Whitmire Makes Clear To NY Times He'll Do Nothing To Protect Our Rights & Freedoms-We Must Organize Ourselves

​









Mayor John Whitmire has made it clear again he will not speak up for the rights and freedoms of Houstonians no matter what. 

Here is what Mayor Whitmire said in an interview with the New York Times:

“Most major cities are in turmoil,” Mr. Whitmire said. “We’re not.”.......With rhetoric escalating over immigration raids and National Guard troop deployments, Mayor Whitmire is betting that the best way to govern a large American city right now is to keep your head down.....Mr. Whitmire, in a series of interviews with The New York Times, faulted other Democratic mayors such as Brandon Johnson in Chicago and Karen Bass in Los Angeles for loud public challenges to the president over immigration enforcement and other issues that have only deepened divisions."

(The Houston Chronicle has been reporting that neither Whitmire or his office have returned a request for comment since August 17.) 

There is no major city in "turmoil."  To the extent there is trouble, it is because ICE is terrorizing people and federal troops are being sent where not needed. Is Mayor Whitmire telling us he'll say nothing if low-flying federal helicopters are used to raid Houston apartment buildings? (Low-flying helicopters are also being used to harass people in Portland.) 

I imagine that is just what he is saying. (Maybe some of the training for those raids was done right here in Houston.) 

Martin Luther King would not have been amenable to a definition of order and an absence of turmoil based on failing to challenge power or silence in the face of wrong actions. 

From King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail:

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice." 

Above you see picture from overnight of equipment paid for by Metro rolling-over and wiping-out the Pride Crosswalk at Westheimer and Taft. This picture was on social media. Mayor Whitmire says Greg Abbott and Donald Trump made him blot out the crosswalk. 

Mayor Whitmire is right to say that if we get into fights with the State of Texas and federal government, that we might lose important funding. 

However, we need a larger discussion than Mayor Whitmire just looking the other way at loss of our rights, talking only to the press in New York City and arresting protestors as was done at the Montrose crosswalk overnight. 

Mayor Whitmire appears to have no bottom line as to how much of our freedom he'll watch the State of Texas and federal government take from Houstonians, without a word of objection on his part. 

​We must organize ourselves for the difficult days ahead. 

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.​​​​​

---