It's a privilege to stand before you today. This has been an abbreviated campaign so I haven't had the chance to speak to as many of you personally as I would like and I know that you have questions about me. I hope my remarks today will answer most of those questions. And I also hope you can be open to what I say and to the spirit in which I say it.

I'm here to issue a challenge to the party. I believe the democratic party is in danger of becoming the party of the comfortable. Because look around you. We are comfortable. We have a beautiful city, nice homes, a good life style, we're on all the "10 best" lists. And we're starting to believe our press clippings.

For example, we're proud that we have passed a living wage of $8 an hour--because that makes us a city that believes in fair play and looking out for the little guy. But look a little closer. It takes a wage of $13.42 to afford a two-br apartment at the charlottesville fair market rent. That gap of $5.42 means a second job for someone making a living wage. And we know there are many who do not--many in charlottesville who aren't comfortable.

But we congratulate ourselves. Our schools are among the best--we spend more per child per year in Charlottesville than the county and every other city in Virginia except Falls Church and Lexington. But look a little closer. If you're a teacher or a volunteer, you know there are kids in our schools whose home lives are slow-moving train wrecks, who don't have clothes that fit or shoelaces for their shoes. Those kids, most of them, are headed for trouble--acting out, suspension, dropping out, flunking out--these children too are the future and they're far from being comfortable.

But we're happy. 25% of our citizens use public transit to get to work--and we're proud to be so green. But let's look a little closer. Did you know a mother who needs to see the magistrate about pressing charges against someone who's attacked her child can't go because the bus doesn't run there? Did you know that Sunday is a day of rest for CTS--so the latino guy dishing up your Sunday brunch in the kitchen had to walk or beg a ride to serve you? Are those people comfortable?

We just celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, a man who dreamed of racial reconciliation in a lovely and memorable phrase: "the beloved community" he called it. I look around me and while I see a beautiful town filled with people working each in their own way for the good, I don't see a beloved community. Not yet.

But as Democrats, we congratulate ourselves. We stand for people, for the environment, against exploitation of every kind. But look a little closer, and you'll see a party divided, where far too much of our energy is going into fighting each other. I submit to you--we don't have the time for this. Not only does our division empower our enemies, it threatens our ultimate goal. The beloved community.

So this is a plea for a shift in consciousness. Instead of fighting among ourselves, we must start thinking about what we want and how we're going to get there. We have to dream a powerful dream together--and not stick them on a shelf the way we did the neighborhood comprehensive plans, but use those dreams as a concrete blueprint for action.

We won't always stay on track--we'll fuss and go down blind alleys--sometimes we will just bog down. But if we hang together, if we work together, we can plant the seeds that will allow mlk's beloved community to blossom right here in our midst.

So this is who I am. I'm a voice for social justice and economic and ecological health. I won't always say what's comfortable. But I'll always speak from the vision I believe in, that I work for in my neighborhood, and if you vote for me I'll work for it for the entire city.

Kendra Hamilton, February 7, 2004