This week’s Community Endorser: Carmen Murray

1) Tell us more about yourself and your life in the district

I moved to Montclair Village in 2002 as I was completing my 45-year career as a classroom teacher. My classroom was the focus of my life during all the years of my career. So, it wasn’t until I retired that I even began thinking about politics, but more importantly civics. I retired in 2007 and began looking for a way to volunteer that was both productive and fulfilling. I ended up volunteering for Obama for America because I, like others, were captured by the power of Obama’s rhetoric. He captured me with his Jeremiah Wright speech where he described the experience of his first service at Trinity Church. “In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: ‘People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.’” This brought me vividly into his hope! And I could feel that hope.

Working on a political campaign opened me up to learning about civics in ways I couldn’t have foreseen. I had a profound sense of involvement and achievement in helping to bring about Obama’s election in 2008. I returned again, this time to Organizing for America, in 2012 to help reelect him. So, when OFA changed a second time to become Organizing for Action working on supporting issues that I cared deeply about, I knew I had found my place in working on civics. I have been working with this grassroots organization since it began in 2013.

2) What are the top issues you want our next Assembly member to address in Sacramento?

It is so hard to pick top issues, because of the daily impact of threats from the national level that threaten all that we hold dear. That said, what I care deeply about is supporting the Clean Money Campaign that supported important regulation on political ads in our state. I put this on top because I firmly believe that until we make a difference here, we will be controlled by lobbyists. We also have to solve the homeless issue and that ties into mental health services, health care, job opportunities, housing, and education.

3) What made you decide to support Buffy Wicks for Assembly District 15?

When I read the book Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America. Buffy was featured in the book as being someone who promoted grassroots organizing, something that I had come to recognize was important to me. I think the biggest impression I had from the book was to realize that Buffy created Camp Obama, which is now labeled Camp OFA. I wished fervently that I had had the opportunity to work alongside her then. A couple of months ago I went to a House Party where she spoke and I saw that she is still that person I had wished I knew during the campaign. Now I can work with her and will.