Amid cheers Evanston City Council passed a resolution Monday night urging Congress to repeal the USA Patriot Act.
“We are opposed to terrorism,” said Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd). “But we do not want to be terrorized.”
Residents also spoke out against the act, a major expansion of police powers passed one month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Some activists traveled as far as 30 miles to praise Evanston as it became the first Illinois city to pass a resolution against the act.
More than 100 municipal, county and state governments in the United States have passed similar resolutions.
“This is the time for (City Council) to stand up and join a long list of American heroes,” said Jeff Frank, an attorney with the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The American Civil Liberties Union and local political group Neighbors for Peace also praised the decision.
But aldermen and speakers were not unanimous in giving support. Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) chose not to vote. He said that as a lawyer who has worked on civil rights cases, he could not vote until he had thoroughly examined the act.
“I wouldn’t be afraid to vote one way or another, if I knew how I felt about it,” Moran said.
Evanston resident Bob Atkins said the council should devote itself to issues that affect residents, instead of political issues that divide the city.
“Your constituents did not elect you as aldermen to debate on issues of war and peace,” Atkins said.
Residents also spoke out on an issue of free expression, albeit a more local one.
Rachel D. Goldberg, an Evanston Township High School senior, helped coordinate plans to paint a mural under a viaduct east of 602 Mulford Ave. She said Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) has obstructed the process because Rainey disapproves of the mural’s content, which includes a rapper and the word “music” in graffiti-style letters.
Laura Saviano, co-chairwoman of the Public Art Committee, spoke in support of the project.
But Rainey told The Daily she was concerned about the mural’s imagery because of shootings in the her ward in April. She said some members of the Public Art Committee had characterized sketches of the mural as “menacing.”
“I understand it’s a dangerous area I’m treading in here, because this has to do with art,” Rainey said. “But an important issue here is this has to do with public art, and I’m a public official.”
Goldberg circulated a petition among Eighth Ward residents who support the mural.
But Rainey said city law requires public meetings in the neighborhood and she would like residents to meet the artist. Rainey said she was “blind-sided” by Saviano, who subverted the process and bringing the issue before the council.
“I think it was wrong,” Rainey said. “I think it was rude and I am insulted.”
In other business, the council introduced a plan for a 77-unit condominium project at Main Street and Chicago Avenue, but the plan was sent back to the next Planning and Development Committee meeting for further review.
