It’s Time for Council to Stop Hiding Behind Honorifics

As of this writing, more than 100 homicides have taken place this year in Philadelphia. That’s ahead of last year’s pace, when a record-breaking 562 people were murdered. A quarter of Philadelphians live in poverty, while 22 percent of adults in the city lack basic literacy skills.

Nearly 70 percent of third graders can’t read at grade level. Nearly three-quarters of maternal deaths in Philadelphia are Black women. An estimated 10,000 out of 16,000 city blocks are covered in trash, according to GlitterApp’s Morgan Berman. Vaccination rates are lagging, especially among Black residents, contrary to rosy health department numbers.

Philadelphia is a disaster.

In this time of unprecedented crisis, members of City Council have done what they do best: pat themselves and their friends on the back for a job well done.

Instead of debating and passing bold legislation designed to pull Philadelphia from the depths of the dumpster fire in which its citizens are burning (in some cases to literal death), City Council spends the overwhelming majority of its time passing honorific resolutions. These legislative trophies are designed to honor everyone and everything from celebrities to community organizers to television shows and board games. It’s a cacophony of honorableness. And it’s taken over the legislative process in Philadelphia.

Read the rest at The Philadelphia Citizen.