Deanna Miller Berry, fighter, advocate, activist and people’s mayoral candidate in Denmark, SC tells the People’s Tribune why she is running.
I run because I realize the power of the people. And it’s the people who pay the price for the lack in leadership. So there has to be a change to take the city to the next level. And the leaders here, the mayor, the council, even on the county level, are just so comfortable with things being just as they are. With this evolving economy, we have to keep up with all the counties and rural towns surrounding us and throughout the country. The people need a representative, and that’s what made me decide to run.
The water crisis is number one on my platform. We have failed every single sanitation survey. They are not testing for the chemical Halosan in the water [classified by the EPA as a pesticide]. Our experts from Virginia Tech are still prohibited from coming here to test the water. And in education, we have two historically black colleges that the city has not been utilizing. So we definitely want them and the education department to make sure our schools have what they need to educate our children. I’m working on a Universal Basic Income program for Denmark. Also, I want to focus on affordable housing. We want to build shipping container housing.
I go to the store and crowds of people are standing waiting on me to talk. They ask ‘what can we do to help?’ These folks have never done anything in politics. The whole mindset is that we’re on the pursuit of hope for Denmark! They’ve always been governed by individuals who have put private interests over public. And this will be the first administration where the public’s interests come first and where the people are truly, truly engaged.
The South is rising, as proven by the Georgia elections. We have to rebuild the hope in our country, but we got to start with these rural communities that were plagued and hurt for so long. Rural communities are the heartbeat of America.
