Kymone Freeman
DC Statehood GreenQ1 Recent policies and budget decision have led to the termination of thousands of grants. DC is an important hub for scientists and researchers in the region. What role do you think research should have in the region and what action if any will you take to retain scientific talent to the city?
I am fascinated by the term Agroecology. To learn how it functions as part science, part best practices & part social movement. It has given a name to my efforts to address the root causes of crime & violence scientifically. The fact it validates the necessity to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans & the environment while promoting social equity further justifies my analysis. DC has more police than any city in America. America has more prisoners than any country in the world. So clearly these ineffective tactics are just profitable management of the problems. The fact that children deprived of 4 key nutrients are 51% more prone to violent behavior, regulated to “live” in food desserts, no mandates to provide safe drinking water until 2037 & a federal court setting precedence that citizens have no constitutional right to water. Lead pipes are not only detrimental to cognitive function & development; it also is a marker for violent behavior. All this combined with a poverty rate 2x the national average, crack babies becoming chemically imbalanced parents, the proliferation of drugs & liquor stores, illiteracy rate 2x the national average, limited greenspace access are all precursors for the need of an Agroecological approach to public safety.
Keywords: Agroecology Public Safety
Q2 Given Congress’s authority over D.C.’s budget, how would you protect the District from science funding + funding programs based on science evidence (such as the proposed $1B reduction last year) while maintaining essential city services?
There’s a theory termed the Washington Monument Syndrome. When National Park Service faces a budget cut, the agency doesn’t threaten to reduce hours at a national site in Middle America. Instead, they threaten to close the Washington Monument to affect all members of Congress in a highly visible way. In foreign policy, Israel is the Washington Monument. In both the House & Senate the two wings of the same bird all flap together to support continued unconditional aid to Israel. I would seek to hold up a mirror of benign neglect that reflects some of the vast similarities with DC residents & those in Palestine. Like the fact that DC is the most dangerous city in America for a Black woman of any socio-economic background to give birth. While Palestine has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous place in the world for children. US taxpayers give Israel more foreign aid than Sub-Saharan Africa & Latin America combined with billions of dollars annually. They provide their citizens with free healthcare while DC residents pay billions in taxes annually, more per capita than anyone in USA, while being denied representation as the only US territory that pays federal taxes at all.
Keywords: Washington Monument Syndrome
Q3 The cost of electricity and water are on the rise with nearby data centers straining current resources in combination with increased energy costs to consumers. What specific plans do you have, if any, to mitigate utility cost burden for residents? Why these steps?
“Ai is 10x bigger & 10x faster than the impact of the industrial revolution.” - Bernie Sanders
Geoffrey Hinton “Godfather of artificial intelligence” says there is a 20% chance Ai will lead to human extinction in 3 decades. In April of this year at the US Capitol, I attended Bernie Sander’s “Existential Threat of Ai & the need for International Cooperation.” I learned there has been no serious effort to regulate Ai like was done to regulate nuclear weapons. The wealthiest people in the world are building a runaway train with no brakes & no guardrails.
Being based in the nation’s capital, I am particularly excited by the prospect of organizing broad based grassroots support towards an exit strategy. The perils of Ai using as much water as the bottled water industry, producing more carbon than NYC eliminating millions of jobs in 10 years along with all privacy by monitoring every single transaction, email, post, text, call, etc., & the prospect of super-intelligent systems operating outside the bounds of its designer’s instructions all confirms the immediate need for brakes & guardrails. If the general public knew all this, they would take the fastest route to a moratorium on Data Centers & rapidly expand energy grid modernization.
Keywords: Data Centers Moratorium
Q4 Many states are issuing independent vaccine guidelines to ensure consistent vaccine access in light of recent HHS changes - what are your views on vaccine guidelines and why or why not would you support similar initiatives?
As a former AIDS Clinical Vaccine trial participant, I was in support of the NIH’s work when I lost family members during the AIDS epidemic in DC where we had 12x the AIDS infection rate due to congressional interference that barred DC residents from using our tax money to fund needle exchange programs that were responsible for 30% of all cases. I was told that the money is not in a cure, it is in “treatment.” I was introduced to the conflicting concepts of “following the science” & “following the money” which represent two different lenses for evaluating truth: one focuses on empirical methodology, while the other examines economic or political incentives.
So I have sacrificed my body & risked my health to the search for an AIDS vaccine. But I do not believe all vaccines are created equal. Therefore, I am against Vaccine mandates in the only industrialized country in the world that denies healthcare to all its citizens. Spain has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world w/o mandates. The United States & New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that legally allow pharmaceutical companies to market prescription drugs directly to consumers with product claims.
Keywords: No Vaccine Mandates