exercise compassion: September 2012

Jorge Cornell is celebrating his birthday in jail today. Jorge has worked for peace and against police brutality. Because of his dedicated work he is now in jail. Before Jorge was incarcerated he ran for city council of Greensboro, NC. Greensboro and NC in a whole is a very racist, classist, and fearful state. “All Eyes On Me”…Jorge Cornell is running for Greensboro City Council -District 5. Jorge accepted the challenge to be a voice of the people in the 2009 race for City Council at Large. Although he didn’t win the race, he won the heart of the people. The people are now pushing him to run again. Jorge was moved by an overwhelming sense of urgency from his community to run again for Greensboro’s City Council. Obligation is an understatement, Jorge feels destined to be the voice of change in the Black and Brown community. But this time, things will be different; Jorge has decided to run a more targeted, strategic campaign for the District 5 seat against long time incumbent Trudy Wade. His decision is strategic in order to create a City Council whose hearts belong with the heart of the people. “All Eyes on Me” is this years campaign slogan and theme. “All Eyes on Me”, simply speaks to each person who desires to be heard, listened to and understood, yet doesn’t have a voice. Jorge Cornell vows to be that voice. Jorge Cornell maintains to keep the attention and focus about the people and for the people. Please join us as an integral component to this radical movement toward change. We can’t do this without you, we will not do this without you. Please join us on our Facebook page: “Campaign to Elect Jorge Cornell for Greensboro City Council-District 5″ and share our website: http://cornellforcouncil.wordpress.com with your network. Be sure to leave us a post stating how you would like to help. YOU are an integral part of this movement Words from Jorge: Once again, I am hopeful, more focused, better prepared, and knowledgeable of the process. This will only be an asset to my community. I know that a better world is possible but that we all need to be heard in order to create it. I have proved my leadership abilities as the Inca –or leader- of the Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation for the state of North Carolina, and more recently joined the School Safety Committee for the Board of Education. I will prove the same dedication on City Council, and I will make sure that we are heard. Without us, the future is not possible. Together, we can achieve anything! Jorge with his daughters About Jorge: Jorge Cornell, 35, is originally from New York City. He moved to North Carolina in 2002 with his family. Quickly, he realized that there were pressing issues in Greensboro that needed to be addressed. He immediately began working on organizing other people in his community to address a variety of inter-related issues, including immigration, street violence, institutional racism, police brutality, and government accountability. Working together with people from a wide array of backgrounds, Jorge has made significant contributions to building peace and justice in our City. He is committed to being the voice of the people of Greensboro, especially those who are marginalized and unrepresented in the City. Jorge would be the first Latino to ever serve on Greensboro City Council. Though the elections haven’t happened yet, he has already proved his ability to unite people across racial and socio-economic backgrounds and has demonstrated his ability for innovative problem solving. His abundance of real world life experience, both in New York City and Greensboro, enable him to connect with people that most politicians, police officers, and academics cannot. A strong example of his unique leadership ability is through his work to unite street organizations (often called gangs) to create a peace treaty in Greensboro. To learn more about this important work Jorge has been instrumental in facilitating, please read The Paradigm Shift. Most recently, Jorge has teamed up with other community leaders at the Beloved Community Center to create a non-profit temp agency to place under and un-employed workers who are usually discriminated against in the hiring process due to a criminal record or their lack of access to resources.