Last Tuesday, Christina Patiño Houle, Debbie Nathan and Mark Kaswan did a 10-minute presentation before the Brownsville City Commission. Christina gave some of the background on events leading up to our public forum, Debbie reprised the essential elements of her presentation on the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Mark presented the results of the forum and made our pitch. We told the Commission that we felt that, between Antonio Castillo's petition, the city Parks Department's Town Hall and on-line survey, and our public forum, that everyone who felt strongly about the issue had had an opportunity to give their input, and that the commission had the information they needed to make a decision. We asked the City Commission to consider setting a specific timeline for the relocation of the memorial -- we suggested 18 months -- and that they establish a citizens commission, made up of a spectrum of concerned citizens and historians, who would make a final recommendation on what to do with it. Our presentation was very well received. The commissioners listened with interest, and at the end, Mayor Martinez instructed the City Manager to draw up a resolution for the Commission as we had requested. He then thanked us for what he called our "excellent" presentation and led the audience in a round of applause. The morning after the presentation, Ben Neece wrote to us from Madrid to congratulate us on our "superb" presentation (he had not been at the meeting but apparently was able to watch a video), and promising to support and work with us moving forward. He also said he thought it would be possible to "accelerate" the "generous" time frame we had proposed. Note that we did not expect the Commission to actually adopt a resolution or make a decision at this meeting -- apparently, it is very unusual for them to do so. Nonetheless, we are confident that the presentation will lead to a positive result in the near future. All that said, a week has passed and we have yet to hear of any follow-up from the City. We intend to reach out to them to make sure this doesn't get dropped. It may be that they are waiting for Commissioner Neece to get back from his trip next month before moving forward with the resolution. We will be sure to keep you updated as this moves forward and opportunities arise for you to raise your voices once again. As Mayor Martinez said in thanking us for our presentation, this is how democracy is really supposed to work. Onward! Frontera Progressives https://www.facebook.com/frontera.progressives/ ----------------------------------------------- Presentation by Frontera Progressives and Arte Cívico Circle - 8:40 to 20:50 https://youtu.be/FPun11N_PZ8