How to Piss Everyone Off in One Meeting

I watch government meetings on line and I often wonder why I torture myself. It is quite often the source of my aggravation and Tuesday's council meeting was a perfect example.

First of all, to the activists...stop saying your 1st Amendment Rights were violated. They weren't and you sound stupid as hell when you say that. The reason the general public usually ignores big protests and marches is because they think most of the people at the protests and marches don't know anything, and when you say you're rights were violated because you didn't get to speak at public comment, you're confirming it.

There is no right to speak at public comment. A government body in Texas doesn't even have to have one if they don't want to and its not a violation of anything. Seriously, learn what the hell you are talking about before you say dumb shit.

That being said, seriously City Council - get your head out of your ass. Override the Mayor on this bullshit cap on public comment. Mayor Margo, let me explain something to you. You give organizers something to agitate people on when you limit public comment. Is it illegal for you to do so? Of course not.

But its a dick move and makes council look bad.

Let the people that take time out of their day speak. What does it cost or hurt you? You all wanted this job and asked voters for it. No one twisted your arms to run for office. Sit there and listen to the people. Or don't listen and look like you are. But sit your ass in your chair and face the community. This shit show of the arena is made worse because your communications is non-existent, non-strategic, reactionary, and basically sucks. Let people have their say.

You realize its hard to sustain actions like this for organizers right? You realize that very few people can give up an extended period of time for protests and such right? Aside from the fact that our country was literally founded on the spirit of protest and dissent, you guys are making a situation worse for the tax payers and easier on the organizers.

Guess what happens when you guys let everyone take as much time as they want to have their say? The media and public stop paying attention after awhile. But when you tell them they can't, now you're making yet another story related to the shit show. And you're making their fears about the city's activities at the very least, plausible.

You know what else gives organizers something to agitate people about? Cops that are being dicks. That crowd was peaceful and social media proliferation makes it impossible to say they were violent when they weren't. There was absolutely no need for a cop to play Dikembe Mutombo and swat away a pizza meant for the protesters.

Do you know how bad of a visual that is?

That shit was completely uncalled for! And which one of you dumbasses went and took pizzas to the cops? They are well payed by tax payers and can afford their own god damn lunch thank you very much. Why are you feeding them when they were probably getting overtime to play Mutombo anyway?

I mean if we had a terrorist attack and lost one of our buildings and we had cops downtown pulling rubble out of the way to save people, then hell yeah, pop for some damn pizza. But this was playing fence babysitter for a bad situation the property owners created. If anyone should've sprung for pizzas, it should've been the property owners!

Organizers - seriously has no one ever professionally trained you? You don't need to fill the room with public commenters for council to get the message. Thats strictly ego masturbation on your part. You just want to see yourself on television and its all theater. If you're going to organize, do it right. Phone bank and email the shit out of the elected officials. Trust me, spending your time getting people from all over the city to call their city rep about the issue is far more effective than having you all caged in to one small area and far easier to sustain.

If you really want to be effective, you fight the battle at the ballot box. You MAKE electeds do your bidding by winning elections. But guess what? You tried, and the electorate didn't give a shit. Max Grossman isn't any better at leading campaigns than he is including property owners in TROs.

You can't even really say that you have the voice of the people on your side of this issue either because, well you don't. 70% of the people voted for the quality of life bonds. They wanted the investment.

If you're going to argue about how few people turned out for the election or how they weren't voting on a downtown location thats a losing argument. If people were against it, they would've come out and voted against it. You know what that means? It means something you already know because its your biggest problem as organizers...people mostly don't give a shit.

Which is why Mayor Margo is an organizers wet dream. A rich white Republican telling poor brown people they can't speak about a public issue. That is how you get people who don't care about an issue, to suddenly care. Because it stops being about a significant investment made by the voters of El Paso and becomes class warfare.

Wake up Mayor Margo, this is El Paso. Everyone can identify with the poor and the little guy. And in politics, the two things most likely to move someone on an issue are fear and anger.

You are hitting both notes very happily Mayor.

Border Network for Human Rights...seriously, just sit down. Seriously where the hell were you guys when the residents, you know the ones Max Grossman used at first but now aren't around, were living in terrible living conditions? Now its a community issue? Sorry but you guys lost credibility when you wouldn't even stand up for immigrants in our own county jail.

Bishop Seitz, with all due respect Your Excellency, but what is the Catholic culture issue involved here? I fail to see how its a Catholic issue for an arena but spending local dollars to incarcerate undocumented immigrants in the County Jail isn't - despite the fact that His Holiness has repeatedly preached about immigration reform and to the best of my knowledge, hasn't taken a position on El Paso's downtown arena.

Rant over. And get off my lawn!