Fighting for the future of our country isn’t a spectator sport.

A common refrain lately has been “we’ve been through times like this before, and we will again.” While I understand the sentiment, it’s not true. Since its founding, Americans have continuously fought for the rights that were supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution, and although many survived, a lot of people didn’t make it through those pivotal times to take part.

We live in another such time and we cannot stand on the sidelines and watch our neighbors be targeted. The stakes are only getting higher. As a student of American history and civics, I can clearly see the disconnect between what congressional leadership is capable of and what we’re currently getting instead.

I’m running because it’s not enough to vote a certain way, or saying all the right things, but because we’ve seen in the last several years what needs to be done is all hands on deck to preserve our country from runaway injustice. We need someone who will actively fight for progressive change in the San Fernando Valley. Who will work every single day to protect civil rights, hold those in power accountable, build an economy that works for everyone, and engage with the communities to get the job done.

As President of the Studio City Neighborhood Council, I know the best way to find solutions is through engaging on the local level, and I intend to empower the neighborhood council system to help inform me in Congress. Extending the power of our experiment in civic engagement to the national stage in order to utilize the level of passion that already exists.

Right now, the country is at a crossroads, and the path we choose to go down will set the stage for the next several generations. To be sure, we can choose representatives who wish to simply return to “business as usual” without addressing the underlying causes that lead to our modern chaos in the first place. But I believe that I stand with my neighbors in recognizing this time as a unique opportunity to push for progressive change in the face of white supremacy, authoritarianism, and unchecked corporate power to rebuild our communities in a way that protects the most vulnerable and benefits the common well-being.