Talking with Leader at Youth 4 Diane, Sonja Aibel
By Kelly Schwint
A special education teacher, a single mom, a non-profit executive, and now a candidate for New York City Mayor. These are just a few titles that Dianne Morales holds. Originally from Brooklyn, Morales has spent her entire life living in New York City. Now, she’s ready to take on the role of Mayor to implement real and innovative change into the city. She is a progressive candidate who wants to fight for and alongside the constituents of New York City. With the NYC Mayoral primaries on June 22, 2021, there’s never been a better time to get involved.
Morales’ campaign understands and uplifts the strengths of youth voices. They utilize their voices to the best of their ability, giving them leadership roles within the campaign. Sonja Aibel is a teenager from Brooklyn, but she also is the Youth Leader for Dianne Morales campaign. She was kind enough to answer some questions about Dianne’s policies, youth political involvement, and what a female Mayor in NYC would mean to her.
Tell our readers a little bit about Dianne Morales and her policy platform.
SA: Yeah, for sure. So Dianne Morales is the most progressive candidate for New York City mayor. Before being a candidate, she was the executive director of multiple non-profits, and she was a special education teacher. She’s the only teacher in the race for New York City mayor, and her policy is really based on the ideas of dignity, care, and solidarity for every New Yorker, so that kind of manifests itself in policies like housing for all and defunding the police, amongst other things.
Introduce yourself, how you got involved in politics, and how you got involved in this campaign.
SA: Yeah, so my name is Sonja. I am a high school student at a public high school in Brooklyn, New York. And I got involved in politics at a pretty young age. I think my first political experience was phone banking for Hillary Clinton in 2016 at the presidential general election when I had just turned ten. And I got involved in this campaign through its youth affiliated group called Youth for Dianne which I now run alongside some pretty wonderful volunteers.
How did you get involved in politics when you were ten? What sparked that? Did you come from a politically involved family?
SA: Yeah, so my family is very politically involved, but I also think it came from seeing the debates. That was something that my family watched, and I just kind of watched it by default because I was with them. And I think Donald Trump because she was running against him, made me pretty upset, so I was really motivated to help her out there.
What drew you to want to get involved in Dianne’s campaign?
SA: I think Dianne is just everything that I want in a leader. She’s untraditional and unapologetic about that. And she doesn’t want to control New York. She wants to make it a better New York, alongside real New Yorkers, which makes me really excited about her. I also just feel like every New Yorker will have a voice in her administration, which makes me very passionate about her.
Youth involvement in politics is extremely important. From your experience, how does Dianne’s campaign value the youth and their voices?
SA: I think it values youth voices more than really any other environment I’ve been in. It’s incredibly inclusive. I’ve never felt like someone didn’t value my opinion or questioned the validity of my voice because of my age, and I feel like there’s been no hesitation in giving me leadership positions because of my age, which is something that I’m really appreciative of.
Do you think that giving youth leadership roles in campaigns is something that more campaigns should do?
SA: I definitely think so. I think that we can be just as qualified as someone who’s older, and we also have a really unique perspective. I think that if it was being run by adults it wouldn’t be as good.
Definitely. Why do you think it’s important for youth to get a role in politics?
SA: I think we provide a really unique perspective. Who’s better to talk about problems with the school system than actual students? And who should we be listening to more about climate justice than the people who are really going to be feeling the effects of it in a couple of decades? So I think that our voices just are really special when it comes to especially certain issues.
Do you think after the events the past year, so the Black Lives Matter movement, COVID-19, and the presidential election, do you think the youth are getting more involved in politics through campaigns?
SA: I think that we definitely are. I think that there’s always been inequalities and problems with our country and our society, but those events have really made it impossible to ignore those things, and I think young people really, really care about equality and justice and were more motivated than some other people to take action, and I think campaigning is a great way to do that, so I do think more young people are getting involved.
We’ve seen a lot of youth get involved through protests. Do you think that’s going to translate into campaign work? What do you personally feel is the most valuable work that youth could be doing right now?
SA: I think they’re both. Protests and campaigns are both so important. I think this campaign is really unique and that Dianne attends protests with her campaign because she really values that type of organizing. But I think youth being involved anywhere injustice is really important, and I think that candidates who value protests are often the best candidates, so you really, you can, do both.
Dianne would be the first female mayor of New York City. What do you think that means for NYC?
SA: I think it means a lot. I think it means we’re open for real structural change, and we live in a day and age where unfortunately being a woman, being a mother, which are both experiences that Dianne has, could present some really hard challenges, and having to deal with those challenges. That’s a perspective that no New York City mayor has ever had because they’ve all
been men, so I think having to deal with those specific challenges makes a mayor that will be really different. I think that’s something that’s really valuable and I’m really excited about it.
Do you think that if she wins it’s going to affect a lot more of the country just because, like when AOC [Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] won, that was really big and it kind of impacted the whole country? Do you think that it’ll have that kind of impact?
SA: Definitely. I mean, I think that New York City has always kind of been a role model for the rest of the country just because of how many people look to it for guidance, but I think that us electing an untraditional candidate and kind of throwing out the typical playbook of how politics runs is something that might be adopted by other places in America, and that’s something I’m really excited for.
That would be really great. It’s extremely important to see people who look like you, have experiences similar to you, and have similar values as you in positions like NYC mayor. What would having Dianne as mayor mean for you specifically?
SA: Through her campaign, I, and I think a lot of other people share this experience, I’ve never felt so affirmed for everything that I am as I do through Dianne’s activism as someone who is young, and queer, and Jewish. I feel completely safe in her campaign, and I know that her administration will be the same way, and that’s part of the reason why I’m super passionate about her, and I think that’s an experience many people will share, even if they don’t know it yet.
Tell us our readers how they can learn more about Dianne and get involved in her campaign.
SA: Her website is dianne.nyc, on that, you can read all about her experience, and her platform, and stuff like that, and then there’s also a volunteer section, so if you want to get involved as phone banking or anything else, that is a really helpful resource. Or if you want to join Youth for Dianne, bit.ly/youth4dianne is the sign-up form for that.
Ok, great. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk.
New York City deserves progressive change from a leader who understands what the city needs. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s time for that change. Dianne Morales’ campaign is built on values of dignity, care, and solidarity. Serving the people is Morales’ main dedication, but it doesn’t stop there. She wants to uplift the voices of the NYC constituents, and especially the youth. There’s never been a better time to fight for the change you want to see. The future of NYC is in the hands of its voters.
Thank you to Sonja Aibel for taking the time to answer these questions! Learn more about Dianne Morales here:
Dianne.nyc
bit.ly/youth4dianne
