Ed Hershey is a teacher who has been on the front lines every day.
He has taught for nine years in the Chicago Public School system, while Daley and Emanuel cut back education for the sons and daughters of the working class.
He is outraged at Chicago politicians who take money from the schools to give to the banks, big corporations, developers and the wealthy class.
Ed was a leader at his school in the 2012 teachers' strike.
He knows the strike barely touched all the students' and teachers' problems, and it ended much too soon.
But the teachers did what too many people have not done. They decided to make a fight. It wasn't wrong to fight. It was wrong to stop.
He takes the side of others who are ready to protest or fight.
In 2010 and 2013, he fought alongside parents struggling at Whittier Elementary school to preserve their children's library and community center. Yes, he was arrested – and proud that he stood with parents who were arrested.
He joined parents and students who fought to keep schools from closing in 2013, when Emanuel announced 125 schools would close, and finally did close 50.
He took the side of students at his school who organized a walk-out and "die-in" to protest the shootings of unarmed young black men by cops, and the unwillingness of authorities to prosecute the killers.
Your Vote Can Say: Workers Must Fight
There is money enough in Chicago to pay for decent schools, for more buses and trains, for parks and programs for young people, and for the other services we need.
But the money needed to make Chicago livable for ordinary people has been stolen from our taxes and is today hoarded by some of the biggest capitalists in the world, part of the wealthy class that this mayor and aldermen serve.
There is no reason we should be pushed out of our homes.
Developers and the city would like to get rid of what's left of the ABLA homes.
And the real estate interests, backed by the city, are gentrifying areas from Pilsen to McKinley Park, raising rents so high working people can't stay.
Nothing will improve for us until the working class fights to take back the money stolen from us by the rich and their politicians.
Ed doesn't pretend that he can change this corrupt city all by himself.
But he knows that even one alderman could use the office to encourage and aid everyone who is ready to make a fight today.
And he pledges this is what he will do: He will open the alderman's office for meetings, warn residents about city plans to attack them, use all the alderman's resources to aid people who fight back. He will speak for them, stand with them.
A vote for Ed Hershey is a way to declare that you agree, a way to say that you think a fight is necessary.
Ordinarily, workers don't get a chance to express what they really think.
By voting for Ed, this time you and other people can say what you think. You can say that you agree with Ed that the working class needs to fight back.
This vote can count. Workers around the city will see it. It can show just how many of us know we must prepare to fight back.