lives despite any circumstances they may be mired in that may not be like mine. To not first acknowlege that is sinful. To say that people are in the way of progress or someone’s self-interested plans at city hall or a self-aggrandizing call for a ‘War on Blight!!’ is not to lead people but profit from their misery and your community’s downfall. Without acknowledging poor people are human lives too and they need/want food and shelter and happiness just like you and I and finding alternatives for those needs/wants before chasing them out to be someone else’s problem, is to prize the wrong things in our time on God’s green earth. To place developers and builders and political machines and property values ($$$$$$!) above people is to participate in the truer and more lasting degradation of our planet and society and mankind. While it is a noble gesture to fling yourself off a city hall tower to protest the madness in society (On Yearling Road I would surely only break a leg and bruise my coccyx) it is more lasting to stick around and fight, against the dark and to see that others are being pulled up and to ensure that human beings rights and dignity are always prized over that of money and possessions. That is one of the reasons I fought Mayor Maggard as exhaustively and strongly as I did. My writings in this blog serve my point of view well on that topic and so there is no reason to repeat it all today.

I have, for a long time, insisted that I be myself, whatever that may be and at whatever cost that brings to me in whatever form. As I told Autumn Rehl with advance warning, “I’m a bawdy gay man with a salty tongue” and so it is. I am also a true blue individual with a heart of gold and a true deep care for my fellow man, all of them. I make it a priority in my life and have strove to honor God’s gift of my life by fighting against man’s inhumanity to man, for his children, as my gift back to Him in my return. That is my quest, that is my goal, that is everything to me. I hope that in my demand for my individuality I have always only been a good person but realize, as a flawed human being, that I have my faults, those which I should also forgive others for in their strivings. I realize when you have to point out troubles as I have for civic betterment, that egos and feelings get hurt but, if you don’t do so, the dark will never be cast aside and that is the price one has to exert for that endeavour. It is never my desire to hurt, be impolite or mean to anyone and if I was outside of my goal, I apologize. Even those I fight are my brothers and sisters of God and I see and value their human worth but if they’re causing mayhem and destruction and human degradation for others, I’ve got a bone to pick with them. And so it goes.

I thank all 1,229 of you (the 1230th person was me) for all your support and interest and kindness and humanity.

post script: I did not win election and yet, there is still work to be done. That which I don’t believe the ‘winners’ do or have focused on. My intent is to keep doing it, to keep pushing back against the darkness. In that I will keep this blog open and entreat you to stay. If you also agree that the fight that I waged with words that you supported with your votes is worthy of a forward momentum, then I ask you to stay tuned. If there are efforts you and I can address and work together to solve for humanity and for Whitehall and its communities, then I hope you’ll help us see those through. Thank-you most wholeheartedly.

Jerry