Part of the Solution

The guy with the dazzling smile in the picture with me is my old friend, John Salatti. I don't mean that he's old, although I have known him for 36 years so you would think he might be old by now... but he's probably the youngest guy I know. He's a husband, a teacher, a lawyer and a damned good person. For the last several years, in addition to running a company that takes him all over the world teaching lawyers to speak English (instead of Lawyer-ish),  he's been working in Washington, D.C. as a neighborhood commissioner.

D.C. is a rather unique place to live. It's not exactly a city, but neither is it a state. It's got people who pay taxes to the government, but they don't have an actual voting representative in Congress. Over 617,000 people live there, people who work in education and entertainment and hospitality  and the military  and, oh yeah, the Federal Government. The District  is governed by a Mayor and a  13 member City Council. They are aided and advised by the neighborhood commissioners.

The commissioners are the people who get the call when a little old lady gets snowed in at her house and has no one to shovel her sidewalk. They will steer you to the right office if you need help paying off your utility bill or navigating the zoning rules. You want to hold a block party or a take back the night walk? Call your commissioner. They meet all the residents, they make the connections, they solve problems. And they do it all for free. They have to stand for election and win enough votes to earn the position. And then they do all that, day in and day out, on their own time, simply because they want to make DC a better place to live.

This year, there's a seat opening up on the DC City Council. John has decided to take a shot at it.  But it's going to take a whole lot more than he's used to spending on his neighborhood race. I can't think of a better guy for the job.  So I just made my first donation to a political campaign. It wasn't a big one, but I believe in my friend, so I did what I could. I figure there's a bunch of folks out there who feel the same way and all those little checks will add up into a pile of money for him.

If you'd like to learn about John and his campaign, click here.

If you'd like to help out with a donation, you can send it to:

Salatti for Ward 5
131 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Let the best man win...

Comments

  1. Liz Imbrie, photographerFebruary 2, 2012 at 5:02 PM

    Two of my favorite leading men! Godspeed, Sallatti!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JohnFebruary 3, 2012 at 6:56 AM

    Thanks, Liz, and very many thank to you, Greg!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Staff Infection!

Image
A couple of weeks ago, my  friend Carol Davies called me up and asked me if I'd be willing to create a prop for the Edmonds School District musical. They're doing Disney's "Aladdin" (it seems like everyone is doing Disney's "Aladdin" this year... in fact, Edmonds is so fond of the idea, they're doing it in two different schools with two different casts! Meadowdale Middle School  This weekend! Edmonds Elementary Anyway, I needed to make the staff for Jafar, the bad guy... remember him? So I grabbed a broomstick, some wire, a gallon of Elmer's Glue, Reynolds Wrap, some paper towels and newsprint, and a little polymer clay and went to work!  But, of course it needed to be gold, so I had to make a trip to Lowe's for some spray paint...   Instant Evil! Good Luck, Everybody!
Read more

A week with the kids...

Image
This week, I had one of the best part time jobs in the world... teaching stage combat to a bunch of kids in a summer program. I had done it last summer and like last summer it was challenging and fun and over waaay too fast. Eleven kids, eight to twelve years old and five three hour sessions, to give them some knowledge of stage combat and physical comedy. They were total kids... silly, spastic, charming, needy, unbelievably creative, completely exhausting. Awkward, beautiful, fragile, clumsy, glorious kids. The first day of the session I asked them to write their names on pieces of paper, so that i could take mugshots of them and hopefully get some idea of their personalities and imaginations. Best idea I've had in a while... I had kids who knew each other, kids who hung out together, kids who'd never met before. It's amazing how fast they make friends with each other. I came in that first day and started tossing around some basketballs, hoping they might play. I shouldn...
Read more

Long Live the Queen!

Image
Have I told you I love mermaids? Maybe it's the idea of blending two different worlds, maybe it's fantasizing about being Aquaman when I was seven years old in the surf at Coney Island. But there's something wonderful about the idea of people living in a world beneath the sea. What do they used for furniture? Or telephones... well, there, at least, the answer's obvious... So the above piece came about when I found some atrocious wall deco at TJ MAXX (how often do I say that?). It was a pair of copper colored scallop shell wall hangings. I immediately saw Elizabeth the First-style frilly colors, but from another dimension.  I wanted to create that feel, but with a certain otherworldliness... if you look closely at the piece, you'll see pearls and green and brown glass gems in her hair... which isn't hair so much as flowing seaweed, with bits of gold and copper leaf pressed into the clay. I did her hair by taking leaf shapes I cut out with cookie cutters and str...
Read more