Dear Citizens of Evanston,
At the recent Community of Service of Lament for the shooting of Jacob Blake our Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty spoke saying "All Black Lives Matter". These words as much as they may have felt affirming at the time does not witness the actions out of Mayor Hagerty out of every city council meeting where he treats our city clerk with the utmost disrespect as a black man. It doesn't matter if they disagree with city politics our mayor is not treating a fellow political official with the respect deserved for their office closest to him. If "All Black Lives Matter " to our mayor he should be willing to espouse this moral calling he has espoused in all spaces in which he is in and towards every member of the black community and every minority community within Evanston.
Recognizing that this disrespect happens in our city council at every meeting even during COVID-19 and if we are a city that prides itself on values of equity, diversity, and respect our mayor who is elected to represent such values has not even within the heart of where our decisions as a city are made in the city council that a greater ethical call and action is needed out of Evanstonians besides just our vote for the mayor to act better in line with the values of our city itself.
I would like to propose that we as Evanstonians call for a moratorium on Mayor Hagerty speaking at community events especially those involving marginalized communities until his actions reflect that he actually cares and is not just offering word salad.
How will we make this speaking moratorium happen?
1) Pressure all nonprofits that have supported the mayor speaking in the past to please stop allowing the mayor to speak whether they be Interfaith Action of Evanston or your local religious organization for him to not be asked for three months or more.
2) Pressure nonprofit organizations that still agree to showcase the mayor as a speaker to please let the public know via social media or the event page that he is speaking so those affected by the very real trauma he has created within the city council meetings can be made aware and where their ethics stand on his treatment towards those around him.
3)Make it known on your social media through the hashtag #silencethehag that you cannot ethically stand by the mayor speaking at such events because the ethics he espouses at community events never line up with proposed city policies affecting marginalized members of the community.
4)Speak up in every civic forum from an email to your alderman, ward meetings that you cannot stand by his continued disrespect in city council meetings or the like towards marginalized groups then act as if he cares in spaces where he may peddle a vote.
Our civic leaders like Mayor Hagerty hold their mandate to their office through us and if they are to represent our values as a community they need to understand the gravity of their actions in all places involving those marginalized in our community and be held accountable when they don't. Let's call our mayor to represent what he was elected to represent not what his actions have illustrated in the last few years.
Sign this petition if you will commit to the contents of it and believe in a better ethical Evanston.
Why is this important?
For the soul of Evanston. What does it mean for us as a community if we enable our mayor to marginalize at the heart of our city's decision-making while giving him speaking opportunities like these things don't happen? We cannot practice cognitive dissonance as a community acting as if change happens through it.
