‘I don’t have the luxury of being cynical’: Pressley reflects on a year gone by, and the challenges
‘I don’t have the luxury of being cynical’: Pressley reflects on a year gone by, and the challenges ahead “It is an honor to be able to work at scale and to address issues systemically and on the macro-level that I worked on in the Boston City Council on a micro-level. So many people have asked me, given the sobering political landscape and climate that we find ourselves in, if I’m growing cynical or apathetic about our country or the role of government. That couldn’t be further from the truth.“First, I don’t have the luxury of being cynical. Given the fact that our country is at such an inflection point, it’s really a humbling honor to be doing the work of preserving our democracy and being a steward of it. The two reasons why I ran for Congress in the first place were to address the inequities and disparities that by the day were growing more entrenched — whereby in a three-mile radius from Cambridge to Roxbury, life expectancy drops by 30 years, and median household income by $50,000. That didn’t just happen. These are inequities and disparities that were put into motion based on short-sighted, discriminatory policies.“I wanted to legislate to disrupt these inequities and to improve the outcomes of the Massachusetts 7th Congressional district. We just learned from Democratic leadership that I’ve introduced 30 bills, more than any other freshman in the 116th Congress. I’ve cast over 700 votes. I have co-sponsored almost 330 pieces of legislation. And I’ve authored and passed about 10 amendments.“I had specific things that I wanted to focus on – worker’s rights, survivor’s justice, the rights of immigrants, addressing inequities in our education system that are disproportionately putting students of color on a pathway to confinement. But there are a lot of things that I worked on that were not on my to-do list, because once you’re there you have to be nimble and responsive to what’s happening in real time.” -- source link
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