A Candidate’s Progress (5): What I meant to say was …

Only with constant repetition have I managed to advance to a point where public speaking about safe topics like beer, beer and beer comes easy to me. Beer presentations tend to take place before people who are there because they already have an interest in the topic, which makes it easier.

Peering backward through the mists at 50, I can see that I’ve surely read more books about the history of Old Albania than any other New Albanian can imagine, and yet now it seems that studying a few simple techniques of speechifying might be as helpful now as arcane data about the early years of the departed King Zog, fascinating as it is.

Last evening I attended the Floyd County Democratic Men’s Club candidate gathering at the 40 & 8 Voiture on Albany Street. During the afternoon, I wrote a speech and rehearsed it aloud numerous times before a captive audience of Nadia, our remaining downstairs cat since the beloved Nero died.

Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out a way to make it fit in the three minute time frame, and once on site, it seemed a better idea to toss the notes and speak off the cuff. This worked marginally well, and with further practice, it’ll get better.

Regrettably, choosing to place the emphasis on my leftist proclivities in an anti-GOP “These Machines Kill Fascists” (Madison, Wisconsin) context took up the entire allotted slot, with no time remaining to focus on issues that might actually pertain to council-level service. On the other hand, where others might use their families and church attendance as evidence of commitment to New Albany, I thought it proper to reveal a different way of being committed to broad principles that still inform decision-making whatever the office.

Here, then, is the text that I did not deliver. Next time, I’ll keep the first and last parts and pick three bullet points to stress. Or not.

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My name is Roger Baylor. I’m a co-owner of New Albanian Brewing Company, which dates back to 1987. I’ve also been a writer with the Tribune, LEO and Food & Dining magazine. My lovely wife Diana and I bought a house on Spring Street in 2003, and NABC made a significant investment in downtown with the Bank Street Brewhouse in 2009.

But let’s begin by speaking aloud the unthinkable: I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and I will again in 2012. Terms like left, liberal and progressive don’t offend me.

They describe me.

There was a photo in the national media last week that showed a protestor in the Wisconsin capital rotunda wearing one of our NABC t-shirts. It made me feel really good, and it also made me feel a sense of solidarity with the people in the country who are fighting the good fight. While campaigning for council, it’s my intention to fight for the relevant principles and values of the Democratic Party, and to apply them to our situation, right here in New Albany.

Like this: Human dignity has no price tag. When it comes to liberty, justice, diversity, equality and basic human rights, we’re Democrats, not Republicans. We should start by re-animating the Human Rights Commission.

On the council, no votes aren’t to be confused with leadership. City council members have to be open to new ideas, willing to learn, and able to adapt to changing realities.

Among these changing realities is the necessity of localizing the economy for a stronger, smarter, more sustainable economic foundation right here, in New Albany, with more money staying here, in this community, and a greater degree of economic self-sufficiency.

Our existing economic development funds are intended to be used for economic development, and they can help achieve this localization. They are not sewer rate subsidies, they are not bribes for wealthy multi-national corporations to buy air conditioners, and they are not for the use of the oligarch protection society, otherwise known as One Southern Indiana.

As we localize economic development and bring it back in-house, enhanced and improved cooperation between existing entities like New Albany First, Develop New Albany and the Urban Enterprise Association is a must. We all row in the same direction, or else.

We must do better to help the natural environment do its job. Environmental restoration and sustainability are fundamental to resolving longstanding problems with stormwater and the sewer system.

Similarly, we must use the urban area as originally intended. Sustainable green initiatives actually harmonize with the goal of remaking the city and its streets into a place primarily intended for the use of people, and not their cars. We have to adapt what we have, understand the lessons of historic preservation, build new buildings the right way, and maximize the advantages of urban living.

A progressive, family-friendly neighborhood policy emanates from the bottom up, not the top down. Many of our current problems result from generation after generation of bad remedies and design flaws. We must rethink these, plan, explore cause and effect, recognize inter-relatedness and repair these flaws.

We must either enforce ordinances or remove them from the books. All proceeds from enforcement should be kept right here to help fund further improvements. As far as the 800-lb gorilla is concerned, let me state firmly that mandatory rental property inspections need to happen as soon as possible, period.

Two non-negotiable words: No tolls! The Ohio River Bridges Project is a multi-billion dollar transportation boondoggle. I’m proud to say I was an early opponent of tolls, and I remain opposed in spite of recent cosmetic changes in the plan, because we all know that tolling will disproportionately burden Hoosier small businesses, Hoosier workers and Hoosier families. We all know which bridge we need, so why not build the East End Bridge now, and then reassess other vehicular transportation needs later.

New Albany’s overarching need is to fight the good fight for greater local determination. The Indy-centric budgeting system we have now is inefficient and infected with malicious Republican ideology. Cutting essentials in education, public safety and social services is madness. Spend less when possible, but think more, and work smarter. We have to move beyond the current council’s penny-wise and pound-foolish obstructionism, which has done nothing to advance good governance hereabouts.

I repeat that while it may have taken a while for me to come to this point of standing here and addressing you, I intend to campaign as a Democrat.

Accordingly, it’s my core belief that current Republican policies are the problem, not the solution, and I don’t much care if Ed Clere and Ron Grooms and Steve Stemler and Tony Bennett and Mitch Daniels don’t like it, because they’re Republicans – even Stemler – and we’re not.

As far as I’m concerned, the fall campaign against them begins right here, and right now.

Thanks for having me.