Teresa Valdez Klein
361° of geekdom
Singer, Songwriter, Pianist. Also feminist, geek, subvertiser, thinker, doer. #music #tech #feminism #politics
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An Open Letter to @MayorMcGinn on Occupy Seattle #occupyseattle
Dear Mayor McGinn,
You have taken an entirely reasonable position in offering City Hall Plaza to the Seattle occupiers. I can see and respect the thorough, mature, adult reasoning in your argument. But just because it's reasonable doesn't make it right.
I do not take at face value your stated concern that if you let the Occupy Seattle protesters camp at Westlake Park, then you'd have to let the KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church do the same. The argument rings hollow for two reasons:
- The hypothetical occupations that either the Klan or Westboro Baptist Church might set up at Westlake Park could be policed carefully for hate speech, which can be legally regulated if it incites violence or prejudicial treatment of any group based on race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
- In principle, you are absolutely right. Groups we disagree with have the same right to occupy public space as groups we do not agree with. If a non-hate organization that I disagreed with - say, the Concerned Women of America - set up an occupation at Westlake Park, I would support their right to do so. But in practice, I just can't see such a thing happening in Seattle. It's too liberal a city, and too hippyish a tactic for a center-right group to employ just to call you out on preferential treatment of Occupy Seattle.
Mr. Mayor - with all due respect - it's time for you to stop throwing a history-making movement under the bus because you're afraid of a future scenario that may never come. Grow some gorram guts.
This movement clearly isn't going to back down on the Westlake Park issue. They GA believes that by moving the occupation to City Hall Plaza, they would relinquish the very power of this movement. And they're right. Because the true power of the Occupy protests is the political mandate they create. They are literally giving progressive politicians permission to grow a backbone and stand up for basic economic sanity in this country. And if you believe as I do that this renewed spinal fortitude is long overdue, then now is the time to back off on Occupy Seattle.
I'm really uncomfortable with the way that the Westlake gathering has degenerated into a hate-a-thon on your office and the Seattle Police Department. I am equally uncomfortable with the idea that my tax dollars are going to arrest people for opening a fracking umbrella while sitting down in Westlake Park. I'm guessing that this whole standoff aggravates you to no end. But this sad, sorry state of affairs is within your power to fix. And if it goes on for much longer, you're just going to end up reinforcing Seattle's image as a passive-aggressive backwater that quibbles over umbrellas in parks rather than focusing on the history-making potency of this movement.
I urge you to reconsider your position and take some risks here. I can't give you an answer - I can only tell you that the one you've arrived at is out of step with the change brewing in this country.
Sincerely,
Teresa Valdez Klein
