The Final Countdown: Election Day 2009

Today, the many members of the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Institute went to the polls to select the next Youth Mayor of the District of Columbia. Before, the two candidates made speeches, a last shot to plea to the voters. Below, is Markus’ speech.

Today is the day. This campaign has spent many weeks and countless hours campaigning for your votes and getting to know all of you, your needs and your concerns. 

Now it is up to you. On this day, in this hour, you will lead the way in decisively electing the next Youth Mayor of the District of Columbia.

We are all very privileged here in the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Institute to get the distinct opportunity to take a leading role in this city. The leaders of tomorrow, taking action and making change today. That is what it is all about.

The selection of a qualified, competent, committed and more importantly-innovative Youth Mayor is one of the many responsibilities and roles we have to ensure that the issues we face can be properly tackled and the ideas we have can be turned into actuality.

A Youth Mayor that has new ways of looking at situations, new ways of looking at problems and finding new ways to obtain a positive solution. And we have the obligation to choose that person.

The past five weeks has been about showing you that I am that person. That the old ideas that have been tried and re-tried over and over are not going to work, that we can find a new way and that we can guarantee positive outcomes.

One year is not a lot of time for one person to make moves, inspire action and make change. But I believe that if I am elected the 52^nd Youth Mayor of the District of Columbia today that we can work together, as a strong community of future leaders, a group that knows all too well what it is like to be ignored, downtrodden, unappreciated, underestimated. But a community that also knows with the right inspiration, the proper resources and the right leader, we can move forward, we can take action, we can make change, we can guarantee a better future, we can get what we need, eliminate what we don’t and make Washington a better city for all of us.

That is our responsibility today, that is our sacred duty. This is more than some small election. This is a chance to grasp the responsibilities that we deserve, take the action that we have delayed for so long, make up for lost time and tell the city that has hidden us in the shadows for so long that we love this city just as you do, we face the same problems as you do, we want to inspire reform and make this great city what it should be.

 I believe we can do this together. All you have to do today is mark Markus Batchelor on the ballot and we can declare we are ready to take the responsibility of an incoming generation, we are ready to learn how to take those leadership roles, we can stand up for what we believe in, we can make things happen, we can free ourselves from the turmoil and strife that we face and above all, declare that tomorrow is well and fine, but to provide a better tomorrow you have to take action today, so declare it is our time now.

We can do this. Make that commitment today, build a better tomorrow today, and I can promise that if I start my tenure as Youth Mayor on Monday morning, we can get to work, start building a better future, start tackling those issues and unite together on the other side as a better generation, a better community and an improved city.

Let’s improve Washington together. Thank you so much.

Results for the 2009 Youth Mayoral Election will be released on Friday, August 7, 2009 at the MYLI 30th Anniversary “Honoring Our Heroes” banquet.