On Tuesday nights, the Lowell City Council and the Manager’s Administration meet to discuss the issues affecting the city and various ideas/proposals to address them. As part of that process, residents are able to register to speak on any or all of the items on that particular meeting’s agenda.

With most agenda items, nobody from the public will speak. With others, you may get a couple of folks to chime in here or there. Occasionally, there’s a “hot-button” issue guaranteed to draw a crowd to speak for or against that item.

One such issue is any city council effort to address Lowell’s vagrancy problem. Put that on the agenda, and you’re almost assuredly going to have the “masses” lined up to lecture us on how morally superior they are.

Tomorrow night, Councilor Erik Gitschier is wading back into that lion’s dean…or maybe I should say, the llama’s den:

You can expect the usual parade of speakers telling us “how unfair it to remove those less fortunate” from (pick one); the woods, the banks of the Merrimack River, a public park, next to a school, etc.

And if you listen to just that dozen or so (handful?) of speakers and the obligatory cheering section that shows up on occasions like this, the temptation might be to think they speak for “all of Lowell.”

But do they?

What if those of you who are tired of that fresh aroma of urine and feces accompanying you down the sidewalk as you walk to work showed up to speak?

What if the moms and dads whose kids get treated to the daily double of drug-laced needles and piles of debris at school or in the parks took to the podium?

What if working men and women who aren’t dependent on or employed by social services decided to make their voice heard either in person or via a communication to their elected leaders?

Or what if you and your neighbors didn’t register to speak, but showed up anyway, in solidarity with Lowell, to support those asking for a cleaner, safer city in which to raise a family?

Would you outnumber the activists?

I could hazard a guess, but unless and until it happens, I can’t know for sure.

So how about if tomorrow night, or any future Tuesday night in which the vagrancy battle is fought in council chambers, we try a little social experiment;

Do what the other side does. Put out the call on social media for people to register to speak in support of Councilor Gitschier and every other official trying to solve the problem. Round up your friends, your family, your neighbors, and ask them to come downtown with you. Whether you choose speak or not,  your presence will be noted and appreciated. If you can’t be there in person, click here to send your City Councilors a note letting them know how you feel on the issue.

There are roughly 120,000 people who call Lowell home, and countless other businesses who do the same. I’m of the belief the vast, vast majority of them are tired of having their city hijacked by a few dozen vagrants and the “advocates” who enable a literal “shit-show” on public property each and every day.

Who really speaks for those 120,000 people?

I hope one of these Tuesday nights, we get to find out. I bet your city councilors do, too.