There is a lack of spaces to discuss this topic without having my employer or child dragged into this, so posting here:
There is another petition regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict and the Evanston Equity and Empowerment Commission (EEC) circulating online. The petition and signatories will be brought to the City Council meeting on…
There is a lack of spaces to discuss this topic without having my employer or child dragged into this, so posting here:
There is another petition regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict and the Evanston Equity and Empowerment Commission (EEC) circulating online. The petition and signatories will be brought to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 12.
The petition starts with a call that the Evanston City Council consider a resolution in support of a ceasefire. There are several other unrelated topics included in the petition, including a link to the recent EEC meeting video under the text “outpouring of racist vitriol”, text stating “we firmly and unapologetically stand in support of Darlene and Karla and their fight to bring this motion to the commission”, and calling the recent speaker input as “racist” attacks.
The petition is not attributed but focuses heavily on Darlene and Karla Thomas. It is fair to bring them up by name as committee members and as factually referencing this petition. The issues are all framed in a way that any criticism of the EEC resolution, mandate, procedural adhere ... is immediately conflated as criticism of Black Women, and therefore, racist. Once a racist, your point of view is easily dismiss-able.
There were over 130 speakers and over 1000 community members that signed the other petition circulating, and it is disappointing but predictable that any disagreement with the committee is framed as a racist woman-hating attacks.
A loved one spoke at the meeting and this entire conflict has been keeping them up at night, making them physically ill at the thought of the death and destruction. But since they spoke at the meeting, they're an evil racist that is working to "derail the work of the Equity and Empowerment Commission."
I've had a bunch of people message me about this and I don't know, it doesn't strike me as that bad. Obviously the vitriol wording is just the standard Evanston Facebook keyboard warrior stuff but (I think) you gotta look past the "equity language" that gets attached to everything and the points.
- The original EEC meeting had people on both sides of the issue. It seemed like it was split down the middle, to be honest. Source: me but I haven't counted.
- The ethics compliant is just whatever but I think they make a valid point at the opposition using legal maneuvers (such as calling in the city counsel at the last minute) to silence the committee. I agree that that is pretty anti-democratic even if technically right in the long run.
- The suggested changes to the statement, I think, would probably be agreeable to most Evanstonians
- Evanston has passed resolutions like this in the past
I am not sure I understand why this is so inappropriate to debate - even if I think the original statement itself was dumb...
I will also say this: one side is soliciting people to sign a letter. The other side is soliciting people to sign a letter. It's almost like we should have some kind of mechanism where all of us can come together and sign one letter or the other and pick which thing the city should do.
Tonight at the city council meeting, these clowns tried to shut the meeting down by disrupting the proceedings after they were given time during public comment. All the stuff in the letter about the ethics complaints, etc, were all apparently unfounded according to city officials.
I am not sure what these people are trying to accomplish. They claim in the letter "The City has been silent on the immense violence carried out by the State of Israel against Palestinian civilians. This sends a message that the lives of Israelis matter and the lives of Palestinians do not. A failure to call for a Ceasefire and to condemn all loss of life in the region as unacceptable, does, in effect, contribute to existing inequities in Evanston, Illinois, the U.S., and around the world."
That is complete bollocks. Israel and Hamas are not waiting on the City of Evanston for messages to be sent. Failure to call for a ceasefire in a conflict thousands of miles away has absolutely zero impact on anything in the city, let alone "contributing to inequities in Evanston Illinois."
You know what does have an impact? When these clowns try and shut down a city council meeting where they are adopting a budget to keep city services running.
There is a lack of spaces to discuss this topic without having my employer or child dragged into this, so posting here:
There is another petition regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict and the Evanston Equity and Empowerment Commission (EEC) circulating online. The petition and signatories will be brought to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 12.
The petition starts with a call that the Evanston City Council consider a resolution in support of a ceasefire. There are several other unrelated topics included in the petition, including a link to the recent EEC meeting video under the text “outpouring of racist vitriol”, text stating “we firmly and unapologetically stand in support of Darlene and Karla and their fight to bring this motion to the commission”, and calling the recent speaker input as “racist” attacks.
The petition is not attributed but focuses heavily on Darlene and Karla Thomas. It is fair to bring them up by name as committee members and as factually referencing this petition. The issues are all framed in a way that any criticism of the EEC resolution, mandate, procedural adhere ... is immediately conflated as criticism of Black Women, and therefore, racist. Once a racist, your point of view is easily dismiss-able.
There were over 130 speakers and over 1000 community members that signed the other petition circulating, and it is disappointing but predictable that any disagreement with the committee is framed as a racist woman-hating attacks.
A loved one spoke at the meeting and this entire conflict has been keeping them up at night, making them physically ill at the thought of the death and destruction. But since they spoke at the meeting, they're an evil racist that is working to "derail the work of the Equity and Empowerment Commission."
It can be seen here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdobL89fij6p645eaeVViPIe7WO4WTMthJlCwE4p8aq6xLvhA/viewform
I've had a bunch of people message me about this and I don't know, it doesn't strike me as that bad. Obviously the vitriol wording is just the standard Evanston Facebook keyboard warrior stuff but (I think) you gotta look past the "equity language" that gets attached to everything and the points.
- The original EEC meeting had people on both sides of the issue. It seemed like it was split down the middle, to be honest. Source: me but I haven't counted.
- The ethics compliant is just whatever but I think they make a valid point at the opposition using legal maneuvers (such as calling in the city counsel at the last minute) to silence the committee. I agree that that is pretty anti-democratic even if technically right in the long run.
- The suggested changes to the statement, I think, would probably be agreeable to most Evanstonians
- Evanston has passed resolutions like this in the past
I am not sure I understand why this is so inappropriate to debate - even if I think the original statement itself was dumb...
I will also say this: one side is soliciting people to sign a letter. The other side is soliciting people to sign a letter. It's almost like we should have some kind of mechanism where all of us can come together and sign one letter or the other and pick which thing the city should do.
Tonight at the city council meeting, these clowns tried to shut the meeting down by disrupting the proceedings after they were given time during public comment. All the stuff in the letter about the ethics complaints, etc, were all apparently unfounded according to city officials.
I am not sure what these people are trying to accomplish. They claim in the letter "The City has been silent on the immense violence carried out by the State of Israel against Palestinian civilians. This sends a message that the lives of Israelis matter and the lives of Palestinians do not. A failure to call for a Ceasefire and to condemn all loss of life in the region as unacceptable, does, in effect, contribute to existing inequities in Evanston, Illinois, the U.S., and around the world."
That is complete bollocks. Israel and Hamas are not waiting on the City of Evanston for messages to be sent. Failure to call for a ceasefire in a conflict thousands of miles away has absolutely zero impact on anything in the city, let alone "contributing to inequities in Evanston Illinois."
You know what does have an impact? When these clowns try and shut down a city council meeting where they are adopting a budget to keep city services running.