Somerville Civil Liberties resolution

[cos]

The Somerville Board of Aldermen will meet today at 7pm to discuss the Somerville Civil Liberties Safe Zone resolution. It has the support of the new mayor, and we think it has enough support to pass the board, but aren't taking it for granted. I hear that apparently they're going to try to pass it without clause #5, though I'm not sure why.

Come to the meeting, 7pm at Somerville City Hall, to support the resolution, or just hear the debate.

Comments

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Whereas, the City of Somerville comprises a diverse population, including working people, people of color, students, and non-citizens, whose contributions to the community are greatly valued and who provide vitality and character to the City; and

This is all great and wonderful, but what do "citizens of color" have to do with any of this? I find this passage rather ham-handed and this shout-out to these groups entirely unnecessary, especially given the rather noticeable absence of any mention of religion, since Muslims in particular are targeted by the Patriot Act.

How about this "...diverse citizenry whose contributions......."

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

I really wish that I could go, but I've got class. Still, I've got to say, I'm quite impressed and glad to be a Somerville resident. Hope it passes.

[cos]

Well, you may be right that an addition referring to religion or other diversity might have made this passage better, but the whereas clauses are just for show, it's the therefores that matter. We did make public postings last year (including here on davis_square asking for public input, and inviting anyone interested to come to our public meetings, and the resolution has been posted on the web site since last spring, but nobody commented on this part as far as I recall. Now that it's actually before the board, I think it's not worth the trouble to tweak the PC language in a whereas clause, though if someone had mentioned this last year, I think we would have added something about religious background too. Overall, the purpose of a whereas clause describing diversity is to highlight that "diversity" doesn't just mean white, black, and latino - which is what it's often used as a code word for. We wanted to specifically mention that in addition to racial diversity, we're also referring to class diversity, social diversity, and particularly "non-citizens" - who are especially targetted by the Ashcroft justice department.

[herr-burren.livejournal.com]

What's the point of this?