Letter for March 11, 2024

City Council attempts to silence opposition

The ability to speak at City Council meetings is an important tool for addressing our elected officials and the public.

Today, our City Council looks for ways to silence inconvenient messages: don’t name a council member (withdrawn); don’t stand in support or opposition of testimony (withdrawn); restrict the forum to once a month (unsuccessful); moved Open Forum from the beginning of the meeting to the end. Now, they reserve two front rows of seating for city staff, a new nonsensical rule being rightfully ignored.

It all began with a hasty, ill-considered, resolution, followed by a weak resolution to clean up their mess. The only intelligent move in the first place would have been to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, as did so many cities.

Now council member Zappone asks whether strong opposition to the restrictions is “the best way to combat racism in Spokane ….”

Yes. The people who are making meetings “difficult” for council members are people who recognize that those in power don’t want inconvenient messages heard and that their opposition to anti-democratic rules is a necessary part of a larger struggle. We need to listen to them!

The protesters understand that this struggle isn’t for the right to stand or sit, but rather for the right to speak to the public without trivial restrictions whether or not the council likes the message. The council doesn’t like a call for an end to the horror in Gaza. That’s what it’s all about.

Instead, the council’s attempts to silence opposition has become the story.

Marianne Torres

Spokane