The pandemic has been something that has turned everything into an anxiety-inducing uncertainty. People lost their jobs. Some lost a major chunk of their income. Most average people are struggling and so far, there isn’t much hope for relief soon. The audience, the constituents, are hoping for relief. Looking for a sign that they have people on their side, understanding this struggle, who are fighting for them.

…But instead, the politicians are fighting for themselves.

I don’t normally like to talk about local politics. I know that I went on an angry rant about a city councilman in our city, who was a rape apologist and victim shamer that I still believe is defiant in the face of our disgust for 2 blogs. Who still doesn’t really believe he’s wrong, rather put out an insincere statement as a Band-Aid. But that was because his statements were a part of a horrible culture that still makes sexual assault/sexual harassment victims stay silent.

In this case of local politics, our mayor is asking for a raise for himself, other city employees, and our city councilmen. A raise, in the midst of a pandemic when businesses and the citizens are struggling, but are still seeing an increase in their property taxes. A raise, while they are talking about furloughing employees. This is the time to know your audience, and as my teenager says, “this ain’t it, chief.”

I understand that they are paid a lower salary than those in surrounding areas. I get it. I might not have an issue with this if I didn’t see so many people struggling right now. Asking for a raise while there are people in the city who are struggling shows that they are out of touch and uncaring. Especially when you have a sitting councilman who isn’t serving on committees since they can’t remove him from office because, well, he made comments contributing to a culture of victim shaming.

The argument is that you are going to get lower quality people for these jobs. Was this a self-own by the mayor? I mean, he knew what he was getting into salary-wise, considering he was on the city council for so long. I again point out, it might not be so bad to raise these salaries… if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic that has caused financial devastation for so many people.

This is selfish. This shows that there are out of touch people in power in this city that don’t care about us, rather want more money in their pockets not caring about the money in ours. This shows me that come next election time, we need better people in there that are willing to do what they are supposed to do: put their citizens first. Instead of empathy and serving us, they seem only interested in serving themselves. Why should any politician be able to decide whether or not they deserve a raise and how much? Shouldn’t we, the tax payers, make that decision? Imagine any other job where the employees can make those decisions.