Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker was at the 92nd Street Y last Thursday, interviewed by NY1’s Budd Mishkin. Highlights in the video above include Mayor Booker discussing Newark’s relationship to New York City, the importance of participating in your community, and why Carter Godwin Woodson’s book The Mis-Education of the Negro was so important to him.
At the 2:15 mark in the video, Booker relates a story about a man his staff discovered mowing an unruly, empty lot and the street median on Elizabeth Ave, where the resident lives. His staff asked him if he was a city worker. “No,” he told them. He just did not like what he saw looking out his window. These are the people that define a community, Booker declared.
“...the people that just get up everyday, and do those small acts of kindness, of decency, of love. Above and beyond what is expected of them, those are the people over their lifetimes who sustain neighborhoods, drive change, and create strong cities. And that’s what we need. We don’t need to wait for the next, ‘Oh..., Barack Obama is gonna save us, and save our country."’
Explaining why he decided not to accept an offered job in the Obama administration, Booker told Mishkin: “I’m really in this for a purpose, not a position...I’m in the right job at the right time.”
This Thu, Dec 10, we will be honoring a public servant often hailed as an example for others, at: A Special Celebration of the Life of Senator Edward M. Kennedy with Vicki Reggie Kennedy and Ted Kennedy Jr. Use code SK11 at check out for 30% of the ticket price.
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