Thirty
Pieces of Blood-Stained Silver
by C.A. Matthews
If
I could regain
those two hours I’d gladly take
them back and do something
useful with
them,
like clean out my cat’s litter box. But
there’s no time machine invented yet that can return
those
wasted minutes of our lives, so we simply have to live and learn from
them.
You
may ask what is worse than cleaning out my cat’s stinky litter box.
I’ll warn you first
to hold your nose. It was an event quite odorous. In fact, it stunk
to
high heavens. Since it involves
untrustworthy
politicians,
that revelation should come as
no
real surprise to those who are wise to the ways of politics. You’re
use to dealing with foul individuals who, by comparison, make mucking
out a horse barn a genuine pleasure.
If
you go
back a couple of weeks and re-read my plaintive cry to the
Toledo
City Council (TCC)
to
pass a ceasefire in Gaza resolution (How Much Is A Child’s Life Worth?),
you’ll
get
a feel of what the mood was like when I and a hundred or so fellow
activists showed up at the
city
council meeting on January 31 in
anticipation of better news on the matter.
I
don’t think any of us expected this level of betrayal and sheer
heartlessness that
awaited us.
Many
of
us had journeyed the
day previous to
the Tower of Sauron—I mean, One Government Center—a
foreboding white skyscraper in
downtown
Toledo, to give short statements to
the council in
support of a vote
on the
ceasefire resolution
that had been tabled two
weeks previously.
Trusting
that our statements of
January 30 would
be given proper consideration by our elected representatives,
we thought
we’d
be
making our
case for the ceasefire resolution
before most of the council members. To
our chagrin, only
three council members (and possibly a fourth who snuck in very late
in the proceedings to grab something off her place on the dais and
then escaped)
were actually present. Still, we were making our statements for
the record and being video-recorded so that
the “absent members” would have a chance to listen
to what we said
at their leisure.
We
were told to return
the next day (January
31)
for a city council
meeting where the ceasefire measure could be untabled and voted upon.
At
the
very least
it
was implied that a more
productive discussion would
take place on the matter so the public could understand what the hold
up was among
the twelve city council members.
It’s not like council
hadn’t had time to consider the
ceasefire resolution before—it was first introduced in November
2023. Think of how many thousands of people
have been murdered
in
Gaza by
IDF forces
in
the three months following
its introduction, some of whom were relatives of Toledo area
residents.
Toledo, Ohio, has one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the US, so it’s
no secret that many Toledo voters aren’t at all happy with
their city council members right now. And who can blame them? All
they are asking for is a yes
vote on a ceasefire
in Gaza resolution that numerous other cities in the US have already
passed.
They want to know if their elected representatives care about them
and their extended
families, care enough to give them a simple yes vote on the
proposed
ceasefire resolution.
But
it
was not meant to be. Our
trust in the fairness and compassion of our elected officials was
misplaced.
The
stench of partisan politics has
gassed out all hope that Toledo will ever become
a
city
to pass a ceasefire resolution in solidarity with the Palestinian
people. Toledo
City
Council
smells
as
fragrant as a cow barn after a particularly nasty infection has swept
through the herd, giving the cows all explosive
bouts
of diarrhea. And if you’ve ever walked through a cow barn when the
herd is feeling well and taken in a big breath of air then… I don’t
have to describe to you how much worse that
stench
is when they’re sick.
The
first stinky
warning sign of
betrayal we
should have smelled at
the January 31 council
meeting was the
return of its
“absent members”. I
found it notable that none of the African American council members
had been in attendance the day before when the public was allowed to
give their statements, and it’s probably even more notable that all
of the absent
council
members, Black
or White,
are Democrats. The connection between that neoliberal party and the
organization run by Mr. Smith* (not his real name), mentioned in my
article two weeks ago, cannot be underestimated. The writing of large
checks for politicians’
campaign
war chests is a great motivator and predictor of their behavior.
These council members’ conduct
prove no exception to that rule.
After
several photo ops and some cursory council business, the comment
section of
the meeting began.
The
proposer of the
ceasefire resolution did not untable the measure for a vote. Instead,
he
gave
an impassioned speech in its defense and pleaded
with
his fellow council members to consider
the
tremendous lost of life in Gaza and the family members of Palestinians living in the city. The
audience took to its feet as one and gave him a rousing standing
ovation for his remarks.
And
that was
the end
of discussion for the ceasefire resolution.
The
two other
members who had attended the statement-giving meeting made some
brief
mentions of the citizens who gave statements, but that
was it. One
of these
two made
a negative comment about how a certain “red line” had been
crossed in the public
statement
giving. It seems you cannot tell a Toledo City Council member to
imagine what it would be like to lose all his loved ones when
a bomb is
dropped
on their home.
Mentioning
such an everyday occurrence in Gaza just
isn’t polite conversation, and
he was thoroughly miffed.
