Over time, we’ve had our share of polarizing county issues: from school calendars, panhandling restrictions and internet cafes to light rail, environmental priorities and urban sprawl.
But for sheer visceral reaction and over-the-top, us-against-them rhetoric, nothing tops anything that has anything to do with Muslims or weapons. As once again we’ve been reminded. Whether it’s at a hearing or even a workshop, emotion-driven arguments are always in play. Whether formally on the agenda or not, the Tea Party-Deliverance-Charlton Heston bunch is always in the house to counter the live-and-let-live, kumbaya crowd.
Two recent examples:
* Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, in an effort to placate anti-Muslim sentiment over a classroom guest speaker at an advanced placement world history class, has drafted a policy so sanitized that it only permits those speakers who advocate nothing. Including, presumably, common sense, academic freedom, xenophobia alternatives, meaningful patriotism and professional educators’ judgment. You never know–today, Hassan Shibly, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Tomorrow, Sharia law and public lashing for missing homeroom.
The good news: It should also keep out porn-again Christian David Caton, who runs the Florida Family Association when he’s not witch-hunting Muslims.
* Then there’s the oxymoronic issue of Swiftmud and hunters who are allowed on state preserves. Not all of them, to be sure, but at more than a dozen places in its 16-county area. The net effect: Those who kill for sport in the context of that which is being preserved–from whooping cranes and scrub jays to black bears. Also among the flora and fauna: Those merely hunting for hiking and biking trails and nature photo-ops.
Pleasing no one, Swiftmud recently voted to open up additional preserve properties, one at Weekiwatchee Preserve in Hernando County and the other at Lake Panasoffkee in Sumter County. The hunters wanted even more and the hiker crowd wanted even less. Neither side was satisfied, but reality will prevail: More wild life–and probably a few hunters–will be shot at in the coming years.
Obviously, I don’t get it. And obviously I don’t care that I don’t get it. I don’t like hunting, unless it’s the only alternative to starving. You don’t have to be Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer or Fred Flintstone to get that. But it shouldn’t be a fun outing. I will never get that, whether it’s in the name of “thinning the herd” or needing something to complement bowling trophies.