Let me start off by saying that I’m not a politician. I’m an intelligent, hard-working, single parent, and a tax-paying citizen. I was raised by parents with high morals and values. I was lead to believe that if I got a quality education and worked hard, I could support my American dream. This system has failed us. Most us are: losing our homes, under or unemployed, buried with student loan repayments and/or can’t afford descent health care.

I don’t have friends in Washington, D.C. My friends and my loyalties are to you the people of the 2nd Congressional District. I’m not a politician. I’m just like you. I’m not using this opportunity to represent you as a stepping stone for my political career. I’m taking this opportunity so that I can ensure that we benefit from our tax dollars.

I’m committed to real economic development, where the people from our district benefit from the growth of our neighborhoods. I’m tired of construction projects in our neighborhoods going to the highest-clout bidder. There has been no commitment to hiring people from our district.

I will make sure that the people in our district are trained for career opportunities and living-wage jobs. Local politicians have sold construction projects to people outside our district. There are new business opportunities going to people that don’t come from our neighborhood; they aren’t even from this country. I can’t even buy beauty supplies, fried chicken, fish or a sub sandwich from a person that was raised in our neighborhoods.

I see people come in our neighborhoods and build department stores, senior homes, strip malls, school additions and waterparks. I'm not a politician; I’m just like you, tired of business as usual. We should be included in the building of our own neighborhoods, running the businesses in our district. I’m committed to bringing families back together, improving education, making our neighborhoods safe, and facilitating small business creation.

* I plan to create training programs by funding the eight universities/community colleges in our district and expanding vocational programs in our high schools.

* My program will help our returning military veterans and returning citizens from the Department of Corrections (formerly incarcerated) become employable. This will stabilize families in our neighborhood.

* Next I will ensure that schools in our neighborhood are supported and not closed, so that our primary grade schools (first through third) stay open, with smaller class sizes. Smaller class sizes ensure a higher level of student performance; and instead of building new prisons in ten years, we will need more post-secondary facilities. When our schools are closed and students are bussed to other neighborhoods, the results are increased school violence (out of 500 murders last year in Chicago, 400 of them were school related). I’m not a politician, I’m just like you and tired of this violence.

* The federal department of transportation has already targeted the Midwest for the construction of a high speed railway system. This railway system will run from St Louis to Minneapolis, right through Kankakee to Chicago with connections to Detroit and Cleveland. Eight ($8) billion dollars have already been allocated to start this project. Picture this: every $1 billion dollars brought back to our district for transportation infrastructure translates to 40,000 new jobs. That’s 40,000 multiplied by eight: over 300,000 new jobs. So while most of the candidates support a Peotone airport that will never be built, I will chaperone the money already allocated for our district, which will bring real jobs & opportunities in construction - not retail department stores. Every stop on the high speed-railway will need new hotels, restaurants, parking lots etc.

Credible fresh ideas, transparency, and accountability: that’s what I’m about. I’m not a politician, I’m just like you.