Murray moved the Indigenous Peoples’ Day vote

….Before the public commentary today. Which is kind of a real bummer. The reason? He (and several City Councilmembers) didn’t want the decision to be too swift, and they wanted to make sure people had the chance to learn more about the decision.

A decision that has been in the public eye for like two weeks. A decision that has been kicked around by the international community since the 1970s. A decision that Murray even said WOULD TOTALLY PASS…just not yet. Because he wants to make sure everyone — EVERYONE — has a chance to testify.

Today, only those in favor delivered testimony. 

The commentary was multi-lingual, multi-generational, and full of heartfelt speech about the importance of Seattle’s indigenous populations. There was a lot of reference to HB 1495, which is an important bill that would ensure Native history would have a place in public education curricula. 

Unlike today’s non-decision, 1495 hasn’t received a whole lot of media attention.

Actually, the lack of media attention on Native issues has been a continuing thread; Councilmember Bruce Harrell noted during his comments today that the lack of news cameras at today’s meeting was disappointing. He ale explained that a lot of “idiots” had emailed to protest the change from Columbus to Indiginous Peoples’ Day, but that they were just uneducated on the issue and that he wanted to fix that.

In case anyone is wondering why it’s important to change the name of the holiday — which would not change anything logistical regarding holidays, since Columbus Day isn’t actually a city holiday — the testimony pretty much covered it.

“For seven years, we have marched on the streets” said one commenter today “for longer than that, my relatives have been desperately having terrible experiences in the streets as homeless native people. They have disappeared without anyone even know. The truth is not being taught in the schools, still. What that’s doing is discounting our achievements.“

Reminder: THIS IS OUR CITY LOGO. 

And here’s some videos from today:

Protestors and commenters noted today that there was plenty of media attention of the change, and that not a single challenger showed up at the testimony today. 

“No one is here,” noted one man, “they want to send emails or make comments on Facebook…but they’re not here” he noted. “Today is the day.”

Unfortunately, today is not the day. Despite protests from Kshama Sawant, the Mayor and Bruce Harrell (and Sally Bagshaw, who also supported the decision to delay) will get their way; the decision will be referred to a committee and decided on in October, giving racists more time to fire off emails defending the indefensible. 

Ah, Seattle process. You never fail to infuriate. In the meantime, we’ll personally only be referring to the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day and we’d encourage y’all to do the same.