No matter what’s in your wallet, how you pray, if you were born here in Milwaukee or relocated here from somewhere else, most of us just want to be able to pay the bills, make sure we and our families can live safe, healthy prosperous lives, and that our communities can thrive.

For too long structural racism and economic oppression have been the go-to strategy of certain elected leaders and the big corporations, utility companies, slum lords, and the wealthy elite that fund their campaigns. They defund our schools, cut access to public transportation, and block our own tax dollars from coming into our community to create good family-supporting jobs and access to healthcare. They threaten our senior citizens with cuts to Medicare and social security. They take kickbacks from rich corporations and then refuse to raise the minimum wage. They then have the audacity to turn and point the finger at poor and working-class Black and Brown Milwaukeeans for all Wisconsinites not being able to have what we all need and deserve.

We’ve played by their rigged rules long enough. By joining together as member leaders of North Side Rising, we can use our power in numbers to organize our communities and change the rules. We can let greedy corporations know we aren’t going to take it anymore. We can organize around the issues that are most important to us and that will finally begin to address structural and institutional racism and allow us to rebuild our communities on the north side of Milwaukee. We can elect leaders that will work with and for us instead of wealthy corporations to make sure that all of us in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin can provide and care for ourselves and our families, and that the future for our children is safe, healthy, and full of opportunity.