Letter: Is This Democratic?

On Jan. 23, (House Minority Whip Rep.) Katherine Clark, D-Mass. and (Rep.) Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont, held an event “On Democracy” at The First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist. But ironically, it wasn’t advertised to the people of Belmont. I heard of the event through a friend and formally registered. As a result, almost every attendee was white. Once in the room, we were informed of the very strict rules: They said, “for security reasons,” no one but Clark and Brownsberger was allowed to speak at any point in the “discussion.” Attendees may submit questions on a small piece of paper, and questions the event staff deemed worthwhile would be considered, and again, only Brownsberger or Clark could talk.

This event was not my first attempt to reach out to my representatives. In the past months, I have called Katherine Clark’s office hundreds of times; written dozens of emails; and visited her office at all hours; and not once have I had a chance to voice my concerns, which are about Clark supporting a bombing campaign that has killed 13,000 Palestinian children—which the International Court of Justice has just weighed in on.

After failing to have our opposition to Clark’s policies heard in any other forum, and following Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lessons on civil disobedience, myself and other audience members stood up to voice our concerns directly. But even before a few words were uttered, event organizers and their supporters leapt up, saying “this is not about you, this is about Katherine”

Almost immediately, Belmont police came up to me and said I would have to leave or be arrested—for the crime of addressing my own representative, at an event my tax dollars pay for. It was a lesson on democracy, indeed: on how far we are from it.

Sheetal Chhabria

Francis Street