The man asked the council to actually look at him while he was speaking. Instead of paying attention, Councilwoman Debora Juarez scolds the man for wasting his 120 seconds while others, like Kshama Sawant and Lorena Gonzalez were swiping and typing on their cell phones, not caring what the man had to say. He’s not a professional activist bussed in to back some union-driven agenda; he’s not a donor to a campaign. He is just a Seattle voter and, in this city, these voices don’t matter.
“So it was unreasonable for me to ask that people look up and give me their attention?” the man asked. It was met with a reminder from Juarez that that he only had a minute and 30 seconds left.
The man then folded his prepared statement. He paused briefly before delivering a cogent and brutal takedown of this current council. He pointed to the underlying elitism. When Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) spoke last week, he said she was given several minutes and garnered the attention of the council. Everyone else? They were limited to one minute presentations.
“It reminded me of George Orwell’s famous scene from ‘Animal Farm’ about how all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others and that’s how I feel like I’m being treated now, just because I was kind of asking for your attention, like I noticed you all very attentive to Ms. Jaypal last week. And I immediately got a hostile response back from you. I don’t understand that.”
The council stayed silent. That prompted him to ask if they ever responded to constituents and again Juarez reminded him of his time limit.
At this point, despite begging for their attention, Councilmembers Rob Johnson and Sawant return to their phones. Gonzalez rests her head on her hand, waiting for him to shut up.
