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Text of March 7 speech at Dearborn City Council Campaign Kickoff Event

Text From Campaign Kickoff speech by 2013 Dearborn City Council Candidate Tarek M. Baydoun

Text From Campaign Kickoff speech by 2013 Dearborn City Council Candidate Tarek M. Baydoun

 

Greetings…

 

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Honored dignitaries, clerics, organizational leaders, concerned residents, dear friends and family, thank you all for gathering here this evening. I would especially like to give a thanks to the best wife a man could ever ask for, Hajji Noha, thank you for being my backbone, and a source of inspiration in every aspect of our life. To my mother and father, Hajj Mahmoud and Hajji Iman, thank you for guiding me and always providing me with the courage to do what is right.

 

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Brothers and sisters, this campaign is about putting Dearborn first. Dearborn is a very unique place indeed. We have no doubt faced and continue to face very serious challenges and changes. We encounter these challenges at all levels of our community, political and social. We have experienced and continue to face tough economic challenges. We face challenges to our culture and the moral fabric of our society. We face challenges to the family structure and the education of our children. We face the challenge of deteriorating housing stock in many areas of the City. We are challenged to make decisions on how and where to allocate our City’s diminished resources while the needs of our residents continues to increase, especially in the areas of Police, Fire, and education.

 

But these challenges have never defined Dearborn. Dearborn has been defined by its unique ability to leverage the honest and studious character of its residents to overcome those challenges. Through hard work and dedication to their family and community, waves of immigrants have ventured here from around the world to build a City that we are all proud of.

 

We’re proud to call Dearborn home, and we are committed to protecting and improving the community that we live in. We want those who built the modern Dearborn as well as their children to continue believing in and investing in our hometown. Fostering that sense of community, and keeping our young talent, while honoring and respecting our traditions, is the formula for success. If Dearborn can retain its best and brightest it will also attract the best and brightest from the region and around the world.

 

The hard-working mothers and fathers of our community have paved the way for many of us to have opportunities that they dreamed we would have- opportunities that our community made possible. We reject the idea that any one of us should take credit for their personal success. We are committed to answering a greater calling. If we value family and community it is because we know that it fosters the environment for individual success. So if the community is an essential element of our individual success, we cherish it, we honor it, and yes, we love it.

 

We are running to serve Dearborn because we love Dearborn. Putting Dearborn first means putting the people in our community first, because they are the essence of the community that we love. Putting Dearborn first means transcending personal bias and relegating personal interest in favor the greater good. Dearborn First means we help our neighbors because it’s the right thing to do. Putting Dearborn First requires that our elected officials and public servants set aside ideological or personal differences to attend to the service of the residents. That is why I am running.

 

In the coming weeks and months, we will continue communicating with thousands of residents to continue to listen to and understand their needs and desires. We will constructively propose and support good solutions to the challenges we face. We will also engage in the planning process, to ensure that we avoid problems before they affect the quality of life of our residents.  

 

This will be a long road to victory, but if we are all engaged we will not lose. Our time is now.

 

I hope you will remain engaged, and that you will do what it will take for us to win. We are going to work hard to earn the vote of every Dearborn Resident. We will approach them on the door step, in the mailbox, by electronic means, and every method available. We have a vigorous campaign plan in place, and we have all made a personal commitment of time and money to this cause. I believe we will win the opportunity to serve because I know what you are capable of. It is my honor to work with all of you to improve and effectively represent our community. I need you to have my back and I promise I will not let you down.

 

Thank You

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