Lets Make The World A Better Place?

The DanburyDan beat me to posting on this story but I figured I'd mention it too. The Tribuna, a local bilingual paper, did a front page story on Helena Abrantes candidacy for the 2007 Mayoral election that shed some insight into who she is and why she is running. The Headline was "I Am An Immigrant", well that is great but what does that have to do with being a good candidate for Mayor? I think it is great that the paper pointed out Helena will be the first female, Portuguese born, naturalized citizen to run for Mayor in Danbury, I think more immigrants should be involved with their government, but I just didn't see anything that would convince me she should be the first to be elected. She says in the article that Danbury is not the same, that is true, but in someways I think it has changed for the better and even when it comes to the negatives she failed to mention any specifics. She also said she thinks she'd be an asset because she speaks Spanish and Portuguese, well that is great but I interpret that as, I will cater to the immigrants, including the illegal immigrants. She said that Danbury is a melting pot, and yes it is but I know plenty of people who think it's becoming too much of one. She said that she could help people by explaining to them in their own language what all the laws and regulations mean, isn't the current Mayor already doing that by enforcing the laws, by participating in bilingual community forums and by bringing in leaders of the Spanish & Portuguese/Brazilian community to help when things get lost in interpretation? She said over development is causing a serious risk to the community, and yet she is pictured in the piece with former Mayor Gene Eriquez who allowed so much of the over development that is occurring today. She says that schools and education are the most important items on her agenda, well if you ask me the current Mayor has that pretty well covered with increases every year he's been in office to education funding, with the first major school renovations and construction in years, and a new magnet school that parents can't wait to get their kids into. She says that immigrants shouldn't lose their own culture, and I agree to a certain extent but I also think that is part of the problem with downtown. The immigrant based businesses should be welcoming all residents, not just catering to the Spanish or Portuguese speaking. Overall, Helena sounds like she really cares about Danbury, but she offers no solutions to problems or drastic changes to what she vaguely claims is wrong. I guess we'll wait and see but right now I think experience and a realistic vision are more important then a Lets Make the World A Better Place candidate.