Ray Lightburn – he used to be a powerful political figure in the PUP. As the understudy to George Price and Lindy Rogers, he’s done it all in the grand old party. He’s gone from professional heckler and rabble rouser, to the chief of running interference to general election candidate and the chairmanship of WASA. The WASA appointment was just ten years – but since then, he’s gone from the greatest of heights to the greatest of depths. For the past few years Lightburn has turned into a street man, shuffling through the downtown area daily looking like a destroyed man.
But while he is in the clutches of dependency, Ray Lightburn is still sharp and full of wit. Now he’s distilled that into a short book, called “Nothing to Lose”. It is published by Image Factory Books and it was launched today. Ray told a gathering of press that he is a child of the PUP.
Ray Lightburn, Author
“Leader Emeritus George Cadle Price and CLB Rogers were both my mentors. The British Government sent me to England to knock off the rough edges and I decided to sharpen them. I was also accused of sending a couple pail of stuff of certain people who were against our independence.
I joined the PUP movement at the age of eight I first saw George Price at the Courthouse Plaza with my grandfather who was shouting stone them. As it turns out my brother said I am still at that meeting after 48 years.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Funky man, they call you funky man.”
Ray Lightburn,
“Funky man is like groovy right.”
Jules Vasquez,
“But you had to run what the Americans would call black-hat operations in terms of you were the man who had to do a lot of the dirty work of politics.”
Ray Lightburn,
“Somebody had to do it, I always said my feet are dirty but my hands are clean and I am the best thing you’ve ever seen here.”
Jules Vasquez,
“People seeing this would certainly be surprised that the man they see on the street everyday who ain’t good shape is able to write a book, is able to speak cogently. What would you say to those people who say how dah man who we see on the street can be this man who is able to write such a comprehensive book?”
Ray Lightburn,
“King Solomon said in Ecclesiastic that I had everything and he said I lost everything but I got rid of the burden, the weight is off my back and he said now I am free and that is how I feel. I am a free spirit, I pass everything over to God and I move on, I don’t worry about anything.”
His book is available form the Image Factory store and from the author directly.
