Enough with the rigidity

It’s getting old witnessing the continual knee-jerk reaction displayed by the conservative members of the Chico City Council and the community.

On Tuesday, during the council’s regular meeting, both came out in opposition of a request to amend municipal code by adding a section on nondiscrimination as well as a resolution on labeling foods containing genetically modified organisms. Both agenda items were dismissed by right-wingers as feel-good proposals and a waste of city staff time (see “Across the great divide,” by Robert Speer, page 10).

That’s disappointing considering the former proposal seeks only to bring the city’s code up to date with state and federal civil-rights laws while the latter seeks to send a message to state lawmakers that consumers have a right to know what’s in their food.

Some accused the liberal members of the panel of pandering to their political interests. But the fact is, these are bipartisan issues.

Fortunately, five out of the seven council members recognized that and voted in favor of the items. We want to commend them for doing so. And we want to encourage the other two, Councilman Sean Morgan and Vice Mayor Mark Sorensen, to see beyond party lines.

Ironically, in the case of GMOs, it behooves them politically to ease up on their rigid defense of all things business. After all, as one labeling advocate noted, a majority of Chico voters (55 percent) want to know whether their foods contain GMOs. Again, their constituents want this. That’s unsurprising considering what’s happening elsewhere in the country. Vermont is poised to become the first state in the nation to require such labeling, and, after that, and the ensuing legal challenges that may temporarily stall it, other states will follow suit.

Sorensen and Morgan also voted against the city’s ordinance restricting the use of single-use plastic bags at certain retail establishments. That item was brought back on a technicality, but once again, the issue was politicized as a time-waster. We’re tired of the same old rhetoric and would like to see some flexibility on issues that clearly are important to the citizens of Chico.