In this low-wage town, it’s very hard to raise a family.

One in five children in Tucson live in poverty.

Paying rent or mortgage, buying food and clothes, paying for transportation, and trying to get a handle on healthcare costs make getting by almost impossible at times, even with two people working in the family.

On top of all that, our schools let out by 2:30 in the afternoon. What happens to the kids when both parents have to work full time?

Too often, they are left to their own devices. With teenagers, that sometimes means drug use, pregnancy, and property crimes.

The City of Tucson Community Services Department and many excellent nonprofit outside agencies offer afterschool programs to keep kids of the streets at this time, and keep them learning in a safe environment. Kidco & Midco are two of the City programs offered through Parks & Rec to do the same. Thousands of working families all over the city have taken advantage of these programs to strengthen their families and escape the cycle of poverty.

My opponent Fred Ronstadt led the charge last year to destroy all of these programs, and cut off funding to the outside agencies. He didn’t use them. None of his wealthy friends used them. What did he care?

He should have cared because those kids may well be back on the streets and heading toward his back window looking for something to do while Fred is out at a campaign banquet.

You cannot ignore the poverty in this town, and you cannot disrespect the families trying to get by on poverty-level wages. If you give these kids in poverty some mentoring and a safe place to go after school, you give them a new vision on life, and you give them ownership of their own piece of our society.

When a teenager gains ownership, that teenager feels respect from others and gives respect to others. That teen gains a sense of self-worth and identity which can change his or her life and that of others, and we as a society end up with a creative partner in progress, not an alienated threat, pulling us all down.

The Republican party nationally has been spouting off a lot about their vision of an “ownership society”. but their vision involves ownership only for those who have enough money to buy. A true ownership society will encourage ALL of us, no matter how seemingly mired in poverty, to have their own piece of our national pie, and to learn to bake more pie for future generations.

When I am a councilmember, I will seek to create a true ownership society right here in Tucson. We must all feel that we are a part of this city, and that we all have a responsibility to work together to help us all get ahead–teens, people in poverty, seniors, wealthy people, families of all kinds, and people of all backgrounds. That’s the definition of a healthy city. It’s time we cured ourselves.