Mayor Steinberg’s ceasefire resolution had very few supporters: Was it worth it? | Opinion

Tuesday night, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg learned another painful lesson that he perhaps should have already been privy to after so many years of public service: You can’t make everyone happy.

Steinberg’s Gaza ceasefire resolution, prompted in no small part by ongoing protests at city council meetings nearly every week, was clearly supposed to be part of his swan song of peace and progress.

Opinion

Despite the resolution’s ultimate passage — 6-1, with one “No” from Lisa Kaplan, one absence (Mai Vang) and one missing seat (District 2) — a sense of closure continues to elude nearly everyone involved. It seems that, ultimately, it was to no avail. Both sides have vowed to continue their protests.

It’s clear that with this gesture, the mayor wanted to regain control of city chambers from angry protesters who have swarmed the audience and disrupted city business week after week for the past several months. He could have done so weeks ago when Councilmembers Vang and Katie Valenzuela brought forward the first ceasefire resolution, but Steinberg clearly wanted his own imprint on the document.

“(Our) bonds have been tested, and in some ways they have been damaged, over these past months,” Steinberg said to start the meeting. “Only we together can change that…This resolution has not divided our community, it has not created division in this city — it has exposed the divisions that already existed and we have an obligation as leaders… to try and make it better.”

But even such good intentions were never going to be enough for certain people on both sides of the issue.

“It’s not a fair resolution,” Noor Hariz told me from inside the sealed-off chambers. Attendees weren’t even allowed to leave and return to the room after using the bathrooms. Hariz was leading the pro-Palestinian side of protesters, and was eventually among those arrested for unlawful assembly and failing to disperse. “The only thing we agree on (in this) resolution is ceasefire now and release the hostages now. Release the prisoners and send humanitarian aid as soon as possible. That’s what it should be and nothing else.”

After 79 members of the public had spoken, with many more to go, the meeting devolved into the chaos everyone had been dreading all night. After nearly three hours of presentation and public comment, at almost exactly 9 p.m., the mayor shut the meeting down and ordered the chambers cleared.

Ultimately, after another two hours of chanting and debate, a dozen protesters who remained were arrested by more than 50 Sacramento Police officers who swarmed the chambers. At one point, I was even placed in handcuffs just for being there — a serious violation of at least the First Amendment and several other laws concerning press freedoms. But as egregious as that was, that’s not the story that merits our attention right now.

Sacramento’s ceasefire resolution was virtue-signaling, but it wasn’t empty.

Virtues are high moral standards, and we have an ethical imperative to hold ourselves to them. In a world when we are generally reduced to merely standing up for our beliefs instead of being able to actively change them, words are often all we have. Sacramento must place our name among the cities calling for peace in Gaza, and that’s what our city council did last night.

The arguments, the arrests and the chaos are not what will ultimately be remembered. What will be remembered is that Sacramento added its name to the list of cities calling for a ceasefire — and that is no small accomplishment.

“I don’t care … how righteous your cause or how angry you are,” Steinberg said after he removed protesters from the chamber. “When you shout out and disrupt you not only prevent others from being heard, you create a chill in these chambers that makes it difficult for people (to) feel that it’s a place where they can be heard.”

Steinberg’s legacy is sure to survive Tuesday night’s antics — even if he took a risk by placing the resolution on a night when a sure vote would be absent (Vang posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she requested the council delay the vote until her return, but Steinberg apparently refused).

The mayor also took a risk when he bypassed a discussion on the matter by the council’s Law and Legislation Committee; instead choosing to agendize the matter himself. This move meant that the resolution had to pass Tuesday night, or it could not be brought forward for another year, according to city procedures.

Some distinguished members of Sacramento’s Jewish and Muslim communities did speak in favor of this resolution in a spirit of compromise and healing. But for many, the resolution went too far; for others, not far enough. But it could, if allowed, represent a way forward together. Inside those imperfections, there was a small amount of hope for those who wanted to grasp it. I truly think the mayor’s heart was in the right place, but the execution of the idea was far too caught up in his signature brand of excessive bureaucracy.

It took admirable courage for every person present to come to the council chambers on Tuesday night. Hundreds lined up outside for their right to be heard, slowly filtering into a packed council chamber throughout the evening to express their beliefs through anger and tears. If that’s not American democracy at work, show me a better example.

There is also no small amount of fear inherent in publicly identifying as a Jew, Muslim or Palestinian in this country, and it takes strength to stand up and speak what you believe is the truth while knowing a crowd of people directly behind you will vehemently — and maybe physically — disagree. It also takes strength to listen calmly to words you disagree with, and it takes strength to be arrested for what you believe in.

As Sacramentans, we also have a personal imperative to speak up. Many people making comments at the council meeting on Tuesday have dozens of family members and friends whom they will never see again — victims of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Turning a blind eye to what’s happening in Palestine merely to spare our personal discomfort is cowardly. We have the right to discuss these issues in our city chambers as much as we do sewer taxes or school bonds. But it cannot be the only topic of discussion, and we need to move on to other business now that we’ve officially become the 75th city in the U.S. to call for a ceasefire.

The lesson here is that peace always requires compromise. The struggle inside Sacramento and by Steinberg to find our own version of compromise only reinforces how hard it must be for the rest of the world.