In recent days, you may have seen campaign banners and lawn signs in our neighborhood and volunteers handling out campaign flyers to pedestrians and commuters. They are all for a good cause: supporting our beloved and nationally top-ranking public school system and two candidates who are pro-public education, Jeffrey Shi and Rebecca Sassouni.
Our volunteers are just like you and I, parents with school-age children or homeowners who have experienced appreciating home values in Great Neck in recent years. Many of the volunteers do not have previous campaigning experience, so we went to great lengths to make sure they are well-trained and we are running a positive campaign.
So far, we have had two training sessions with professional campaign experts who explained the Dos and Don’ts when running a campaign. Every canvasser is trained on the appropriate procedure and protocol before he or she reaches out to neighbors in our community to help raise awareness. We specially asked our canvasser to avoid any sensitive words and stay from hearsays.
All of our campaign flyers, banners, signs and other materials contributed to the public have been revised 10 times as a result of consultation with various community groups and experts; this is to avoid any unintended negative connotation. We have made it clear to every volunteer that we do not counterattack opposing candidates even though Jeff Shi, the candidate we are supporting, has been personally attacked by his opponents multiple times via social media.
It’s unfortunate that Jeff’s posters and banners were removed 24 hours after they were installed. However, Jeff stated, “Just because someone behaved badly, it doesn’t mean we need to lower ourselves to that standard.”
As a UPTC memo stated over the weekend, “Our children are watching what we say and do.” Let us lead by example and do the right thing for our community. Let us take the high road.
—Linda Zhang
