For Immediate Release / Ahimsa 4 Mayor / Thurs 7-26 : Indybay

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE / AHIMSA 4 MAYOR / THURS 7-26

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4 IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LET'S MAKE HISTORY!
AHIMSA FOR MAYOR

WHAT: Join supporters and volunteer signature gatherers in nomination of Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai's history making run for Mayor of San Francisco

WHEN: Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 12 noon

WHERE: on the Goodlett street steps of City Hall, Polk St. between McAllister &Grove.

WHO: A protege of Dr. Carlton Benjamin Goodlett, Sumchai grew up in San Francisco public housing and attended public schools.
A 1970 representative to the White House Conference on Youth, Sumchai attended San Francisco State University where she was inducted into the Science and Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame in 1995.
John Burton selected her to be his Assembly woman of the year in 1990.

A graduate of UCSF medical school and the first African American woman trained in neurological surgery at the University of California at San Francisco,
Dr. Sumchai completed a two year MD fellowship at Stanford University from 1986 through 1988 becoming the first African American woman to fly full time with a civilian hospital based aeromedical transport program in the nation.

WHY :Sumchai is running for Mayor - another historic first for an African American woman in San Francisco at a time when the cities Black population is hemorrhaging in numbers.
Her platform prioritizes public safety and disaster preparedness.
Sumchai believes interpersonal and group violence is a public health problem and that medical scientists and public policy experts must address the impact of global warming on the escalating incidence of worldwide human conflict.

HOW:An early advocate of single payer Universal Health Insurance, Sumchai will be working with the Peace and Freedom party to draft a statewide initiative to enact a single payer system.
A protector of children and families and an ardent believer in the positive impact of preschool, Sumchai will prioritize the implementation of universal preschool and childcare through luxury and "fat" taxes on foods with high calorie and poor nutritional content.

Known citywide as a vocal proponent for environmental health and justice, Sumchai is running on a platform to halt the dangerous construction activities of Lennar corporation at the Hunters Point Shipyard and to enact a moratorium on market rate and above market rate residential development in the city's southeast sector.

"I use public transporation up to three times a day, six days a week", says the candidate. I will enact transit reform that will optimize Muni public service and reduce service delays including front and back door boarding with proof of payment, citywide availability of fast passes and advance faire sales. Concerted focus will be placed on service delays in southeast and southwestern San Francisco and Muni operator training with emphasis on reduction in work related repetitive strain injuries and endurance to reduce the high absentee rate.

Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, along with students from UCSF and Stanford, led the Sudan Divestment movement from the city's Retirement Fund.
A medical volunteer in the Sudan in 1985, and the organizer of an airlift of supplies into the southern Sudan in 1989, Sumchai is a member of the
Bay Area Darfur Coalition.
She will make ending genocide in the Sudan through full divestment of public and private holdings and other foreign policy measures.

Dr. Sumchai is an advocate for below market rate housing for Students, Workers, Single Mothers and the Poor. She believes low cost housing can be developed by Labor Unions, churches and non-profits with pension plans and through community land trusts.

Sumchai is also running as an environmentalist and nature preservationist to protect threatened and endangered species like the Peregrine falcon and the urban coyote.

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai
NSCA-CPT