Hosam Haggag

Tune in LIVE now to join the State of the City, in addition to representation from Districts 3 & 4 where each district councilmember will present their COVID-19 Community Hero Award. We'll take questions LIVE and unfiltered for the Townhall Q&A session. If you'd like to ask your question, feel free to drop a comment below and I'll ask it on your behalf. If you'd like to ask your question directly on the phone, dial 877-353-4701 and press 0 to be placed in the queue for questions.

We are LIVE for the 2020 State of the City and LIVE Townhall Q&A! Leave your questions in the direct livestream comments and I will ask them on your behalf. Or dial 877-353-4701 and press 0 to ask your question directly, live by voice.

Join us for the State of the City and LIVE Town Hall which I will be moderating! There will also be special Community Hero Awards given to an outstanding resident in EACH district! Wednesday 4-5pm, Districts 1 & 2 Thursday 4-5pm, Districts 3 & 4 Friday 4-5pm, Districts 5 & 6... I'll take your questions live by phone, Facebook Live comments as well as YouTube live comments. All sessions will be available for replay (but of course to ask your questions you'd need to participate live). Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Tune in tonight to the very first virtual Town Hall with our newly elected Police Chief Pat Nikolai!

I'm furious. I took my my kids to the rally today at Santa Clara City Hall to instill in them a sense of standing up for justice and their fellow sisters and brothers in humanity. Ultimately I wasn't happy with the environment at the rally and we took them home early (too much profanity and extremist views I wasn't in agreement or comfortable with). We had just come back home while these 2 ladies were walking their dogs as we were coming out of the car. The girls were holding... their signs that said BLACK LIVES MATTER and the lady looked at the girls and said: Hiiiii Yes, they d...... we ALL matter don't we? Did you go and protest peacefully? [in shock from her asinine question... after a moment of silence, I responded] yeah Ok, good. Thank yooooouuuu. First moment of frustration: The retort to "Black Lives Matter" with "All Lives Matter" is tone deaf at best and racist at worst. Nobody said "only black lives matter", the statement just calls out that African Americans in this country have been disproportionately targeted or profiled and their lives are seen as worth less than those of other races. If little Johnny at the dinner table didn't get any food while everyone else got food, and I said "Johnny deserves food", the retort that "everyone deserves food" is ignorant and deaf to the reality that Johnny didn't get any food. The second moment of frustration: "Did you go and protest peacefully?" Is such an ignorant and hate-filled asinine insinuation that people demanding justice for disenfranchised folks would not be peaceful as a default state. On top of that, the lady was LITERALLY asking my 9 and 7 year old daughters if they were peaceful in their protest. How STUPID do you have to be to even pose such a question to children?! I can't help but shake the feeling that because my wife and daughters were wearing the hijab and were visibly Muslim that she would assume we would be violent by default. Or that if we were in support of Black Lives that we must by default be violent. I was shocked and caught speechless [which, for those that know me, is an extremely rare thing]. You can hear in the video the brief moment of silence from my shock. And the stern and angry "yeah" I said in response while biting my tongue from a verbal tirade of anger. Even the way she responds with "ok, good. Thank yooooouuuu" was so patronizing and demeaning it made a terrible situation even worse. I'm still reeling from anger over this encounter. But I also recognize how minor this 5 second exchange is compared to the extremely unjust treatment my black sisters and brothers face on a DAILY basis. In fact, I'm humbled by the encounter. We must collectively call out these sometimes subtle but oftentimes blatant forms of racism among us. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.

This is such an important meeting that happened this morning. Starts at about 11 minutes in. #blacklivesmatter

Exactly 4 years ago to the day we hosted the Bay Area's newly formed Muslims 4 Bernie at our house as the canvassing hub. It was the first time I ever went door to door campaigning for any political candidate. Little did I know that I'd be knocking on doors 2 years later for my own political campaign. It hurts to think how differently the world could have been today had Bernie not been sidelined... not once but twice. We need more compassion in our lives. We need to think mor...e about the We and less about the Me. My heart goes out to everyone who's in pain these days... whether it is over the senseless killing, the challenges of quarantine, loss of a job or the death of a family member or friend. It is up to us whether the flames will leave us in ashes or whether we will rise from them like a phoenix, stronger and better than we were before.

Wishing everyone a blessed Eid holiday! May God grant us all happiness and keep us safe and content with what we have. The calm of the night before the kids (and adults) open their gifts !

Something to think about...

Hope everybody is staying safe out there! Happy Star Wars Day!

Wishing all my Muslim sisters and brothers a happy Ramadan full of blessings, introspection and giving. This year will be different because we're all in quarantine, when typically we gather to break the fast with one another and join in congregational prayers throughout the night. But on the bright side, the isolation this year will give plenty of room for self reflection and just hitting that spiritual reset button that we lack in the hustle and bustle of our otherwise hectic lives. Regardless of whether you celebrate or not, I wish you all a blessed month. Please, stay safe, be well, and may God bless us all. [Here's my favorite Ramadan song, by my brother (yes, my older sibling!)]

Wishing everyone a blessed Eid!

First Charter Review Committee meeting of 2019!

What an honor it was to meet and shake hands with my living political hero Senator Bernie Sanders a couple weeks ago at the Arab American Caucus at the California Democratic Convention. You can see me shake his hand at the beginning of the clip and yell "we love you Bernie!" at the way end