Category: Florida

Gov. Rick Scott’s office can dismiss the governor’s mortifying meeting with Spain’s King Juan Carlos as just one of those awkward misunderstandings the liberal media love to revel in. But what they can’t dismiss is this: What Scott did was not your basic gaffe, snafu or protocol faux pas. No, humorously bringing up–and then cluelessly expanding on–the monarch’s highly publicized, highly criticized elephant-hunting trip to Botswana indicates a serious flaw in his modus operandi.

You don’t lead a trade delegation without being briefed on relevant particulars. That includes political hot buttons in the host country. Especially if your leader is socially inept, small-talk challenged and in over his head on a world stage. You script him, especially when he’s greeted by a king. Only an amateurish, incompetent staff would not properly prepare for a royal audience. That’s not shocking, merely embarrassing for the state and further infuriating for all those who didn’t join the Tea Party lemmings in electing this miscast misfit.

But it could have been worse. Gov. Gaffe could have inquired about Cuban cigars.

This can’t be what Jeb Bush had it mind. More like George Orwell.

Anyone agree that teachers shouldn’t be “accountable”? Of course not. Anyone agree that we should be striving to raise “standards”? Of course.

But what you do in the good name of “accountability” and “standards” can actually be bad. That’s the FCAT lesson we should have all learned by now. Punitive standardized testing is counterproductive to the educational experience. The reasons–from teaching to a high-stakes test to justification for school letter grades that include monetary rewards to the less needy–are manifestly obvious.

Now there’s the FCAT writing fiasco. Regardless of the focus, sentence structure, transitions, grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization, the pedagogic writing on the wall is there for everyone to read.

The grading of writing will always have a subjective element. But what Florida and the State Board of Education did with its fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders was educational malpractice. They changed the grading rules. Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson admits communication was subpar. Results: roughly four out of five students passed last year. This year: more like one out of four. But “standards” were raised.

What to do? Quick, change the rules so more students “pass.” It’s called damage control. It was called “newspeak” in “1984.” But that was disturbing fiction; this isn’t. Just disturbing.

A recent Miami Herald piece chronicled the multi-tasking phenomenon that is U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She’s the congresswoman from South Florida (Weston) who is secure enough in her Democratic district to moonlight as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and partisanly abrasive enough to earn the moniker of “Obama’s attack dog.”

The reporter quoted Richard DeNapoli, who chairs Broward County’s Republican Party. “She represents all of the liberal orthodoxy that you can think of on the left,” he said. He only left out that she is Jewish and is originally from Long Island.

Actually, he left out one other detail–and it gets omitted too often by the rest of the media as well. For all of her lockstep liberal bona fides, Wasserman Schultz can play the Cuban card like a Little Havana exile. She refuses to do the right thing on the embargo and won’t hear of further liberalizing of travel restrictions. Her hypocritical rhetoric on Cuban affairs could have been scripted by the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the harridan who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Relations.

The worst part is that her politically self-serving Cold War take on Cuba is obviously a non-issue for the White House.

Next up for Gov. Outlier who doesn’t have to play politics like all those career politicians beholden to special interests: Deciding whether to sign House Bill 959. That’s the one that would prohibit state and local governments from hiring companies with business ties to Syria–and Cuba. Imagine, both Damascus and Havana are off limits.

The implications for our “let’s get to work” and business-attracting state?  It means no contracts (of more than $1 million) will be awarded to any entity doing business with either aforementioned country. This would, at minimum, seem at odds with the “business friendly” reputation Scott says he is courting for Florida. It would at least be a mixed signal to overseas companies looking to expand or initiate business in Florida. Especially ones in Latin America–most notably Brazil, the Sunshine State’s largest trade partner.

The impact for Tampa Bay is not negligible. Especially at Tampa International Airport where TIA is seriously targeting new international routes with Brazilian carriers–airlines that could also be doing business in Cuba. HB 959 hardly helps the pitch. That’s why the Greater Tampa Area Chamber of Commerce (along with the Florida Chamber of Commerce) is on record urging Scott to veto HB 959.

So, would Scott sign or veto?  Or is this another disingenuous, special-interest political loophole reminiscent of SunRail and Florida Poly? Well, he granted a recent phone interview to a prominent Spanish language radio station (“Radio Mambi”) in Miami. You don’t typically choose this forum unless you want to assure an exile constituency with still-lingering political leverage that you fully intend to sign this blatant piece of pandering, legislative flotsam.

So he signed–before muddling matters by opining it was really up to the feds. Sometimes he doesn’t even pander well.

“As we all know, the record of the Castro and Assad governments are undeniably repressive,” read Scott from his script. “I’m going to sign legislation that protects Florida taxpayers from unintentionally supporting dictatorships that commit such despicable acts.”

Despicable acts, indeed.

Where to begin with Gov. Rick Scott? The Tea Party outsider thumbed his nose at President Obama by turning down federal billions for high-speed rail before bids were even proffered then did a hypocritical, ideologically schizoid 180 and signed off on politically incestuous SunRail and Florida Poly. All gall and no guts.

His mantra: Florida must “live within its means.” But what does that mean? Starting a 12th state university–one in need of students, faculty, buildings, accreditation, subsidy and credibility–while gouging the budgets of the other 11–makes no sense. It’s a cynical dereliction of duty and an insult to anyone–from the bypassed Board of Governors to the ignored Florida Council of 100–who understands the needs of higher education within the context of a challenging economy.

Too bad Scott couldn’t keep that PR workday job for Southwest Airlines. Instead, we have two and a half more years of gubernatorial baggage.

