Councilor Garduño Speaks to Highland High's Seniors

It has been a GREAT WEEK! The previous post was advocating for the Santa Fe Electorate to pass Public Financed Campaigns, and they did....OVERWHELMINGLY! Congratulations to the Santa Fe community for turning the page to Clean and Honest Elections!

Continuing from that success, yesterday March 6th, Councilor Garduño was a guest speaker at Highland High School for it's graduating class, where he continued to push for a living wage and encouraged the Seniors to become engaged in their community and to use Public Financed Campaigns to run for office themselves. Below is a review from the Highland PAC from Casandra over at SWOP:

Mayor Marty Gets Rotten Tomatoes and Councilor Garduño Takes The Show at Highland High School

SHOUT OUT to Councilor Rey Garduño for visiting High School students in his district today! Councilor Garduño continues to show young people that he sees them as an important and powerful part of the Albuquerque Community.

Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Marty Chavez, City Councilor Rey Garduño, and County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver spoke to an audience of high school seniors to encourage them to become civically engaged.

Bombarded with negative stereotyped messages from the Mayor, the students were fortunate to have another elected official present to give them a different message: young people are an essential voice in local politics.

And Mayor Marty Does It Again…

Mayor Marty Chavez set the stage at Highlands Performing Arts Center with a fifteen-minute monologue themed “you can’t get something for nothing” for an audience of Highland High Schools graduating class. He went on to endorse values of bureaucracy and materialism by telling the seniors they should strive to be employers instead of employees so they can make lots of money, meanwhile he is working hard to make sure there are minimum wage jobs available for when they fail. The Mayor bragged about his youth advisory board and skate park palooza, which in my opinion cater to a specific (privileged) part of the youth community, and tokenize young people at best.

BOOOOO!!! Someone needs to tell the Mayor to stop insinuating that being young is equivalent to being reckless and lazy. ESPECIALLY in a room full of young people?!

Councilor Garduño Comes To The Rescue…

Fortunate for the dismayed audience Councilor Garduño challenged the Mayor, speaking out for a living wage and clean and honest elections that allow true community members to run for elected offices, himself as an example. The Councilor inspired the young minds with insight on his role as a public servant, “I try to always do what’s in the best interest of the community, sometimes it’s very little, and sometimes it’s very hard, but it is always rewarding."

He made it clear that everyone is qualified to represent the people, and challenged the students to become engaged in our government. Echoing the voice of a government that encourages its citizens to take charge and fight for the collective voice of the people to be heard. Councilor Rey also advocated for a youth department within the city, staffed by young people, that would give real and meaningful opportunities for Albuquerque’s younger side.

Councilor Garduño proves to be a genuine ally in the fight against the destruction of the youth community, Bravo Rey!

Written by Casandra Stewart

Also, Councilor Garduño would like to Congratulate the Highland High Boys & Girls basketball teams for qualifying for the State Tournament, and wish them luck as the Girls play @Cibola on Friday, and the Boys play Gallup @ Highland on Saturday. Bring the State Titles to the Duke City and District 6! GO HORNETS!