Welcome to Message Monday!
David Hogg pops up often in my email box and my feed, and I’m always happy to see him.
Today I saw a post from him on Twitter (@davidhogg111). It’s a very powerful video message about Bryce Berry, a candidate for the Georgia State Legislature who is endorsed by David’s organization, Leaders We Deserve.
Berry would be the first public school teacher, and the first member of Gen Z, to be elected to the Georgia legislature, to a seat that’s considered flippable. As young as he is, he has been involved in politics for a good while. He was 13 and living in St. Louis when Michael Brown was killed just blocks from his house. He got involved there, helping to elect Ferguson’s first Black mayor.
Berry moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse, wound up being state youth leader for President Biden’s 2020 campaign, then Deputy Political Director for the 2022 Coordinated Campaign, contributing to the successes of Senator Raphael Warnock and Leader Stacey Abrams. Since 2022, he’s served as President of the Young Democrats of Georgia.
David didn’t talk about any of that, though. He talked about how Berry had found out one day that one of his middle school students’ father had been shot right in front of him the night before. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the student told Berry that this kind of thing happens all the time in his neighborhood. And that’s when Berry decided he had to run for office.
GA is a state that doesn’t properly fund its schools or support students, but does allow teachers to carry guns, and Berry doesn’t think that’s a solution. David said that he couldn’t believe that it was true no teacher had ever been elected to the GA legislature, “and it’s going to continue to be the case, unless we change it.”
This is the kind of story that motivates me to reach for my wallet. I know with people like Berry in office, who understand the real human cost of gun violence and will fight to end it, the world can be a better place.
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