Willie Burnley Jr., Somerville city councilor and mayoral candidate, stood up and left the council chamber March 27 when a resident shared his sincere, deeply emotional testimony related to the boycott, divestment and sanctions proposal he supports. He described his experience and fears as someone who has lived in Somerville for many years. Right after he finished, Burnley walked casually back in to retake his seat, a seltzer in hand. When I asked him at the break why he chose not to listen, he told me, “I can’t hear you.” And then I saw him as I exited the chamber with my two elementary-aged children, lining the hallways alongside Somerville for Palestine community members, screaming and chanting and pushing signs into the gantlet that we were forced to walk. As a mother with two children, I witnessed my incredibly strong daughter dissolve into sobbing tears as she looked around surrounded by masked, rhythmically chanting, raucous crowds holding layers of signs high up in the air, waving them directly at us. I realized that the three of us were walking alone right then in the midst of people who held us in such disdain that they forgot that we were human. I realized that to Burnley and his community members, we stood not as fellow Somerville residents but as the “other,” worthy of no sensitivity or care.
How did we get to this place in Somerville? How did we get to the point where one of our mayoral candidates refused to sit down and listen for five minutes to one of his constituents? How did we get to the point where a city councilor participated eagerly in intimidation against families in our own community? How can this be the best of Somerville?
What was demonstrated over and over is that Burnley is effectively silencing people whose voices he disagrees with. He is showing that he will not listen to all people. He will not step into discomfort to wonder what another perspective may offer, where another person is coming from, what wisdom they may have to share. And he will do this at the expense of the physical and psychological safety of all of us, even children.
I agree that listening to people whose views and perspectives are different can be terribly uncomfortable. It can be painful, threatening, anxiety-provoking, nauseating even. And yet we are adults who have chosen to be community leaders in our various roles. Community leaders must step out of their egocentrism and bridge divides.
If Burnley becomes mayor, he will need to represent all people, not simply Somerville for Palestine. He will need to recognize that Somerville is a truly diverse place. This community will wither if you continue to silence and alienate those of us whose experiences and lives are different. You will be no better than Trump – just less powerful.
I promise Burnley that those of us to whom he refuses to bear witness actually want fairness and justice and peace and empathy and a flourishing world here in Somerville and in Israel/Palestine. We could actually be on the same team. We could actually stand together to support all of us who live here in Somerville. We could advocate meaningfully for important needs in Somerville – our vulnerable immigrant community members, who deserve our attention and mobilization more than ever, our young students, our unhoused neighbors, our hungry families, our crumbling city infrastructure. We can get to that, and yet we will get nowhere when a leader can’t even gather the strength to sit and listen.
Please at least see us, listen to us, hold us with compassion in your heart. I am trying to do that for Burnley, and it is getting harder and harder.
Elana Bloomfield, Sterling Street, Somerville
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As a Jew growing up in Israel, I lived in a segregated town, going to a segregated school. I wouldn’t be able to marry my non-Jewish wife in Israel, because Israel’s marriage laws only allow Jews to marry Jews.
I grew up knowing people who glorified mass murder of Palestinians, and now people with those views are part of the Israeli government. I grew up watching war crimes implemented by my government, and now they’ve graduated to mass killing on a vastly larger scale.
And when I moved to the US, I listened to many Jewish groups and individuals who defended all this. And there’s always an excuse, or a deflection, or a pretense that no this isn’t happening. But in the end it’s just that some (certainly not all!) American Jews have made support for Israel part of their identity, and anything that criticizes Israel is seen as an attack on them. It’s not; they are not Israel, Israel is nt them.
Listening is important. But so is stopping genocide. And Israel will never stop on its own.
Didn’t read all that but Free Palestine
You are defending a genocidal apartheid state from any and all consequences, you are not a victim. This author seems to have forgotten Palestinians are human, and is projecting that basic moral failure.
I am a Jewish Somerville resident, and vehemently disagree with the opinions of the author of this piece.
I have spent significant time doing volunteer work with Israelis, Palestinians and Druze in both Israel and the West Bank, and left that experience believing strongly in the cause of Palestinian liberation.
I believe that the actions of Israel in Gaza amount to genocide, and disagree with the framing of those actions as a defense of Jewish safety. I find the idea that peaceful calls for an end to the murder of Palestinian civilians is a threat to Jewish people in America to be insulting and counterproductive.
If anything, the assertion that murder in Gaza and assaults on civil liberties in America is being done on behalf of Jewish people makes Jewish people less safe, as it plays into age-old stereotypes.
I am sorry to hear the author did not feel respected or listened to. That said, when lives and liberty are on the line, decorum is the last thing we should worry about.
“I was silenced” reads hollow when you had an opportunity to speak at the City Council meeting and write this opinion piece.
I do wonder why you didn’t actually repeat here what you wanted Councilor Burnley to hear. Instead you focused on how his refusal to listen made you feel.
You are our neighbor and I think you deserve to give your opinion just like everyone else. I don’t think your opinion or mine is more important than the genocide that our tax dollars fund.