To The Honorable Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish:
You stated in a recently televised interview that the people have no right to stop the workings of their government. This, sir, with all due respect, is simply untrue. Our country’s ideal of government is founded upon the belief that it is of the people, by the people and for the people. Our form of representative democracy is founded upon the idea that we, the people, vote for representatives who will work in our best interests drafting legislation, executing laws and adjudicating the laws. Throughout the course of our country, there have been many examples of the people interrupting or halting our elected officials in the course of their work. Last night was another example of how our form of government works, regardless of whether or not our elected officials’ work days are interrupted.
It is incumbent upon the representatives of our government to act in a way that does not abrogate their responsibility to hear those they represent. It is entirely reprehensible for a representative of our government to act or to speak in a way that attempts to subvert or otherwise undermine the solemn agreement between those who serve as representatives and the represented.
It is incumbent upon the represented to bring the government’s and government representatives’ work to a halt when they feel their voices have been silenced or if they feel their government or their representatives are in some way breaching the agreement between the represented and their chosen representatives. Last night, the people of Portland felt their voices were not heard and their actions reflected this. Last night, you spoke against the very people you were elected to represent.
Portlanders are respectful, until they can no longer abide what they perceive as a threat to their democratically elected government. Portlanders have endured police improprieties in the past and have spoken out when they have had enough. Portlanders have every right to speak out about what they view as improper and inappropriate treatment by those who are sworn to serve and protect them. Portlanders have every right to be included in the contract negotiations between the city’s elected representatives and the police force, especially given Portland’s history of police improprieties, police brutality and abuses of power.
You, sir, abandoned your solemn responsibility by stating that those you represent had no right to stop your work as a representative of our government. You seem to have forgotten that when a government fears it’s people, there is liberty. When people fear their government, there is tyranny. You should have chosen your words much more carefully. You indicated in last night’s interview that you would disabuse Portlanders of their rights as citizens to disrupt your work as our elected representative. This kind of thinking leads to tyranny.
Rather than stating that the people had no right to stop your work, you could have simply said that more classes in civics is in order to better inform the younger generations on how government works, when it is appropriate for Portlanders to voice their concerns at which stages in the legislative process and how to be engaged, respectful and active participants in exercising their constitutionally protected responsibilities in our representative democracy. Instead, you stated that you thought that Portlanders had no right to interfere with your work. Your work, as our duly elected city commissioner, IS OUR work.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
A politically-engaged observer currently living in lovely Portland, Oregon.