Why is Harry running for Congress?
If you’re not angry with your government, you’re not paying enough attention. Congress is full of puppets who depend on corporations and the super-wealthy to fund their reelection campaigns through SuperPACs and other unsavory means. Just look at their first attempt to provide relief for COVID-19 – most of your tax dollars spent in that bill ended up making millionaires richer, as Main Street businesses that were approved for aid were told that hedge funds had already slurped up all the money. So Congress just gave the program more funding.
The only Representative you can trust to put the needs of the People before the profits of Wall Street one who refuses all corporate funding – I only accept contributions from living, breathing Americans, and the same holds for the Green Party that is supporting my efforts.
Both of the Big Two parties are bought & paid for by the oligarchy – they will stop at nothing to silence anyone within their ranks who would threaten the wealth of billionaires. As the Bard said, “A pox on both your houses!”
With Peter King retiring this year, there is no incumbent in this race – this is the best opportunity to change leadership! Now that more people are waking up to the idea that neither of the Big Two can really be trusted, we need a whole new Party to take the lead – the Green Party.
While my preferred method of advocating for the changes we need is though this campaign & other peaceful means, I support a diversity in strategies & tactics to achieve the common goals of a more just & equitable society for ALL people.
I have lived in New York State my whole life – 4 years upstate for college and the rest on Long Island. The oldest of 4 brothers, I’m the only one who hasn’t moved away after college. The high cost of living hasn’t made it easy, but this is my home. I still try to take care of the community, volunteering with Suffolk County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and Town Representative for the Suffolk Green Party.
I’m a mechanical design engineer by profession, so why get into politics? I’ve come to realize, “if it is to be, then it’s up to me.” I was raised right next door in Huntington, and the Boy Scouts was a tremendous influence on my character & values, That meant meetings every week from the first grade up until becoming an Eagle Scout at the end of high school, learning things like that good leadership requires serving the ones you’re responsible for first – officers eat last. I wrote my first letter to my Congressman for a Scout badge, and later wrote an article to teach people how to do that better.
The Scouts also introduced me to a few major adventures like a Philmont Trek – 65 miles on foot through the New Mexico desert carrying everything I needed to survive on my back. That was 20 years ago this summer, the same summer I also went to the Global Young Leaders Conference – half in DC, half in NYC with hundreds of students from around the world, some I’m still in touch with today. But I’m the oldest of 4 brothers – my parents couldn’t afford to just give me the money for big trips like that since they couldn’t do it 4 times over. I had to work at Pizza Hut while going to school and during the rest of my summer to save up for it, so I have worked at the bottom of the pay scale.
Like many engineers, I’m on the autistic spectrum. It doesn’t make me better or worse, it’s just different. Some things, like social skills, require more conscious effort for me while geometry & how things work (most things I need to do as an engineer) come naturally to me. Our leadership needs more neurodiversity, people who don’t all think like lawyers. While I know many have it worse, I took a lot of abuse for my disability in my youth (before anybody told me this was A Thing), giving me empathy for those made to suffer just for being who they were born as.
Harry R. Burger for Congress 