March 1, 2005 Caucus Speech

My name is Ralph Remington and I’m asking for the DFL endorsement for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 10. I’m running because I, like all of you believe that politics is about improving people’s lives. As a City Council Member I believe I can make an immediate impact in improving people’s lives in the community that we love.

There are a lot of important issues in this race. And over the next few weeks you’ll find that the other candidates and I are all pretty much in agreement. The question that I need you to ask yourself is: “Who do you believe you can count on, when you want your voice in the room?”

Growing up in Philadelphia under Frank Rizzo and a brutal police force compelled me to get involved with social and economic justice at an early age.

The seeds of dissent were sown in a racially intolerant Philadelphia community where the police called me a nigger for the first time at nine years old. They didn’t know that I loved “The Brady Bunch” and “The Partridge Family”.

So out of this background the fire of activism and a belief in fighting for the dignity and respect of all people was seared into my soul. I protested against apartheid, for reproductive rights and Martin Luther King Day.

My mother looks white. My father is brown and my brothers and I appeared bi-racial. For this we were regularly disparaged.

Of course my mother wasn’t white but when perception controls reality in the absurd game of race nothing else matters. This taught me the value of building bridges.

One would expect me to be angry. But fortunately I was saved by the arts. I attended the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and became the first student body president. The school was a beautiful racial mosaic of kids from all over Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

I went on to major in Drama at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There I honed my desire to uplift human decency through artistic social change.

I went on to the military because I wanted to serve my country.

I lived in Frankfurt, Germany where for the first time I felt that people didn’t look at the color of my skin as a liability but as something to be celebrated and respected.

After being honorably discharged I moved to New York City. I worked with Olympia Dukakis acting in theater for social change I became a certified AIDS educator teaching AIDS/HIV prevention. I saw how people were profoundly changed by the arts and how it truly saved lives.

Then the first Gulf War broke out. I found the war grossly unfair and joined The Vietnam Veterans Against the War to help drive the anti-war movement. In my New York living room I remember watching a young Senator from Minnesota, Paul Wellstone having the courage to take on his colleagues. Sometimes you have to stand up for what is right.

When I arrived here in 1991, I saw a city that was incredibly progressive, the people were friendly and the quality of life was better than anything I had ever witnessed in America. I knew that I was home.

I immediately started working with Illusion Theatre performing a play about AIDS education.

In 1992, Pillsbury Neighborhood Services hired me to teach theater to developmentally disabled adults and at-risk teens. I saw a need for marginalized people to have their muted voices heard so I created Pillsbury House Theatre. I raised a $500,000 operating budget using creative outside of the box thinking.

I eventually met a wonderful Minnesota native, Mary, who I’m proud to call my wife and I have two gorgeous, intelligent daughters, Bridget and Brianna.

Who am I?

I’m a neighbor, a friend, a guy, a person who cares just like you.

I have been out there on the front lines for working families, organizing ticket and gate agents at America West Airlines for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

In fact I embody the L in The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. I’m a member of two trade unions in the AFL-CIO.

I was Executive Director of Media Artists Resource Center where I engineered a non-profit merger, to provide access and opportunity for independent artists.

I have consistently shown leadership and either created something from nothing or polished stagnating organizations into shining diamonds.

And through all of this I am consistently reminded of the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. “We must all learn to live together as brothers. Or we will all perish together as fools. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”

Again, the question that you have to ask yourselves is: “Who is the leader here?” Who will get up and work hard everyday for the people in Ward 10? Who will fight for me? Who has the teeth? Who has the backbone when the going gets tough? Who is the leader?

Over the years I have seen development displace some of our artsy, edgy community.

I have heard you ask, “Where is my voice in the room?”

When middle class families are squeezed out of their homes to make room for rapid gentrification.