GUEST OPINION: Yes on Cotati recall on Nov. 17

<p>Cotati’s recall matters. It’s about something more important than George Barich. It’s about Cotati. It’s about the recent nasty turn in Cotati’s politics and the way it could shape Cotati’s future.</p><p>So, instead of viewing the recall as an odious event that citizens should flee from, Cotati should greet the recall as an opportunity to affirm what Cotati stands up for — and what it will not stand for.</p><p>Many have asked me where I stand on the issue of recall. After waiting for the people of Cotati to bring the matter forward, I am for it, not because of Barich’s political philosophy but rather because of his political practices: his bullying and ridiculing of citizens, his skirting of city ordinances, his stretching the limits of his narrow authority, his misrepresentations of facts and twisting of unsettled law, his threats to the fiscal welfare of the city with shrouded intimations of litigation and his willful refusal to allow the people to exercise their collective will in matters of taxation.</p><p>Added to this — though certainly not the most egregious of his acts — is his defiant disregard for the historical and cultural sensitivities of African Americans. This galls me, not because I am an African American but because he suggests that African Americans need to get over the past.</p><p>The suggestion, of course, is that the past no longer matters, an idea that is put to the test every time race and the presidency are conjoined, or when we invoke our immigrant histories, our histories of slavery or expropriation. We are American not because we forget these histories or our cultural differences but because we struggle collectively to understand and embrace them.</p><p>In an attempt to rescue him from the political embarrassment that comes with his positions, Barich and his friends have engaged in a concerted smear campaign to identify me as the real racist, even in the face of the fact that I have vigorously refused to name Barich as such. Clearly, being indifferent to the effects of demeaning cultural practices does not make Barich a racist; it does, however, expose him as brutally insensitive and thoughtless.</p><p>It should matter if Cotati chooses to be identified with Barich and his form of thoughtlessness. This is why the recall is about Cotati. It’s about respecting differences, differences that make for a vibrant democratic process, for discussions on how, why and when to collect and spend public monies, about what forms of goodwill to extend to those among us who work in our vineyards, restaurants and trades, about how to house and care for the aging and disabled. We do this best when we come to know one another better when we trust one another more.</p><p>But trust only comes through studied respect and generous regard. Not by way of labels and vilification. What is happening now in Cotati, spurred on by a politics of personal attack, is a contagion that respects no party affiliation. No one is immunized. No one is safe from being branded enemy. “We know who <CF102>they<CF101> are! We know <CF102>those people<CF101>!” This kind of thinking and labeling stifles communication, the vital blood of healthy political debate, and stills the beating heart of community.</p><p>Cotati is simply too small to bear the weight of destructive forms of partisan politics that divide rather than join us in community. They belong in another world where conservative, green, libertarian and liberal are dirty words. Not in Cotati. Those who belittle the recall process need to hear this, to hear the voice of the people.</p><p>So, it’s time for Cotati to act, to defend its communal values, to declare its identity and say to the politics of division: Not here! Not ever!</p><p>\</p><p><i>Robert Coleman-Senghor is vice mayor of Cotati.</i></p>