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What's Important
- Anti-Violence and Bias Crimes
Victims of physical, mental, and verbal abuse and sexual assault deserve prompt and fully funded services that are compassionate and provide law enforcement with the tools they need to prosecute these heinous crimes.
Violence is not tolerable at any level; however, its ill effects are further exacerbated when combined with hatred based solely on the victim’s membership in a diversity group. We must work to ensure that harsher penalties are the result of crimes committed out of social intolerance of our diverse community.
A firm, unyielding commitment to quality education for every child in Hudson County is essential to the progress of our society. Education can be the cure for so many societal ills, such as poverty, crime, and addiction.
Anti-Violence
Students cannot be subjected to fear, intimidation, or worse violence, in the sanctuary that should be preparing them for higher learning. Similar to Drug-Free School Zones, an Elevated Penalty Zone should be enacted for violent crimes committed within 500 yards of school property.
Multilingual Education
With so many of our families speaking a panoply of languages, we must work to ensure our educators are better equipped to reach our students whose primary language is not English.
Higher Education
Our commitment does not end with High School. Quality, affordable education is essential for the economic competitiveness of individuals as well as our community as a whole.
We must work to ensure equal access to housing, employment, and government services to all people, regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, civil union status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or disability. Further, we must examine City and County contractors to ensure that these standards are the practice of the businesses who receive our tax dollars.
We must ensure that our employers remain true to their commitment to our communities by hiring and advancing people from diverse backgrounds. The leadership in businesses in Hudson County should look like the people of Hudson County, a rich mosaic spanning a growing spectrum of diverse cultures.
- Equal Opportunities and Affirmative Action
We must work to ensure equal access to housing, employment, and government services to all people, regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, civil union status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or disability. Further, we must examine City and County contractors to ensure that these standards are the practice of the businesses who receive our tax dollars.
We must ensure that our employers remain true to their commitment to our communities by hiring and advancing people from diverse backgrounds. The leadership in businesses in Hudson County should look like the people of Hudson County, a rich mosaic spanning a growing spectrum of diverse cultures.
It is essential to the cause of equality and respect for diversity that all relationships be treated equally, regardless of the gender of those who have chosen to enter that relationship. We must continue to work toward ensuring full equality in Marriage Law. Equality should be afforded by granting equal access to the institution of Marriage for all people
- STD Education and Funding
With the Federal Government consistently making cuts in the funding for HIV-related programs, more must be done on the part of our city, county, and state governments to ensure that we continue to make progress in our fight against this epidemic.
Prevention/Education Programs
Communities must educate their citizens, especially their children, on both the dangers of contracting HIV, and what means can be used to prevent the spread of infection.
Services Programs
People living with HIV/AIDS rely heavily on programs that offer them not only assistance, but hope. We must work to secure the future of these programs until a cure is found.
Investment in the arts is essential to the progress of our culture. Hudson County has a thriving community of talent that should be cultivated by helping to provide:
Creative Spaces
The ability to produce art is dependant on having a space equipped to house such creative endeavors. Provisions should be made to ensure that we are investing in the cultural progress of Hudson County as heavily as we are investing in our commercial progress.
Performance Spaces
As we take into account out investment in the arts, we must consider the importance of the performing arts to cultural development. We should be seeking to attain state-of-the-art performance venues within Hudson County.
- Small Business Initiatives
Small business owners throughout our cities have been the backbone of our communities. While larger employers are important for many reasons, we must not neglect the interests of our small businesses. Government should be encouraged help weave the fabric of our communities by issuing grants and incentives to small business owners. It is the people, whose home, whose work, and whose livelihoods are completely connected to their communities, who should be preserved as fervently as we preserve all our treasures.
The environment must be preserved as a sacred resource, both for our future and for the enjoyment of future generations.
Open Spaces
As gentrification progresses, we must purpose to preserve our green space. The overall health of our cities is dependant upon the ability to provide places of solace and beauty while also providing space to live and work.
Chromium/Diesel Cleanup
We must keep the pressure on for polluters to pay their share for the cleanup of toxic chemicals left in Hudson County.
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