by Pichaya Winichakul · March 30, 2015 9:50 AM

This month’s Young Candidate Spotlight features Emily Weinstock-Collins, who is running for office in Martic Township, Pennsylvania.

What office are you running for?

I am running for office in Martic Township, PA. Our community is looking to establish Home Rule as our system of local governance, and I am running for the Government Study Commission that will determine whether Martic Township ought to pursue Home Rule and, if so, will draft the Home Rule Charter to be placed on November’s ballot.

What motivated you to enter politics/public service?

Last March, I found out that Williams Company is planning to put a major natural gas transmission pipeline through my backyard. Most of this gas is contracted for export, yet—if approved—the project would trump resistant landowners through eminent domain. Many of our friends and neighbors received similar information, and we formed a concerned citizens group. We are now a PA non-profit called Martic SOUL (Save Our Unspoiled Land) working to prevent this and other harmful industrial projects in our area. Having tried many different angles, including working with our Board of Supervisors and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), we have found that Home Rule is our township’s best and possibly only way to stop the pipeline and protect our community.

Why are you running for Government Study Commissioner?

I am running for this position because I believe Home Rule is the right step for our community. Short term issues aside, Home Rule both gives the people of Martic more say in their local government and gives us the opportunity to craft a township charter that addresses the unique needs of our rural community. Through initiative, referendum, and recall, each voter will have a direct impact on the decisions of our township. This system will ensure that the local government reflects the will of the people, and will prevent outside interests from trampling local needs. I am also committed to opposing and finding alternatives to the environmentally devastating expansion of dead-end fossil fuels like fracked natural gas. If our state and federal governments won’t take the leadership in moving us towards a sustainable energy future, local communities will have to take the lead. I care deeply about the future of our community, and I hope to help shape and protect that future by serving on the Government Study Commission.

What are the most pressing issues in your district?

As mentioned above, the pipeline is the most immediate issue in Martic Township. However, the pipeline has revealed a larger
underlying issue in the current structure of our government; it has demonstrated that our local government, under its current 2^ndClass Township status, is not able to protect the Martic residents from harmful corporate invasions such as a pipeline. Under Home Rule, we would be better able to secure our rights and preserve our community, our homes, our farmlands and forests, our Native American heritage sites, and the unique, rural lifestyle of Southern Lancaster County. We also hope, through Home Rule, to better protect the interests of our large Amish population, whose voices—largely in opposition to this proposed industrial invasion—have been almost entirely ignored precisely because the current system is able to utterly disregard their interests. I believe the first and foremost purpose of government is to protect the safety and rights of its people, and so I believe that adopting Home Rule is an essential step for our township.

What were some of the obstacles you’ve had to overcome in your political career?

I am running for the Government Study Commission with a slate of six other candidates connected with Martic SOUL. The main obstacle we have encountered is a lack of accurate information available to the public. Martic SOUL has worked hard to research and find the facts, and the main focus of our campaign has been to share this important information with our community. However, we have also found that misinformation—about the pipeline and Home Rule—is being spread by the pipeline company and other opposition both within and outside the township. This tactic has made our work significantly more difficult, but we hope to continue educating our neighbors so that our community can make an informed decision on this issue in May.

How is millennial leadership important to you?

The millennial generation is the generation of the future – but that does not mean that we should wait to participate in our communities until that future arrives. We need to help shape and safeguard that future starting right now. Home Rule is especially important in that sense, because it gives all Martic residents a direct say in the decisions of our township. It allows not only young people, but all generations to help shape the future of their own community. As a young voter and active citizen, it is very exciting and empowering to see not just Martic, but municipalities across Pennsylvania and the U.S. joining the movement to assert community rights through Home Rule.

Are there any words of wisdom that you would like to impart to other young people under 35 considering running for office?

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of educating yourself and your community. In order to make an impact, it is essential to have all of the relevant and accurate information around the issue you are addressing.

Additionally, I see a lot of my peers disengaging from politics because they are disillusioned with the political system and convinced they cannot make a difference. But you absolutely can make a difference! With passion and dedicated hard work, you will be surprised how much you can accomplish for your community.

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You can learn more about Martic SOUL and the issues they are working on by visiting their website.

by Clara Potter · March 23, 2015 1:06 PM

March is Women’s History Month. While we take stock of the many accomplishments of women in history, it is an important opportunity to assess where we are in 2015, and to recognize how far we still have to go to establish true gender equality.

Consider the case of Emma Sulkowicz, who has garnered national attention for her public stand against Columbia University’s unwillingness to take disciplinary action against her accused rapist, fellow student Paul Nungesser. Each day Nungesser goes unpunished, Sulkowicz carries her mattress around campus. As a result, Sulkowicz has been subject to vicious public attacks against her character that reach deep into her private life.

But the latest volley came from a recent Daily Beast article on Nungesser — who was accused of raping three other young women and a young man while at school. Reading the piece, I was shocked to see Sulkowicz’s private Facebook correspondence published as evidence in an attempt to exonerate him, a glaring transgression of her privacy.

Sulkowicz’s case highlights our society’s inability to talk about providing women with security and autonomy in their private lives — be it in the bedroom or the doctor’s office — while protecting the sanctity of their privacy. Her performance art project captures perfectly this collapse of the private into the public. As she carries the symbol of the most intimate of spaces in public view, the world is given almost voyeuristic access to both the site of her attack, and the vulnerability she feels as her safety and privacy are denied.

This case also demonstrates the profound flaws in our conversations and policies on topics relating to women. But to make real change, we first need more women in leadership roles who can change the conversation.

Decisions about the private sphere for women are currently decided in public discourse dominated by men. As our legislative bodies take up issues like reproductive choice and sexual safety, too few women are even present to help make these critical decisions. There are only 104 women in Congress, or roughly 19 percent. In state legislatures, where much of this policy is made, it’s only slightly better at 24 percent. Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently recounted a common question asked of her by interviewers regarding when there will be enough women on the Supreme Court. She lamented the shock that many have when she replies, “When there are nine.” We must demand more.

But we must also ensure that legislative chambers are places that are hospitable to women. As a scathing Politico report on the history of women in the Senate recently demonstrated, these spaces are often dismissive of, and sometimes outwardly hostile toward, their female members. The public sphere must be a place where women are respected and listened to. The exercise of real autonomy in this country should not be gendered, and we must stop demanding the public sacrifice of women who seek to exercise that autonomy.

This is why I support the work of LaunchProgress, an organization that targets the discrepancies between our elected bodies and the general population. It aims to bring more young people from diverse backgrounds into public office, so that public discourse and policy can reflect the multitude of voices that make up the American populace.

We desperately need more women, more people of color, and more young people in leadership positions so that the future of our country serves average people rather than the powerful few. LaunchProgress understands that this begins locally, at the state and municipal level. By focusing on building the bench with young progressives, including more women, LaunchProgress is laying the foundation for these leaders to go on to influence national conversations.

Securing a more just future for this country requires taking a critical look at the abysmal state of diversity in national leadership. So this month, let’s not just remember the greatness of past accomplishments, but remind ourselves how far we have to go.