Ethel Stewart was elected to fill the unexpired term of her late brother, Gene Taylor, as Columbus Ward 1 councilman in October 2019 and was elected to her first full-term this summer.
Until recently, Stewart has been largely unseen and unheard during council meetings. A petite lady, she’s barely visible from her position at the far left end of the table where the councilmen sit during meetings at the municipal complex. All that can be seen of her is her hand when a show-of-hands vote is held. She rarely speaks at council meetings, choosing most often to leave the debate to her fellow council members. She keeps her own counsel.
But over the last 10 days or so, Ethel Stewart has found her voice.
During both the Aug. 18 city council meeting and Thursday’s special-call meeting, Stewart spoke passionately and forcefully, if not successfully, in support of a city-wide mask mandate as the Delta variant cuts a tragic swath through a population that remains largely unvaccinated and therefore vulnerable.
Every council member, along with Mayor Keith Gaskin, had their say during the 30-minute discussion that ended with the mayor casting the tie-breaking vote against a city-wide mask mandate.
No one made better arguments than Stewart. She may have been on the losing side of the debate, but she won the day. Her arguments were not simply passionate, but well-grounded and thoughtful. She came “loaded for bear” as the saying goes, blowing gaping holes in the arguments presented by those opposed to the mask mandate.
The mayor’s position, boiled down to its essence, was that the city’s role should be to educate not dictate.
He pointed out that the issue has been clouded by both politics and differences of opinion, even among the experts.
It was an exchange about those experts’ opinions that led to the most interesting exchange between Stewart and the mayor.
Gaskin noted that his administration has made an effort to educate the public through a variety of means, including assembling a panel discussion of doctors to talk about the pandemic.
Thursday, Gaskin said he had heard from other doctors whose views did not align with those of the panel, which he said, goes to show that even among medical professionals there is not a consensus. He said he’d like to bring those two groups together for another panel discussion.
Gaskin said he had shared many of those emails with the council.
One of those emails certainly grabbed Stewart’s attention.
“It brought tears to my eyes when I read it,” she said. “He doesn’t believe in mask mandates. He wrote that when he goes to the grocery store, the potato chip aisle is full of people who are going to die from heart attacks. Well, if I went to Kroger every day and bought four bags of potato chips, maybe I would have a heart attack. But you know what? I can’t pass my heart attack on to someone else.
“I’m embarrassed that we have a physician that would make a statement like that.”
Drop the mic, sister.
If there is a doctor out there who doesn’t believe in mask wearing or, for all I know, COVID vaccines, I would consider it a public service for everyone to know who he is.
I invite Dr. Potato Chip to get in touch with me and give his permission to share his identity.
Stewart may have left Thursday’s meeting with far less than she hoped, but I suspect she gained a measure of respect from her performance.
As for the mask decision, when the mayor and council members reflect on their votes, I ask just one question: Did your vote support anything that will make the city of Columbus safer?
I think three council members can answer “yes” to that question.
But no matter how you feel about the council’s decision, we should be encouraged that Stewart has found her voice and that, at least on this issue, it is a compelling one.
Perhaps as it was with Ward 2 councilman Joseph Mickens, Stewart is emerging as a vocal leader on the council.
You can never have too many of those kinds of council members.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is ssmith@cdispatch.com.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is ssmith@cdispatch.com.
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