"I would prefer to have your endorsement and lose than not have it and win. Don't think you didn't help make this happen."
I'm honored that George believes I've played a roll in pushing him to the top if indeed he gets to the top but I'm not taking credit. It was George Hartzman's hard work that got him there. Like yesterday when he had already made over 100 personal campaign calls before coming to my house to introduce me to his brother who is visiting from Washington, DC.
George moves at 300 miles an hour. I've never seen anyone like him. He's right at home in big money circles and yet can come to east Greensboro and not make people feel as if he thinks himself somehow better than the rest of us. Even Nancy Vaughn, who has come to east Greensboro hundreds of times always remains aloof. And Robbie Perkins... Is there any doubt he only comes to east Greensboro to promote his own agends?
And that's where George differs. Sure George has his own ideas but George will ask folks what they want to do with their own neighborhoods and talk about how to make that happen. Not so with Perkins and Vaughan who both have a history of ramming developers' plans down east Greensboro residents' throats. Case in point: the Bessemer Shopping Center. George spoke out for my neighbors when the Greensboro City Council voted to give the shopping center to Skip Alston's development group. The same group that trades food stamps for wine and beer all over east Greensboro.
George isn't scare of calling it like he sees it or saying no to the elite status quo. For those who might not be aware, George Hartzman is known nationally for an article, Secrets and Lies of the Bailout: One Broker's Story By Matt Taibbi of RollingStone Magazine in which George blew the whistle on Wells Fargo for cheating Greensboro's working class out of their hard earned retirement funds.
"When banks started making fortunes again in 2009 and beyond, it wasn't a victimless situation. There were losers in this trade, too. Hartzman and his clients are examples of the kind of people who lost when the government made decisions about who's entitled to the truth and who wasn't. As one former hedge fund manager put it to me recently, "Joe Sixpack has no chance in this market."
The Banksters and Federal government was doing then what the Banksters, Developers and the City of Greensboro does today: picking winners and loosers. George fought it then, he's fighting it now and as Mayor of Greensboro he'll work to put a stop to this corrupt practice in our city. Nancy Vaughn and Robbie Perkins both have many years of contributing to this corrupt practices under their belts.
But I wasn't immediately sold on George. His unusual way of delivering his message threw me at first just as it threw many. But I knew what so many others didn't know. Like George, I have long known that cutting through the barriers established by the status quo and getting your message before the people is impossible if the status quo doesn't want the people to know what you have to say. If you play by the rules of the status quo your voice will never be heard. So like me, George forged new ground, wrote his own rules and got his message before the people in ways the elite status quo continues to criticize right up to the point of passing rules at city council meetings to attempt to silence George Hartzman.
Why? Because George scares the hell out of them. Otherwise they would simply ignore him and wait for George to give up and go away like so many others before him. Another reason to vote George Hartzman.
And finally, I'm voting for George because of what he says at the end of this video.
