According to Thomas Jefferson, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. I’m not a big fan of Jefferson, but he may have had a point. So, what should we be holding vigil over in order to secure our liberty?
How about a seat at the table when the city decides to “redevelop” a long-standing public housing complex like Barry Farm? Unfortunately, at the June 25, 2013 meeting held by the DC Housing Authority to introduce the companies competing to redevelop Barry Farm Dwellings, only “confirmed” residents were allowed to attend. In other words, none of those pesky advocacy organizations like Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association or Empower DC, who are trying to keep Barry Farm residents from being permanently displaced once the renovations are underway, as has happened to so many other former public housing residents. According to Rick White, Director of Public Affairs & Communications for the DC Housing Authority, press was welcome to “cover the event” but would not be “permitted to attend the business meeting.”
Would Jefferson have objected to excluding the public and the press from a meeting to plan how public funds will be used to redevelop public property? As a proponent of a free press, I think maybe yes. And so should we all.
What else should we be holding vigil over? Hm? I don’t know, maybe voting rights. As a slaveholder, Jefferson might not have objected to the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says, “times have changed.” So perhaps, the right of the descendants of slaves to have access to the ballot is something that we should be holding onto. I know plenty of folks who don’t vote and don’t think it matters. I don’t agree but I understand their frustration.
Take for example the sanitation workers of Memphis, Tennessee. Conditions for sanitation workers in Memphis today are surprisingly similar to conditions in the 1960’s. The city is threatening to privatize their jobs, workers are not earning a living wage, and working conditions are hazardous and unsafe. The video below (produced by AFSCME’s Amy Hendricks) shows that they are still struggling for the same rights that Martin Luther King Jr., came to Memphis to help them win before he was gunned down.
<em
The voting rights that King and so many others fought and died for did not win the sanitation workers the liberty they deserve. Yet, one has to wonder how much worse things would have been for them and for the rest of us without the right to vote, which until yesterday, many of us took for granted. Perhaps we’ll find out. In the meantime, we should do whatever we can to hold public officials accountable.
