Street Fight

I remember seeing Cory Booker, current Mayor of Newark, NJ on Oprah a few months ago. I was immediately impressed with him when he admitted to living in Brick Towers, a public housing project in Newark's Central Ward. I thought, "What did he just say? He's the Mayor and he lives in the projects?!?"

He said that he lived in Brick Towers so that he could understand the struggles that his constituents faced on a daily basis. WOW, talk about putting your money where your mouth is!

Rewind to 2002. Ivy league graduate & Rhodes Scholar, Cory Booker, attempts to topple Sharpe James for the right to be Newark's next Mayor. No easy task considering that James has claimed that title for the last 16 years.

This film documents the battle that ensues between the two camps. Booker is a newcomer with a passion for change and determination that will not cease. Sharpe has veteran status and political muscle. He also has the ability and willingness to deploy tactics that I believed to only occur in Communistic societies. To say that I was floored by Sharpe's political manhandling would be an understatement. Several times throughout the film, I murmured to myself, "This is America! How can that happen?"

I enjoyed this film tremendously, not for entertainment value, but because it gives me hope that there are still politicians out there with passion, integrity and a sense of duty to the people. So often in the past, I have associated the word "politician" with the likes of, "snake, crook, puppet, liar, dirtbag, out of touch, for purchase." When going to the polls, I have often voted for the lesser of two evils and then departed with a hopeless feeling.

Knowing that there are Cory Bookers and Barack Obamas out there injects in me a hope for our country. We need more politicians with their passion, their willingness to change the status quo and their determination to truly represent what the people of this country desperately need.