Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams this afternoon became the second member of the City Council to endorse Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.

Taking the stage at the candidate’s rally in Prospect Park today, Mr. Williams announced he backed the self-described democratic socialist’s bid for the White House. He mocked the Daily News for suggesting Mr. Sanders’ was “at war with reality,” which the councilman argued was a positive attribute.

“I thought to myself, ‘you’re goddamn right.’ Because too many people’s reality in this borough, and in this city and in this nation needs to be at war with,” he said. “Too many people’s reality is struggle. And maybe if you’re not at war with reality, you’re not focused enough.”

The candidate insisted on the value of what he termed a “political revolutionary moonshot.”

“From an eight-hour workday, to no child labor, from LGBT rights, to women’s suffrage, from the Civil Rights movement, to freeing the slaves, were all revolutionary moonshots. In fact, the birth of this nation was a revolutionary moonshot. The people who say it cannot be done, please move out of the way of the people who are doing,” he said. “I’m proud today to endorse the next president of the United States of America, Senator Bernie Sanders, who will bring the revolutionary moonshot, baby!”

Rochester D and CVerified account ‏@DandC 20m20 minutes ago
#BREAKING: Sheriff says people can no longer enter MCC campus for the #BernieSanders rally http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/12/bernie-sanders-rochester/82925564/ …

Before Bernie Sanders spoke to over 11,000 people on Monday at the University of Buffalo, he made a brief unscheduled stop.
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The audience at Sanders’s first stop was a lot quieter, a lot older, a lot whiter—and a whole lot smaller. They were pleased to see Sanders, but there was no mistaking the scene at Local 1122 of the Communications Workers of America for a rock concert or a sporting event. These were 25 shop stewards at Verizon who had to prepare their members to go on strike on Wednesday morning, and the mood in the room was a mixture of anxiety and defiant anger.
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When Sanders arrived, the stewards, who had been discussing the likelihood that Verizon would try to discipline or discharge members, interrupted their strategy session to listen to the man Larry Cohen, the former president of the union who now leads Labor for Bernie, told them had always had their backs. “I want to thank you for standing up to the outrageous greed of corporate America,” Sanders told them, pointing out that Verizon had booked $ 39 Billion in profits over the past three years. The company recently bid billions for the loss-making Yahoo—yet continues to demand its workers pay more for their health coverage.
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On paper, Buffalo doesn’t look like Sanders country. Two years ago, when Zephyr Teachout’s underfunded campaign gave Andrew Cuomo a bloody nose in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Cuomo carried Erie County by a 52 percent margin
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Yet Katrinna Martin-Bordeaux, chair of Young Black Democrats of Western New York, told me that in her part of town “the community is leaning heavily towards Sanders.”

Her confidence was matched by Brian Nowak, who started organizing Buffalo For Bernie ten months ago. “We’ve got the numbers. We can win this,” he said.

Just this week we saw how the Clintons continue to to demonstrate that they are unwilling to listen to the concerns of young Black voters, when former President Bill Clinton shouted over protestors at a campaign rally.

Black people in this country are not looking for a savior, we are looking for people that will stand with us, fight with us and shackle themselves to us in the midst of it all. A person’s actions speak highly about one’s character. For more than 40 years, Senator Bernie Sanders has been on the frontlines of direct action against the very institution he as a white man could have benefitted from.

A few weeks ago, I penned an article expressing why I wasn’t inspired to vote for Senator Sanders at that time. I felt that during his visit here to Baltimore, there was a missed opportunity to engage many of us who traditionally have not been a part of the process. Senator Sanders could have taken the route of ignoring this call for accountability, instead he and his team have worked to establish a relationship with young people here on the ground in Baltimore. From weekly phone calls to consistent efforts to fill the void between us and our representatives and those of us who have previously been un-engaged, it’s actions like these which prove that Senator Sanders is still willing to stand with those of us who have never had a voice in politics.