Brad Lander is running for City Council; he's the so-called front-runner if you can be a front-runner nine months before the primary.

Then again, Brad has more money than the other capable candidates in the race, including Josh Skaller and Craig Hammerman. All are hoping to replace Bill deBlasio, who is running for Public Advocate. I'm set to interview Brad tomorrow about his perspective on things,which I am looking forward to.

I've been exploring his website and I see that's he's got a blog. I found this story interesting. It confirms my sense that personal blogging can bring a candidate to life.

Last night, I was honored to attend a memorial service at the Prospect
Park Picnic House for Marine Lance Corporal Julian Brennan.  Julian
grew up on 15th Street in Park Slope.  He was 25 when he was killed in
Afghanistan last week.

The event was heartwrenching, of course.  It was impossible not to
cry while listening to his friends talk about how Julian made them
laugh … or while reading the note he wrote to his mom for Christmas
in 2005, wishing that he could be 5 years old again, so she could
cradle his head in her arms.

But there was also tremendous inspiration, both in Julian's life,
and in how his parents are responding to their almost unimaginable
tragedy. Julian was a remarkable person, a gifted actor, who felt a
call to service at the funeral for his grandfather, Marine who fought
in WWII.  "The only way I think I can describe myself,” he wrote, “is
as a guy who will go out of his way to make someone laugh, write a
great song, find a reason to dance, and watch the sun rise every chance
he gets."

One of the most remarkable things about Julian – and about the
Brennan family – is how they combine the deepest ideals of service from
both older and newer parts of our neighborhood.  Julian followed his
Irish Catholic grandfather James into the Marines, feeling that after
September 11th he had a duty to fight for the ideals and the security
of our country.  And he also followed his father Bill Brennan, a
musician and actor who performs kids music (he appears on one Park
Slope Parents CD), and who played a song of forgiveness and healing at
the memorial service.

Too often in our neighborhood, it seems as if these very different
ideals might exist in neighboring houses on a block in the Slope or
Windsor Terrace or Carroll Gardens, but that they are still two
different cultures, sometimes even worlds apart.  Julian and his
family's example reminds us that they can and should go together —
that they are merely different ways of serving something bigger than
yourself.

In a remarkable act of compassion, his parents Bill and Thya Brennan
are asking us to make contributions in Julian’s memory to the Central Asia Institute, at www.ikat.org. 
CAI’s mission is to promote and support community-based education,
especially for girls, in the remote regions of Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

Please consider a donation in Julian's memory to:

Central Asia Institute
P.O. Box 7209
Bozeman, MT 59771  
In memo line, please write: Julian Brennan

Please help the Brennans to make a deep and abiding blessing of Julian’s life and memory.