I’m With Her: Mary Lupien for Rochester Mayor
When I was 19, I had the good fortune of being assigned bell hooks’ book Teaching Community: A pedagogy of hope in a seminar. In it, there’s a phrase that changed my life: “imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”
I remember thinking to myself with great relief: “There’s the term for it? There’s a phrase for the toxicity I can feel around me but don’t know the words for yet?” I look back at this as a watershed moment that kicked off my commitment to being a politicized healer. If we want solutions, we’ve got to be able to articulate the problems. In this case imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy covers a lot of ground.
That lightbulb moment in Dr. Yamuna Sangarasivam’s freshman seminar happened nearly two decades ago. This year, I’m doing something that I haven’t done before: I’m endorsing a political candidate. I want Mary Lupien to be the new Mayor of Rochester.
I started seeing Rochester City Councilwoman Mary Lupien around at rallies and protests nearly a decade ago. I wasn't a mother then, but Mary was. She was hitting the streets as a member of Mothers out Front -- a grassroots organization that mobilizes mothers, caregivers, and allies to advocate for climate action and a livable future for children.
It’s Mary’s authenticity and rooted presence that strike me most when I’m with her. Her smile is ready and her heart is open, but Mary doesn’t play. She’s f*cking fierce when it comes to advocating for all city residents, whether that’s the kids she works with as a socio-emotional educator in the Rochester City School District, recently-decarcerated community members, residents who can’t afford housing, or her own daughter.
Mary unabashedly tells the powers that be (including Vice President JD Vance) what she thinks. And she thinks that everyone in our city deserves to be safe, housed, fed, and cared about.
Mary is consistently willing to put her money where her mouth is. Recently, she has publicly condemn the US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people and the Trump administration’s illegal kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil (a legal U.S. permanent resident and advocate for human rights), and the murder of Sam Nordquist, a transgender man who was killed in neighboring Ontario County. These are important indicators of her capacity to speak truth to power.
In recent years, I’ve gone from having a political crush on Mary to having the honor of calling her my friend. I see how she moves through the world - politically and personally - with a noteworthy balance of curiosity, commitment, joy, and personal responsibility.
Want to hear my favorite Mary story?
During her successful 2024 campaign for reelection to the City Council, Mary and her opponent were interviewed on the radio show Connections with Evan Dawson. In the last 60 seconds of the show, Mary questioned her opponent’s capacity for impartiality regarding downtown business development, as he’d accepted significant campaign funding from corporate landlords & BID developers. He retorted that Mary had accepted money from corporate landlord Joe Hannah back in 2020. In the show’s final seconds, Mary elegantly got the last word. You know what she said? She said: “I gave that money back.”
And that, fundamentally, is why I love Mary. Yes, I’m behind her political priorities:
Safe, affordable housing
Universal basic income for RCSD students, and
Appropriate responses for 911 and mental health crises calls
And, observing Mary’s capacity for telling it like it is while abiding her strong moral compass gives me the confidence to trust her as a leader. It is a rare and beautiful thing when a politician puts their heart, head, and soul into leadership. This shows a level of alignment that so many of us are hungry for.
Also, Mary is funny. I think a politician’s ability to have a sense of humor, especially when it comes to laughing at themselves, is a key metric when evaluating a politician.
Has there ever been a better time to focus on local politics?
As our communities reel in response to the current Federal administration, I encourage you to consider that
the critical mass required to move the needle towards people-first local government is minuscule compared with national frays.
If, like me, you’re overwhelmed & horrified by the daily news, the current Federal administration’s tactics are working. If we can channel fear and horror into action, we have the power to sustain change. The more focused we are with our attention, the more we stabilize and expand our impact.
I’m the mom of a 2-year-old. If you have children or kids you're close with, maybe you can relate: more than ever, I’m compelled to act in ways that I hope my daughter will be proud of someday. This moment is rife with opportunities to plant seeds of change.
What kinds of seeds do we sow when we throw our collective weight behind heart-forward, smart, people-focused candidates like Mary and City Council race candidates Kelly Cheatle and Stanley Martin? Higher quality seeds than when doom scrolling, right? There is a rising tide -- are you in?
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