Formal Support Withdrawal from The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

Delivered on November 25, 2024 to Jon Elbaum, Executive Director, The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

No acknowledgement or response as of this publication.

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Mr. Jon Elbaum,

It is with great displeasure I write to inform you of my decision to halt all planned financial support to the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. This is a difficult decision-- not for lack of cause, but for my great passion for classical music, and my own respect for freedom of expression. Your organization's lack of collaborative communication, abandonment of leadership, and direct oppression of our community voice has made this choice clear for me.

Your specious dictum was vacuous and superficial, and betrays your institution. To permit someone who supports oppression is to condone the oppressor themselves. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is a Musical Institution of our proud region. To be offered the chance to grace the stage of The Hall is to walk in the light of Rachmaninoff, Gillespie, and Hartford. Are their legacies equal to that of Matisyahu's shadow?

I took you on your literal word from your email: freedom of expression, knowing that people will be heard. I (and I'm sure you can as well) recall examples of peaceful and violent demonstrations in our nation's history. January 6 2021, the Selma to Montgomery Marches, and our own Black Lives Matter protest on June 7, 2020. I witnessed the protest outside of the hall on November 21, 2024, and saw respect, acknowledgement, and calls for action to end the bloodshed. Our community held a demonstration that did not violate your rights. I was present during the Black Lives Matter Protest of June 7, 2020: the fact that your organization brought the Troy Police Department into a completely respectful demonstration renders your respect for Freedom of Expression patently false. The allocation of these personnel to censor our community is a pearl-clutching waste of resources. This thuggish behavior tarnishes not only our community values, but normalizes that supreme power rules supremely: what happens when fascistic powers turn their focus on our own institutions?

The IDF has killed more than one hundred thousand Palestinian citizens, a majority of them children (Watson Institute at Brown University (opens in a new tab)). This number is not solely based on the gunned down citizens seeking shelter in the "Safety Corridors." It includes the deaths of people in the Israeli ran camps. Non-combat individuals without food and potable water: forced starvation and death from exposure.

100,000 is twice the population of Troy, New York-- read that sentence again and look at Troy on a map: 100,000 is twice the population of Troy, New York. There have been detailed documentation, footage, and coverage of human carnage that has be described by the U.N. (opens in a new tab) as "atrocities against humanity." and by Amnesty International (opens in a new tab) as "genocide." What is happening right now will be remembered as a 2024 retelling of South African Apartheid. Ethno-exsanguination for beachfront property.

The people of Israel are not the State of Israel. The people of Palestine are not Hamas. The Zionism of 2024 is not the Zionism described by Associate Justice Louis Brandeis, nor by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The right to exist, the freedom to be, are American ideals. That is what moved our nation to defend and support the Jewish people. Benjamin Netanayahu and his administration are abusing our trust. The IDF is committing genocide by using the United States's good will as leverage against the most vulnerable people, and your administration normalizes this by inviting an IDF sponsor who doesn't "have a problem with those numbers" to perform here (MSN (opens in a new tab)).

Your view ("kind of a no-win [situation] for us", The Times Union (opens in a new tab)) is exactly what is wrong with our American Institutions: your spineless, greedy administration refuses to take responsibility for their own misconduct. I would call this a mistake, but you felt so emboldened in The Times Union article to call this good PR and proceeded to victim blame the good people of our community. Exploiting the outcries over the deaths of more than 50,000 children due to forced starvation is good PR for the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall? Wicked, and foul morals that ruin any semblance of honesty in your calls to support children education in the joys of music.

Yes: you did announce this performance in July, but it is not the community's responsibility to review every performer's qualities and fit for our stage. I've worked with live performance before: I understand how scheduling and vetting works. This responsibility and accountability is dutifully yours yet you rebuke the notion-- your shifting of responsibilities shows your embarrassing lack of integrity by stigmatizing the harmed further, and exemplifies your unfitness to carry the mantle of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. It is the organization's responsibility to uphold its ideals, and your lack of empathy, integrity, and foresight should be openly mocked, especially for your disgusting rhetoric when receiving well-found criticism. Your petulant behavior of censorship and oppression of our community is a dishonor to your office as the Executive Director of this legendary hall.

I will no longer consider financially supporting the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall until reparations have been made to the people of Palestine.

Your neighbor,

Michael Gardner II