Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.

I’m Lisa Vallone. I have been involved with politics & government since my preteen years. The majority of my involvement centered around my role as a consultant to help various Party Chairs learn how to run more effective campaigns based on issues as well as training candidates on how to communicate constructively with those in their district. This led me to run for office myself, winning and proudly becoming the voice of my constituents. All of my experience has led me to this platform as I believe it is time we all more extensively educate ourselves on what bills are being considered or have recently been considered for law on the State & Federal level. After all, we Americans need more than broad-stroke concepts with no real meat of the issue for us to digest.

We value the efforts of those elected officials & candidates who reach out with Town meetings and other measures to let us know what they are doing or plan to do in office. And we believe they are in the majority. But, we must seek out every avenue to let our Representatives hear our voice so they can better represent us in government. Based on my background in government, teaching, and communications I believe in 3 pillars as the foundation for any discussion

(1) Educate yourself,

(2) Communicate with others, and

(3) Reciprocate respectfully.

If we follow these pillars – if we educate ourselves, and let our voices be heard in an environment of mutual respect for those in office, those seeking office, or those with differing opinions, then we can make a more perfect union.

A couple of notes . . . In this magazine I intentionally leave off the name/ Party affiliation of the person who introduced the bill as we are more than our Party – we are Americans looking for responsible government that represents us. Too often when we hear legislation has been proposed by the opposite Party we close our ears or immediately discount it. I do not want that to happen. Only during my podcast will this information be revealed. Here is the power of people to have the knowledge to know how hard their representatives work to represent them in government.

Lisa Vallone O’Keefe
Editor in Chief
InformedNY.com