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Vote FREE SOCIALIST PARTY
SILVER PERSINGER RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL - FIFTH DISTRICT -
July 18, 2006
Dear Citizen,
Hello, my name is Silver Persinger. I work part-time at the Library of Virginia. I am unlike any other candidate running for office. I am a self-taught Socialist. Since January, I have attended nearly every Council meeting, Council committee meeting, and several Council appointed boards' meetings. I attend these meetings, pay careful attention, take good notes, and criticize everything I don't agree with. The thing I am most unhappy with recently is Council's plan (or maybe it is the Department of Economic Devolopment's plan, or maybe the Department of Real Estate Services, or maybe it's Mayor Wilder's plan) to sell off Richmond's landmarks. Both the Leigh Street Armory and the Hull Street Post Office are slated to be sold at the next council meeting for $200,000 each. The city recently poured $1.5 million into the Armory to keep it from crumbling down after years of neglect by the city. The Hull Street Post Office is being sold to a developer who plans to use it as a "marketing office" for a development group headed by Robin Miller. Mr. Charles McFarland who plans to purchase the post office, told Council on June 12 that the consortium owns 168 parcels comprising 27 acres in the Hull Street area. Yet both of these events are scarcely covered in Richmond's newspapers and no member of Council is opposed to
the proposed sale. They view it as a way to make a little money, get the property fixed up, and restore the building to the tax roles. What they are giving up is historic property the city already owns in neighborhoods that are being developed and don't currently have community centers. It is cheaper to renovate than to build from scratch. I have consistantly been opposed to such proposals, my opponent sees no problem with the projects. That is one difference. Another is that I am willing to say our economic system is a sham. It is an arbitrary man-made system of "laws" which benefit the rich and crushes the majority of us under its iron wheels. This is our beloved Freedom. We are not free. We may starve, become homeless, sick, and die -- those are the freedoms of the poor. I think government should do more to promote the general welfare instead of supporting heartless Capitalism which thrives on inequality, insecurity, war, waste, and human suffering on a global scale.
There are only two legitimate sources of wealth -- land and labor. Everything
of value comes from the land and is produced by labor. The land is our
shared resource and should not be monopolized by the wealthy or corporations.
It belongs to the People. I have founded a new political party, the Free
Socialist party.
Learn more by visiting: www.freesocialism.org
