CM Pollard Notes Big Audience For Know Your Rights Meeting-Innovation Needed From Electeds As We Face Crisis

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​At the end of the February 12th Houston City Council Agenda session, Councilmember Edward Pollard talked about a virtual know your rights video town hall he held on February 11th. The focus was immigration rights and concerns. CM Pollard said the Facebook Live presentation had 2000 views and he was impressed by all the interest. His remarks are at the 3 hour 36 minute point of the video.

Above you see Mr. Pollard remarking on all the viewers. 

Councilmember Pollard should read the Houston Democracy Project Blog. This past October, I wrote about the successful virtual town hall held by Councilmembers Joaquin Martinez, Sallie Alcorn, Mario Castillo and Letitia Plummer about the need for more revenue in the City of Houston. They had a good audience and a good discussion. 

(During that October meeting, Ms. Alcorn used the term "federal partnerships" as an important source of city revenue. I made a comment in reply saying that after the election, we might not have a federal partner. This regretfully now seems to be the case. The Houston Democracy Project recently called for the removal of hard-right Republican Twila Carter as Chair of Council's Resilience Committee. This committee addresses climate change and storm recovery. Why should somebody representing a party denying climate change & looking to trash FEMA and the National Weather Service chair that committee?)

Last month Councilmember Martinez also held a know your rights town hall. His was in person. Elected officials can address any subject they want. They can do so using any forum or platform that works. My Texas State Rep. Ann Johnson this week made a short Facebook video about what is going on in Washington. She didn't say she was not a Congressperson and all this was not her problem. She addressed the concerns people are having. 

Beyond the fact elected officials can address anything at any level of government, they also all swore an oath to the Constitution. With the Constitution under assault, what is going on with Trump/Musk is very much a topic for Houston City Council. 

The ten Houston City Council Democrats could hold a joint town hall on the current crisis of democracy and about the racist and cruel attacks from Trump/Musk. They could talk about how Trump/Musk are going to trash the economy.

If all ten don't want to do that, then whatever combination would like to would work. In addition to Pollard, Martinez, Alcorn, Plummer and Castillo, the other five Council Democrats are Tarsha Jackson, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Tiffany Thomas, Abbie Kamin and Martha Castex-Tatum. Ms. Castex-Tatum is Mayor Pro-Tem which makes her the #2 official in the city. 

Business as usual has not worked. The systems we've been asked to trust all our lives don't keep us safe. Beyond using innovative ways to communicate with Houstonians, Houston City Council Democrats may well at some point soon have to decide what side of the police line to stand on. These elected officials are no safer than of the rest of us. 

Councilmember Pollard had an awakening when he saw the utility and power of reaching people in a different way. Let the awakenings and realizations continue for all of us as we fight for our freedom. For each of us as rank & file Houstonians, let's realize that we must demand that our elected officials-including at the municipal level-show up for us no matter the challenges and dangers ahead. 

(Public comment time at Houston City Council is each Tuesday at 2 PM. Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember.  The earlier before the session you sign up, the higher up on the speaker's list you'll be. The agenda session to conduct Council business is each Wednesday at 9 AM. The agenda is posted in advance. Council can be watched live on HTV Houston Television and is available at any time on the HTV feed on Facebook.)

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​​

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