Delete WardMaking a Public Comment
Council welcomes public comment before regular council meetings. Fill out the online form below for your chance to make a public comment at the next regular Monday Council meeting. Please read the revised rules and procedures.
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* In person at Cleveland City Hall, Room 220, 601 Lakeside Ave. NE. Paper forms are available to register.
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Public Comments
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"When one of our brothers is hurting, we all hurt as well. There is no peace until there is peace for all. "
Please speak up and SHUT IT DOWN. END THIS MADNESS, DESTRUCTION, AND HORRIFIC GENECIDE.
Currently we are seeing over a million people being asked to leave their homes overnight, only for them to be bombed on their way to what they believe would be safety. We are watching all of the electricity, water, and aid being stopped going into Gaza by the Israeli military. And we are watching all of these atrocities unfold from our screens, radios, and every day conversations. And we are all asking each other, what can I do to stop this? As we say “never again.”
In this time, I continue to return to the guiding tenets of Judaism, which are to love the stranger, to treat our neighbor as ourselves. What has troubled me so deeply about this war, is the truth that everything about the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government violates the central tenets of Judaism. All of this death and destruction in Gaza is the opposite of loving one's neighbor as oneself. I am here today because I cannot stand by as my community continues to act in ways that take away the safety of millions of others. I believe in a future where hostages are returned to their families, and children are free to go to school and play outside, and hospitals are not bombed. I know that this future does not come from the continued war. I am here to encourage you, the City Council of Cleveland, to acknowledge that there are Jews around the world and here in Cleveland who stand against Hamas, but also do not stand with Israel and their bombs against Gaza. I am here to ask you to acknowledge the massive loss of life we are seeing every day in Gaza. I am here to ask you to honor the Jewish value of life, to recognize that if saving one life means saving the world, what does it mean to save a million lives?
I am asking you to join with other leaders in calling for an end to this war. The futures of Jews and Palestinians are bound together, it is not either or. When we erase each other, we erase ourselves. We will only survive together. The best way to support both our peoples is by preventing Israel from continuing on this genocidal path it is on. It is my sincere hope that the City Council will use its influence to not only call for an end to violence but also to encourage diplomatic efforts that lead to a just and lasting resolution. In doing so, we can demonstrate that even from afar, our city stands as a beacon of compassion and solidarity. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Thank you.
Each Ashram, selects a social agenda within their means to address, social activism and charity to those in need is a requirement of the Hindu Faith and the people who become engaged in a particular agenda of a specific ashram. Our agenda is homelessness, we have come up with a project plan which we would like to share with yu for your consideration.
Homeless persons often camp on public or even private property, where they are promptly run out back into the streets, many times these persons are families with children, a heartbreaking situation to be sure. The goal of our ashram is to establish a legal and safe "Sanctuary Village, RV, Car, and tent "city" where any homeless person may camp and stay indefinitely, we will supply al utilities and sanitation facilities at our cost. Of course we must have a few rules, no criminal activity can be tolerated, no intolerance or bullying or stalking can be tolerated, certain basic humanistic rules must be in place. But beyond that, there are few other rules at all, other than common sense. The Priests will interface with every available community resource that is willing to contribute to the welfare of the residents of the sanctuary village, food banks, volunteer medical assistance, job training and placement, substance abuse assistance, anything we can possibly locate to assist in this effort and become a part of the project personally, our goal being for the community at large to be encouraged to take a personal interest in the project and become personally involved with the people suffering from the devastating plague of homelessness. Our second goal is to humanize the problem, putting the smudged faces of the children of homeless families, giving the problem a human perspective to motivate the communities all across America to take a direct responsibility to pitch in and make this problem, their problem, and not the problem of an overtaxed government, not the problem of the overburdened welfare system, but the problem of every decent caring person in the community to take under their consciousness and help in any way they can.
this is our goal as a small unheard of band of rather idealistic h=Hindu Priests and initiates.
We would like you to table this project in your chambers, and hopefully to adopt a similar project of your own design, secular or religious based, it doesn't matter, funded by public dollars or private grants, it doesn't matter, design it and run it any way that best suites your abilities and resources.
We hope, this idea will spread, from city to city, state to state, all across America, and each community comes together to create "Sanctuary Cities" of their own, their way.
Please consider this project carefullly
Sincerely
Father Frater, Priest Superior, The Gandhian Brahminical Oder of Krishna Consciousness
I work as a tenant-landlord mediation advocate for a local nonprofit. Over the past several months, we have seen a significant increase in the number of residents facing eviction. Rental assistance resources are dried up; the shelters are all full; landlords have a stranglehold on the housing court system; people have nobody to turn to for assistance. The landlord- and developer-driven housing agenda has left Clevelanders, literally, out in the cold. Rents go up while wages stay stagnant. Housing voucher programs are inadequate, and the process for obtaining Section 8 housing takes so long that many people are thrown onto the street before they even have a chance to find a home. We need more public programs. We need to stop the privatization of public social services. The City of Cleveland has a responsibility to each and every citizen to ensure their basic human needs are met and their human rights upheld. There is absolutely no excuse for people to be sleeping on the street. We are witnessing a humanitarian crisis in our city, and as winter approaches, the horror and suffering will only increase. The City of Cleveland must introduce emergency programs for housing every citizen and must stop landlords, many of whom do not even reside in this city, from evicting tenants. We need more public housing, and in the meantime, a moratorium on evictions is crucial. Thank you.
Adam Barrington