Taurus Barksdale Deserves Your Vote For Baltimore City Council District 6
Baltimore City Council Candidate
District 6
Taurus Barksdale is Killing The Breeze’s endorsement in District Council 6. Not only is he family, but he’s the only candidate that has shown any kind of ability to attempt and successfully respond to the needs of the community he serves.
This was happening before the pandemic and has only been amplified doing it. Taurus Barksdale has been addressing the problem of squeegee kids by giving them jobs, and he was leading trash pickup all around the district before both became national stories. During the chaotic times of Covid-19, he has led food delivery to those who need it all around the district.
As a private citizen, he has been responsive to the needs of voters in ways which we wished government was. He deserves to officially represent the District because he has been doing it unofficially his entire life.
Taurus Barksdale for 6th District
Taurus is the only candidate in District 6 with a campaign website, and quit his day job both in service to the public. Incumbent Sharon Greene Middleton is firmly entrenched and dwarfs both Taurus and 3rd candidate Michelle Y. Andrews in cache, experience and advanced education, yet she could not take the time to establish a campaign website. In 2020, with a serene background of a pandemic, that shows either a lack of want or understanding of the role technology plays in all of our lives.
In fact, though I’m sure she’s a nice woman, it shows contempt for voters in her district by saying that what’s on her Baltimore City Council and State of Maryland websites are enough. You see what she’s done, and where we are is good enough. You don’t like it? Who else are you going to vote for?
Well we’ve seen what she’s done, and while I am sure she has worked hard, where we are is not good enough. I grew up in District 6 (21215 zip code). It pained me to see that my zip code was the one most effected by Covid-19 in the entire region. What has been done to specifically address the needs of it and others within District 6 above and beyond other districts?
Not Good Enough
Atleast there are other interpretations for not having a campaign website. Not thinking your voters will read nor care what shows up in the paper is quite another.
The Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Voter Guide 2020 profiled all of the candidates for various political offices across the state with questions that revealed where they stood on local issues. Either the Sun has made a grievous editorial error (most likely), or Mrs. Middleton submitted stock answers regardless of what the questions were. Either way, it’s been 24 hours and has yet to be corrected. This does not inspire confidence. This is not responsive to the needs of voters. I hope this gets updated soon.
Education
Similar to our endorsement of Mary Miller, Taurus was the candidate closest in reflecting our beliefs on education. The vetoing of the Kirwan Commission Bill on the bases of cost by Hogan shows the battle that education policy always has to fight.
Mr. Barksdale, to the question of how we should fund Kirwan, stated he would legalize and tax marijuana pointing to the city of Chicago which raised 10 million dollars. While that would have to be a state initiative similar to the passing of Kirwan, it shows a willingness to have education spending derive from other sources such as infrastructure.
Imagine, as we have advocated for, every school with a garden that students tended that produced all sorts of products including hemp. Students could make and sell products allowing exposure to science, technology, math, entrepreneurship, business and agriculture with emphasized “in class” studies being english, history, creative writing, drama, poetry, literature.
Taurus Barksdale and Consent of the Governed
Our government is constitutional meaning that we place recognized hindrances on those who rule over us as citizens. This is known as limited government.
One of the limits on government is consent of the governed. According to Locke, a government’s legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified and legal when consented to by the people or society over which that political power is exercised. In other words, the government can do only what we citizens allow it to do.
How do we show that we do not give our consent to be governed?
- We vote
- We vote to change government (elected officials who make laws and/or laws themselves)
- We vote to change the Constitution
A vote for Taurus Barksdale is the 6th District saying that’s enough. It’s saying we can do better. At the risk of sounding ageist, the contrast of a 27 year old providing meals and cleaning up the community during Covid-19 in continuance of the good work he had been doing with a 66 year old City council woman who is nowhere to be found in the community is stark. Combined with an apathetic at best, nonexistent at worst campaign, the feeling of unresponsive incumbency surrounds the Middleton campaign.
Mr. Barksdale is a significant underdog, but his campaign is the definition of grassroots. That energy is much needed in city government.
