Ald. Tabares' criticism of Mayor Johnson's’ ceasefire resolution vote reflects poorly on Tabares, not Johnson

 

Ald. Tabares' criticism of Mayor Johnson's’ ceasefire resolution vote reflects poorly on Tabares, not Johnson

Ald. Silvana Tabares’ Chicago Tribune op-ed ‘Mayor Brandon Johnson’s leadership needs a lesson in math’ was fine when it stayed on Chicago governance issues of which Johnson is clearly struggling. But Tabares’ pivot to charging Johnson’s tie breaking Gaza ceasefire vote was “the real turning point” to demonstrate his incompetence was disheartening.

Breaking the tie to pass the ceasefire is a vote Johnson can be proud of for the rest of his life. For Tabares to denigrate it as being a “so called Gaza vote” trivializes the worst genocide we’re witnessing this century, nearly all of which is funded by the US government. Tabares further trivializes the resolution by charging it has “no real lie implications.”

It most certainly has real life implications for over 50,000 Palestinians who are now dead and the remaining 2,200,000 Palestinians with little food, water or medicine and whose houses, hospitals, and schools, have been turned to rubble. If the ceasefire resolution does, as Tabares claims, alienate “vast swaths of the Council”, why blame the messenger pushing back against Israel’s near yearlong collective punishment designed to remove all Palestinians from Gaza.

In supporting and passing the Gaza ceasefire resolution, Mayor Johnson is in extensive and good company. Since Richmond, CA passed the first city ceasefire resolution last October 25, over 100 cities have followed suit. Besides Chicago, that includes the large cities of Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Providence, Sacramento, Seattle, St. Paul, St. Louis, San Francisco and Toledo.

I cannot comment on Ald. Tabares’ knowledge of Chicago governance issues. But I sure can recommend she spend some time studying the grotesque destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza she’s using as a prop to hyperbolically criticize Mayor Johnson.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL