For eight years and more we’ve been watching for signs that the national political infections of anger and othering were spreading to the communities we cover. Now, clearly, it is happening. And our concern runs deep.
At last week’s Oak Park Village Board meeting an organized and competing effort was made to turn out supporters and critics of a ceasefire in Gaza resolution from that body. The meeting — actually the public comment portion of the meeting — erupted into contention with speakers being shouted down, village board members disrespected, an active lack of any impulse to listen or to understand the immediate realities of the situation.
Without a ceasefire resolution on the village board agenda, there could be no public vote taken. Not possible. Not legal. If Village President Vicki Scaman wants to argue that a ceasefire vote is beyond the scope of a local elected body, it is a change from this village’s propensity to take symbolic actions. Oak Park is still a Nuclear-Free Zone, after all.
Mainly, though, we need to determinedly listen to each other with respect and grace on an issue that is complex and rightly surfaces deep feelings. We cannot let this village descend into the mire we see in our national politics.