I’ve gotten a disturbing report of how one of our City Councilors responded to a constituent who expressed to them how upset they were with that councilor regarding their vote against the creation of a city cultural department. And let me tell you, it ain’t pretty.
To the credit of said councilor, they did respond, which is what you’d expect an elected official to do. However, the context of the response can only be described as heavily sarcastic, and almost vaguely threatening (in a political sense, not a dangerous one). The context of the response (which yes, I have seen personally) shows once again the abuse of completely irrelevant information to try and prove an unjustifiable point. It was disturbing to me to read how disconnected this Councilor is from the reality of the choice that was in front of them. Anything and everything is game for use as a justification as to why they voted against it, even if it’s completely off base.
It’s clear that on the cultural office proposal, most of the GOB-bers voted their personal loyalties rather than for what is good for the city. It’s as plain as day; supported by the fact that every other argument against the plan was poorly constructed and easily refuted when brought up in the meeting. The fact they were unwilling to listen to those explanations showed that they had made up their minds to be against the proposal before ever stepping foot into the public hearing or listening to the community. We all know the background, the players, who we’re talking about.
Once, I wrote a piece which I think was a turning point for this blog (I won’t take credit for any turning point in the city but it did coincide). It was the codification of my observations, and those of other people, about this city and how it operates. I still think that to the GOB, there is nothing wrong with how they conduct their business and politics. When you grow up inside a culture, it’s very difficult to see how that culture might be damaging to an open and engaging political process. Or how that exclusivity (government for and by your friends) is a slap in the face of everyone else. However, the biggest hope for this city is that some of them will learn from their mistakes of the past, and that new members of the community will bring a different perspective that can help put up a mirror to the status quo, and eventually even shift that culture.
The alternative is to be stuck in a destructive time warp that will end the progress we’ve so painfully achieved.
