2 weeks Ago
By Rob Smoke Some members of the Boulder City Council apparently aren’t quite telling the truth about the way the council has conducted itself in relation to attendees asking for support for things like an unconditional ceasefire resolution regarding Gaza or divestment from weapons contractors supporting Israel’s U.S.-backed war machine.
For starters, looking at the big picture, a number of council members have declared the “war” in Gaza as being too far afield of city business to merit consideration by the council. This is plainly wrong on multiple counts, including recognition of historic moments in which the council has participated in amplifying the opinion of local residents, and certainly based on the recognition that we’re all global citizens as well as residents of a cosmopolitan city with many residents who have family members as well as cultural ties to people in the middle east. Separately, when we talk about the connection between people in Boulder and the people who are desperately hanging by a thread in Gaza at the current moment, we’re talking about a situation that is regarded, now more than ever, as genocide against women, children and men who are civilian non-combatants with neither the ability to escape or fight back.
The protests around the nation and globe are for the sake of lives in obvious jeopardy of being ended by the state of Israel in direct cooperation with the U.S. Congress and administration.
Protest against genocide isn’t really in the same category as protest involving parking on West Pearl Street, or how many unrelated individuals can occupy the same dwelling unit. It’s also not in the same category as people who protest their own discomfort from having heard a pejorative term for Zionists used by an Open Comment participant. Sorry, but there’s a stark divide between someone’s uneasiness at being called a name .
.. and the protest on behalf of voiceless children losing their lives daily in Gaza due to weapons bombardments from weapons actually made, in part, right here in Colorado.
Separately, the style of the City Council — minus the voices of one or two significant individuals in disagreement — has been reprehensible across the span of the past year, with almost each passing month leading to some new repressive measure. On August 2, 2024, I had four Boulder Police officers, tape measures in hand, stop me from entering a meeting with an art canvas (which I painted) with the words “Let Gaza Live” on it. Sure enough, it was in violation of a size restriction voted on by the council.
Separately, the council has, without public hearing, moved the location of the podium used by the public, the obvious reason apparently being to minimize the amount of exposure of audience members in the background holding signs or raising their hands to indicate their support for an Open Comment speaker. Of course, the council, maintaining its consistency, refuses to recognize that the change of camera angle is a provocation to audience applause, a simple expression of support that simply doesn’t merit the constant warning statements to the audience — statements, by the way, that the Denver City Council does not choose to make to participants at its regular Monday night open comment sessions when a group mildly applauds, probably based on the sensible recognition that the warning is more of an impediment to meeting progress than the applause itself. Other repressive measures include things as stupid as preventing council members from responding to the Open Comment speakers after the comment period ends — a practice that was the standard in Boulder for decades and is standard in probably every Colorado city if not the nation as a whole .
While I might just be scratching the surface with these issues, I do want to mention that I would in fact be the individual at any given council meeting who has attended and spoken at more council meetings than anyone else in the room (including current staff and council). Yes, you’d be correct in noting that my personal perspective and a couple of bucks get you a ride on the NYC subway system, and my opinion isn’t worth one iota more than anyone else’s because of my personal history; however, my experience with the variety of councils I’ve seen “up close and personal,” leads me to provide this City Council a grade I would not provide any past council. That’s right, “F” as in “Fail.
” In this case, it’s not quite as much about the “what,” as about the “how.” I hope Boulder voters are smart enough to say “No” to the council members “leading the way” to poorer community relations and vote them out on the next go-round. Rob Smoke lives in Boulder.
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