Brent Grafton’s Kick-off Speech for the 5th Ward City Council Seat

Good afternoon and thank-you for taking time out of your day to show support for my candidacy. My name is Brent Grafton and I am running for Evansville City Council to represent the 5th Ward.

In the last two years many political commentators have focused on change… My friends we do not need change, we already have it, what we need are decision makers who recognize the change and have the thoughtfulness, the experience, and the courage to meet the challenges that change presents.

The question is not how do we change our world but how do we respond to the changes that have already happened… do we face them, recognize them and methodically work to adjust our new lifestyles to these changes or do we just continue to do business as usual and allow those changes to explode in our face…

Around 1440 AD, a German tradesman working in his home applied a technology that he used in his profession as a goldsmith to create the first metal movable type printing press. Today we know his invention by his name, the Gutenberg Press.

Within 50 years there were over two hundred cities in Europe that had printing presses that could print a thousand times more pages-per-day than before. Eighty years later, when another German, Martin Luther, posted his ninety-five thesises on the Wittenberg church door there were over two hundred cities in Europe that had the technology to print his message in local languages for all citizens to read.

The changes that started in a small home shop of a German goldsmith finally culminated in the collapse of a European political system that was over a thousand years old.

Today, FEB 2011, resulting from a similar human endeavor by two men in their garages in
Silicon Valley in early 70’s, we are watching in real time, a collapse of political power in Egypt fed also by the frustrated expectations of citizens. This invention, the iPhone accesses social media giving each individual the ability to literally communicate with millions of “friends” in an instant has brought our world to the brink of revolution three hundred years faster than the Guttenberg press.

It is ours to decide TODAY, do we acknowledge these changes and work to set in motion a process of updating our government’s response time OR ignore it and function as if “instant messaging” did not exist and try to conduct municipal governing “as we have always done it” . If we do this wrong, we will all face the unsettling collapse of the government that has served us for the last two hundred years.

I believe the City Council’s NUMBER 1 PRIORITY is to listen to the concerns of our citizens. The sharp stick of a hypodermic needle in the finger of a child in an Evansville city playground sandbox is simply not acceptable. We must work together to consider all informed solutions and then lead our community in solving these real problems.

The Evansville City Council’s CONSTITUTIONAL ASSIGNMENT is to make the laws that govern our lives, our opportunities, our safety, and our commerce. Our laws must match our community’s needs in this NEW ENVIRONMENT.

If we want a peaceful safe and prosperous community we must systematically work through the laws that help us and remove the laws that hurt us… As your representatives our responsibility is to lead our citizens in solving the problems that we as individuals cannot solve.

Today there are nearly 8,000 registered small businesses in Vanderburgh County. We have innovators working in their garages to bring us the next generation of technology. Our current zoning laws were established sixty years ago during an age of big box heavy manufacturing. We need to study, listen and then restructure our zoning laws to encourage the growth and prosperity of these garage innovators.

JUST THINK! If each of these small businesses could hire one person, we would have two Toyotas and solve our own local unemployment problem.

Our geographical location is a single day’s drive from 80% of the US population. Why can’t we take a resource like Roberts Stadium and change it into a small McCormick Place and target mid-sized trade fairs that are too small to pay the rent on Chicago’s extreme and massive trade facility?

Evansville is full of faithful, industrious people, undergirded by a spirit of goodness. If you have ever worked on a Habitat house or set up a booth at the fall festival you would know what our citizens are capable of IF they are invited to the party.

As a government we need to do a much better job of incorporating our citizenry into solving the challenges that we now face as a community.

The old political platform for CHANGE no longer fits. Change is HERE.

The changes that are upon us, carry with them great opportunity for good and great possibility for danger. Our government must embrace these new technologies to pull our citizens back into the process, so that our government in fact reflects the values of our community.

I for one will work to maximize the good opportunities and strive for good inclusive public policy.

If you live in the 5th Ward I would appreciate your vote. If you do not live in the 5th ward I would appreciate you support.