minneapolis upside down

The excitement around Instant Runoff Voting's success at the City Council meeting last Friday (May 26, 2006) has obscured a set of rather different comments from Don Samuels and R.T. Rybak during the discussion of the City sponsored blogs that followed. It was like blowback--a little democratic breeze gets answered by a mighty authoritarian wind.

Samuels in particular emerged as an unapologetic opponent of unsupervised free speech . Rybak made clear his desire to censor cable access television. If Republicans had spewed this bilge, Democrats would come unglued, crying out against the assault on civil liberties.

Mark these words from Herr Samuels:

. . .While I do value our freedoms. . . there are some of them that our community has not demonstrated the responsibility to bear. . . and. . .one, for me, would be certain freedoms within this new electronic category which has been as lethal as the guns that are pervasive on our streets. . . . I don't think that we have demonstrated the capability to deal with this freedom, neither by the ones who perpetrate it as weapons or by the ones of us who are called upon to oversee the responsible utilization of these media.

Until that day comes, and until, personally speaking, I . . . cease to be a victim of the irresponsible use and incapacity to supervise the freedoms that are now brought to us by these incredible advances in technology, I will have to vote against--and again, again, and again--until we demonstrate responsibility and supervising capability for our new freedom.

. . . All the advances we have have kind of gone to our head and our guts. . . . We forget that the freedoms that we have have worked, not because the freedoms themselves have virtue but because we ourselves as a nation have certain principles whether they be religious or spiritual or cultural--around fairness, hard work, honesty etc. that makes democracy work. . . .

Freedom of speech, unbridled, and without supervision, can create more harm than good. There's no doubt about that. If we, as a nation, continue to increase our freedoms while decreasing our responsibility both in terms of our laws and in terms of our responsibilities as citizens and as leaders to defend each other and protect each other from the abuses of people, then we do not deserve and will not maintain or sustain our democracy and our democratic principles. . . .

. . . Have no doubt about it, democracy and freedom of speech are not virtues in and of their selves. They can only exist within the framework of civility.

Do not delude ourselves that our freedoms are our highest goal or our highest value. No they are not. Our highest values are our cultural civility and fairness and kindness and generosity. And then freedom can come. . . . Unless we can find a way to turn the tide on this, then we will go down in a flame of freedom.

(Italics mine.)

A little context is in order here. Samuels clearly still smarts from the nasty election tussle that he went through in order to defeat Natalie Johnson-Lee for the 5th Ward seat he now holds. Samuels was not without fault in that fight, but "Pain is the eye of the beholder," as Mr. Samuels' new friend "Tough-Love" Tim Pawlenty has said.

If one watches the broadcast of this City Council meeting--and for the wonks and wonkettes in the crowd, the Committee of the Whole meeting that preceded it--one learns that Samuels is wielding his own privileged free speech as a weapon against civil libertarian 10th Ward representative Ralph Remington, who persisted in calling the Don on his bullshit.

This is a feud to watch--the complaint against Samuels, and the source of the "unbridled" free speech at his expense has been his insensitivity to African-Americans. Will African-American Remington and Jamaican immigrant Samuels play out some of the antagonisms still smoldering from the 5th Ward race?

Samuels speech set up comments by the Mayor wherein he makes clear his wish to rein in the free speech of City supported cable access--in the name of protecting his buddy, Samuels.

In classic management stylee, Rybak first says that "we" (meaning management) haven't done our job and then attacks the " people who run that television" for not doing their job in "fixing" the unbridled free speech of cable access programming. I can tell you from experience that there is more to come. Bosses don't talk this way without intending to fuck with the designated underlings. If you support public access television, start sending your notes to Mr. Rybak now.

The split between free speech advocates and pro-censorship autocrats goes all way back to the early days of the republic. Then as now, power always overlooks its own excesses while accusing the unwashed of not playing fair--or of not being civil. That Samuels and Rybak feel so morally justified and outraged just demonstrates how powerful they are feeling.

Remember, gentlemen, pride goeth before the fall.
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The ever vigilant and unwashed Avidor has posted excerpts of Samuels' and Rybak's May 26 performance art at

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yHX8BZcfvuI

Gluttons for punishment or thirsters for knowledge can catch the entire Council meeting at 10 PM and the Committee of the Whole meeting at 8PM on Minneapolis Cable channel 79 each day this week until June 4. (You can also view these as webcasts.)

Capture it now for posterity.

--Loosestrife