To quote famous neoliberal AOC: “Your words are violence!
(And you need to be censored.)”
The
majority
“absent members” made zero comments about the public
statements.
Apparently they had
neither
the time nor the desire to watch the video or
read the transcript.
Instead, they spoke on inconsequential matters in their allotted
time,
mostly of a personal nature that made no sense whatsoever.
They
drone on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on…
You get the picture? When the clock turned six pm. there came a
rushed, “No more comments? Council adjourned!” from the council
president and a loud gavel knock. They all stood at once and rushed
toward
the
council members’ exit behind the dais.
We were told to attend
the
second city council meeting because
we
would hear
more about what the hold up was
on the voting for the ceasefire resolution. Of
course since what was promised didn’t happen, the shitty behavior
of the majority of members didn’t
sit too
well
with the audience.
Chants
of “Shame on you!” began almost immediately. “We will remember
in November!” could be heard as well. Obviously the
small number of “yes votes” on
council must
have decided not to untable the ceasefire resolution (once again)
because they
feared the
power to vote the resolution down of the “absent members” along
with
Mr.
“I’m-scared-of-women-wearing-head-scarves-telling-me-to-imagine-what-it’s-like-lose-all-your-family-to-an-Israeli-bomb”.
Once
again the Arab American population
of
Toledo has
been betrayed by their elected officials,
left out in the cold and with little
comfort.
The
stinkiest aspect of all this isn’t simply that a good portion of
Toledo
City Council
is on the take to
Zionists who write
big
checks to
fill their campaign war chests. (You can see just how easily TCC
members can be bribed in this article. There’s
a pattern here.)
No, it’s much
stinkier
than that. It’s the fact that human beings—especially little
children—are dying under horrific circumstances in Gaza and
elsewhere in the Occupied Territories right now, and these “faithful
party members” of the
so-called
“Democratic”
Party
will
spit
in the eye of their constituents and refuse
to even allow a vote
on a symbolic ceasefire resolution.
These
“absent
of empathy” council members
can’t even bring themselves to acknowledge that there’s a
ceasefire resolution on the table. They
can’t even acknowledge the suffering of their constituents who are
concerned about their loved ones’ health
and safety
in Gaza. They
won’t even listen to the
public
statements—particularly those
made by
their
Arab American constituents. They can’t wait to rush out the door to
get away from the jeers and the vocal condemnations they received
because of their cowardice.
Can
you think of any more
shittier
behavior than
that? Can
you imagine the betrayal you’d feel if you had voted for these
council members in hopes that they’d actually represent you?
In
my life, I’ve
walked through a cow barn, a horse barn, a pig farm and a chicken
house, and I’ve changed
millions of baby diapers and
I’ve emptied my cat’s litter box at least a thousand times—and
even I can’t think of anything smellier, more disgusting, or more
foul than these Toledo City Council Members’ behavior toward
their constituents in
regards to this ceasefire
in
Gaza resolution.
The
Democrats
are
so hung up at pleasing “Butcher
Biden” in Washington
DC that even your local Dems—the
ones you might actually
see
in a
grocery store checkout line or
attend church with—don’t acknowledge there’s a genocide
going on in Gaza. You’d think they’d act somewhat more
conciliatory toward Arab American voters in Toledo after the ICJ’s
recent ruling of
a “plausible genocide”,
but they can’t even bring themselves to
get off
their high horses to acknowledge their Arab
American
constituents
actually
exist
and
have lost loved ones to Israeli bombing.What
should we make of all this shittiness expressed
toward us by neoliberals in office?
For
certain, now isn’t the time to back down on the protests, the
emails, the phone calls, the letters to the editor, and the rambling
blogs (like this one). Now is the time to continue exposing the
stinky bastards in
office
and reveal their crappy attitudes
to
the world.
If you feel so moved, please write an email to the members
of the
Toledo City Council and tell them what you think about their behavior
recently. Two of them have since
“moved
up” into cushy city government jobs, but they were on council long
enough and knew what their constituents expected of them. They
chose to
ignored their
Arab American constituents
and their suffering family members in Palestine.
Now
is the
time to muck out the proverbial
stable, dump the nasty litter box of
politicians,
and toss them all into the compost pile of history. Now
is the time to support alternative party candidates who will treat
all citizens equally and with compassion.
Judas
betrayed Jesus with a kiss—all for a mere thirty pieces of silver.
Our neoliberal
electeds
would
sell
us all out for a mere fraction of that price, eagerly grabbing at
the
blood-stained silver coins without hesitation. It’s time we nailed
them to a cross and make sure they never rise again.
Related Articles and Other Interesting Links Three former Toledo City councilmembers sentenced for taking bribes for votes https://www.13abc.com/2023/09/05/former-toledo-councilmembers-sentenced-bribery-extortion-convictions/
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