The new council was sworn in on Tuesday, December 4th. Our new council will be Mayor Yvonne J. Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat, District 1 T. Dianne Bellamy Small, District 2 Dr. Goldie F. Wells, District 3 Zack Matheny, District 4 Mike Barber, District 5 Dr. Trudy Wade, At Large Robbie Perkins and Mary Rackstraw.  The new council will have its first business meeting on Tuesday, December 18th.

I want to welcome the new members to the council and congratulate the returning members on their success in the elections. This new council will have a number of issues passed on by the previous council such as taxes, the police scandal, annexation, public safety especially in the area of police, water concerns and regaining more of the public trust.

We will also have a great opportunity to move Greensboro in to the next 200 years. We will lead the creation of new economic development and growth with a new type of job creation, increased income for residents,  finding more cooperative ways to maintain and  increase  quality of live,  continued improvement in human relations, guiding smart growth and more proactive approaches to being "green" in Greensboro. I look forward to serving District 1 and the city of Greensboro for the next 2 years. And I intend to keep my focus on the job I have pledged to do.

To view the swearing in ceremony go to:  http://greensboro.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

starting at 1hr 33 minutes

12/4/2007

Good Evening my brothers and sisters, Ashante’ Hotep to my friends and family.

First, I want to give honor to the one who truly controls my destiny, My Savior and Lord as is witnessed in Psalm 91.
II also want to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to the voters of District 1 and the many other people in and outside of Greensboro who have supported me, trusted me and encourage me on this awesome, challenging, and rewarding political journey.

Frederick Douglass said 150 years ago, “ If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lighting. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will.  District 1 answered the call to the struggle 3 times this year.

Today, Greensboro sits at a unique point of progress with this new council and at the helm, our first African American Mayor Yvonne J. Johnson. The dawning of this new day already has priorities set for us. How we see the struggle and use the power will be the legacy of our leadership going forward. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future said John F. Kennedy.

To my colleagues who are leaving the council,  Mayor Keith Holliday, Council members: Tom Phillips, Florence Gatten and Sandy Carmany, I wish you well. You have shown me much about what political life is about. And I must remember Claudette Burroughs White, she was one of the original  three “sistahs” for me. I know she is smiling down on us on this day in history for the city of Greensboro, her home, her love.  

In the past 4 years, I have tried to learn a great deal about my assigned task as a member of the Greensboro City Council. It is very clear and true to me what Shirley Chisholm said, “ There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes this role must pay a price.”  Yet I stand here today not because of anything I have done, but because of the will of the people and God and my own desire to be an effective servant leader. 

In my time on council I have brought attention to such concerns as:

Disparity in positive promotion and economic growth and development in District 1

District 1 can have a dynamic position in economic growth given a fair chance

Consideration of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report

Redesign of the Citizens’ Complaint Committee for citizens’ police concerns

Empowering and encouraging neighborhoods to let their voices be heard for their needs in their communities including encouraging the formation of the Southeast Greensboro Neighborhood Coalition

Looking with new lenses as to who should be apart of improving our mass transit system and encouraging non traditional riders such as business professionals to be considered

A closer look at how homelessness is being addressed, we must do more than “give a man a fish”

Intervention and collaborative efforts in dealing with gangs, it is the social MRSRA of our community and it can not be ignored for all our children are the fabric from which our future will be sown

Promoting youth and programs for them in our schools, the community and at home

Having the city be more customer friendly to citizens and businesses

Supporting the Commission on the Status of Women and issues such as domestic violence

Support of a livable wage and encouragement of good jobs that are available to any person wanting or needing to work Asking corporations to do more to hire more people from diverse backgrounds

Developing and encouraging the growth and development of internal city staff so that we retain the best for Greensboro and make good use of our invest of our trained staff

Addressing concerns with our aging population internally and in our city

Researching and encouraging dialog about how to help persons reentering society from incarceration

Advocating for housing that is desirable by all segments of our population

Supporting our City manager and Chief of Police in dealing with the Police Scandal of the last 2 years

I have no hidden agenda, it is the people’s agenda I seek to carry forward. It is my desire that these concerns not only continue to be addressed by me and the new council, but are also given earnest consideration  by all of us so that at the end of this 730 days, the progress is evident.

A. Phillip Randolph said, “At the banquet table of life, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take and keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything. And if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keep anything. And you can’t take anything without organization.”

I encourage my fellow council members to sit down at this table with our new mayor and me and find an organized way to govern the city as we have been duly elected and charged to do. I ask the people of District 1 and the city to help us by organizing, discussing and supporting your government in taking Greensboro forward and not backwards in progress and growth.

Dr. Cornel West said to our leaders and to those who would lead, “You can’t lead our people if you do not love our people. You can not save our people if you won’t serve our people.” Serving to me does not mean thinking that you are better than others. Serving to me means going out wherever you can and working to find real solutions to the real issues being fair in your commitment and firm in your resolve.

 “We the people say that in the most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, now is the time to make real the promises of our democracy. Now is the time – from heath to housing, crime to criminal justice, education to economic parity – to transform these devastating disparities to hope and healing. Now is the time to stop talking about our pain and start talking about our plan” this is the encouragement to us from my brother Tavis Smiley from his book, The Covenant.  I agree, now is the time to embark on a new day as 200 years will pass in Greensboro. Now is the time because a new 200 years of history is waiting to be written and I am honored and proud to be a part of it.  

 And finally in tribute to all I have experienced in the last 20 months, I would simply use some the words of this sister: Maya Angelo

 “You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.

Out of the huts of history's shame,  I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise  Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope… I rise. “

 I look forward to serving for the next 2 years and continuing to make a lasting difference for District 1 and the city of Greensboro. Thank you.