Who is Andrew Gall: Part Three of Three

As I travel around the 5th District, knocking on doors, and introducing myself to voters, the first question people generally ask is why I am running. I often talk about public policy and the state of our nation, but I’ve come to realize that what they really want to know is my story- the events in my life that led me to take such a decisive step. Unfortunately this is tough to sum up an elevator length talk, so I’ve decided to write my story out so everybody can understand where I am coming from and what motivates me to run. Here is part 3 of 3:

Since announcing, I have received incredible encouragement from a wide range of people; nonetheless, I have encountered naysayers as well, whose basic argument seems to come down to- you shouldn’t run for Congress yet. Well, I’m a believer in the idea that procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried in. Moreover, if we do not speak out for what we believe in, our silence gives voice to that which we oppose. For example I can not in good conscience stay silent when our congressman votes for an unnecessary war in Iraq. I can not stay silent when our congressman writes legislation that allows companies that spied on American citizens to skip the justice system and be granted immunity to crimes without ever facing judge or jury. I can not stay silent as our government is bought and sold by powerful lobbying interests at the expense of everyday Americans.

Others may choose to delay to act in spite of these realities, but I have too much evidence that procrastination today can lead down the path to never going to happen. In my life, I have known far too many people that have been struck by untimely death. Last summer, I worked as a community organizer with Working America when death struck again. I worked closely with Shalico every day until she died of a heart attack at the age of 32. While she may not have been the pinnacle of health, she exercised every single day and didn’t do drugs; there were no signs that this was going to happen. Perhaps it was because I was a little bit older, or because I had seen her just the day before, or because her death seemed less controllable than a car accident, or getting shot, or hit by a train, but Shalico’s death was more of a shock to me than the others with which I have been forced to cope. It made me take stock of my own life and made me hungry to meet my professional goal of sustained positive change.

Shalico’s death helped re-spark that fierce urgency of now of which President Obama and Dr. King so forcefully spoke. I can not sit idly by while deployed soldiers lose their homes over $800 debts. I can not sit idly by while the gap between black and white grows obscenely large. I can not sit idly by and watch the American Dream of meritocracy get tossed aside for permanent upper and lower classes. I am running for Congress because I feel the fierce urgency of now to take back America from the plutocrats that hold up entrenched powers at the expense of the powerless by buying off our politicians. American democracy should not be for sale! We need public financing of elections to restore power to the public. I am running for Congress today because Marylanders- and Americans at large- need someone to fight against the corporate takeover of our democracy.