SOUTHCOAST VOICES: Red and Blue Come Together for Purple

THIS GUEST BLOG BY: Brock N. Cordeiro, volunteer with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Boston Affiliate

I am going to issue a challenge, a friendly challenge. I dare you to put partisanship aside, to put campaigning aside for an hour or two to take the RED Republicans and the BLUE Democrats and GO PURPLE for a common purpose for the common good for the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

With Election Day 2018 being on Tuesday, November 6, and PurpleStride Boston 2018 being on Sunday, November 4, I challenge the candidates and officials of both the Massachusetts Republican Party and the Massachusetts Democratic Party to participate in the PurpleStride charity walk around the Boston Common to raise money. Not for anything political, but rather to support the critical—as in life and death—work of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The walk does not take too long, and the festivities commence at 11 a.m., so there is plenty of time to resume your election activities after you come together and fight cancer.

I ask, I challenge and I dare you to show the thousands who will be on the Common that morning, united in purple for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness. PurpleStride Boston 2018 is held by the volunteers of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-Boston Affiliate and we wage hope and demand better. I would deeply appreciate seeing blue and red merging as purple, even if ever so briefly that morning.

After all, November is Pancreatic Awareness Month.

Walk as an individual. Walk as a candidate. Walk as a team, as Team MassGOP or as Team MassDems. Walk as a united team of purple Bay Staters.

I'm not even asking you to donate (although you're certainly welcome), but I'm asking you to walk...nay, stride. I'm asking you to PurpleStride days before the election and show Massachusetts that fighting cancer is a non-partisan priority!

Editor's Note: 'SouthCoast Voices' is a series of guest blogs from newsmakers across the region, on relevant issues that directly impact the people of Greater New Bedford and the surrounding communities. The opinions are solely those of the author. If you are interested in contributing, please contact tim@wbsm.com for more information.