LETTER: Listen to people about Blues Factory, or get out of City Hall

To Ozaukee Press:

I have hope because high school students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have shown themselves to be fierce, fearless, focused and smart, and they galvanized the biggest student movement in decades.

I have hope because these students are turning their grief and righteous anger into action. They are not taking no for an answer.         For similar reasons, the citizens of Port Washington should be able to hope that they are being listened to. No matter who becomes our next mayor or alderman, the people who live in this city, the people who politicians are supposed to represent, have the right to be heard.  

Cameron Kasky, a Parkland student, said that the movement’s message to politicians was simple. “Either represent the people or get out! Enough is enough!”

Is this not the same message that so many Port Washington citizens have been trying to give the mayor and Common Council representatives in regard to the lakefront, specifically the building of the Blues Factory? Either represent the people or get out! Enough is enough!

The citizens of Port should not have to compromise. That is not our job. Our power comes from our ability to speak truth to power. Push the envelope against what we are told is “possible,” because what is possible is what we make possible through what we demand of our representatives, how we use our vote, how we use our voices and how we lead others. We are the proverbial tip of the spear. 

Our representatives should be listening and representing us, not themselves. Our anger should continue to be aimed at the craven politicians and people who have failed us time and again. We must defeat them. Those who remain must listen and represent. Or get out.

Pat Morrissey

Port Washington