The cachet of standardized testing–the one-time synonym for “accountability” in education–has arguably peaked. Backlash, locally and nationally, is increasingly apparent. It could beget political complications for Jeb Bush when he makes that inevitable last run for public office in 2016.

As we know all too well, Gov. Rick Scott, after checking in with the Cato Institute and Reason Foundation, took one for Team Tea Party last year–and there went high-speed rail in Florida. All that remains is a shovel-ready corridor and a “taxpayer-left-on-the-hook” mantra.

But Scott has other high-profile, high-cost opportunities to further reinforce ideological, fiscal restraint. One was SunRail, and we know how ideologically compromised that turned out. Next up: the Heartland Parkway and Florida Polytechnic. A Scott trifecta?

The “Justice For Trayvon” marches, with or without hoodies, are necessary. Society would be remiss to let this ongoing outrage pass without push-back. A Skittles-armed black kid is dead, and the NRA paean that is Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is in play with leverage.

But what’s with those “No Justice, No Peace” placards? That’s more than calling the court of public opinion into session. A lot of us can remember “NJNP” as a rallying cry in the aftermath of the notorious Rodney King case in 1991. But the ensuing Los Angeles riots, property destruction and murders were disproportionately outrageous.

“NJNP” is disturbing rhetoric. Perhaps most of today’s marchers don’t have that infamous police brutality-and-acquittal frame of reference and are merely adamant in conveying outrage–not threat. Hopefully.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll is chairing Gov. Rick Scott’s task force on “Stand Your Ground.” She says she wants to avoid “partisan” and “racial” politics.

Two points.

First, good luck.

Second, how ironic. Had Gov. Outlier not wanted to soften his Tea Party, Medicare fraud, buy-an-election, anti-everything Obama candidacy, Carroll, as the only elected black Republican in Florida’s Capitol, would never have been chosen for the ticket.

In planning a rare night at the theater early this month, my wife and I knew that we were in for provocative fare. We had reservations–but not misgivings–for “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the play based on Harper Lee’s iconic 1960 novel and the classic, Gregory Peck-starring, 1962 movie. It’s a seminal work about racial “justice,” and it was produced by Stageworks, whose founder-director Anna Brennen has been known to push sensitive societal envelopes. Painful legacies: Bring it.

The production didn’t disappoint. The courtroom scene was memorable, riveting theater. Plaudits in particular to Jim Wicker as the fabled Atticus Finch, Kibwe Dorsey as the defendant, Amanda Welch as the purported rape victim and Peter Nason as her spot-on, Deliverancesque father. They all channeled their characters.

For several years Brennen had been wanting to do the revered and celebrated “Mockingbird,” but timing was a chronic issue. She wanted the best venue available. Now she has that new, compact facility in the Grand Central at Kennedy–in the Channel District–that has afforded the opportunity. And given that Stageworks’ raison d’être is addressing major social issues, “Mockingbird” and Stageworks was a match made to resonate in 21st century America. It’s now playing to sold-out audiences.

And yet Brennen, as feisty, confident and demanding as they come, concedes an instance, however fleeting, that took her aback, as well as one of raw, rare doubt.

“The first time it (the racial epithet ‘nigger’) was said in rehearsal, we all cringed,” she says. The actors, to be sure, are no less products of contemporary society simply because they are playing roles and mouthing scripted lines.

“I also had one moment, maybe 3-4 days into rehearsal,” recalls Brennen, “where I thought: ‘Are you out of your mind?’ You’re taking on this iconic work that so many are so familiar with? That means so much to so many? That’s a lot of pressure to do it right.”

She quickly reverted to intrepid form.

“Then I said, ‘We’re going to do this work, and we’re going to treat it the way we feel about it. We’re going to do it for those who love the book and remind them why they love it. Let’s also do it for those seeing it for the first time–and prove why it’s important. You can’t know a man till you walk in his shoes. And, let’s not forget there are lots of teachable moments for Atticus, not just racial tolerance.”

Ironic Context

Speaking of teachable moments, you sometimes have to wonder if in the aftermath of more than two generations of “Mockingbird” readings and viewings, we’ve really learned anything racially. Trayvon Martin was not a character in “Mockingbird,” but his symbolic presence was on stage, if not on trial. The Retreat at Twin Lakes in 2012 Sanford, Florida is hardly synonymous with 1935 Maycomb, Alabama but the disparate communities do belong in the same racial-crucible context. Indeed, what would Harper Lee think about what happened–and what hasn’t happened–in Sanford this month?

But just as the racial code of the Deep South was the underpinning for the period-piece trial that convicted black defendant Tom Robinson in “Mockingbird,” there are other color codes afoot more than half a century after Harper Lee wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Aided by ordinances so NRA- and yahoo-friendly that nearly 900,000 Floridians have concealed weapons permits and abetted by a Wild West “Stand Your Ground” law, Florida now has potential perfect-storm scenarios every time there is a confrontation. Here in the Gunshine State we now have many more of the wrong people packing–emboldened as never before.

As a result, we can have racial profiling that is deadly–not just demeaning. Those self-charged with enforcing the code of suspicion about those of the wrong color in the wrong place have never had such standing–or seeming impunity. The law is not on the side of those suspiciously packing Skittles.

Another variation on a code theme is what responsible black parents must advise their male children. Here’s what Jesse Washington, a black AP reporter, told his son to avoid fulfilling “up-to-no-good” stereotypes.

“Always pay close attention to your surroundings, especially if you are in an affluent neighborhood where black folks are few. Understand that even though you are not a criminal, some people might assume you are, especially if you are wearing certain clothes.

“Never argue with police, but protect your dignity and take pride in humility. When confronted by someone with a badge or a gun, do not flee, fight, or put your hands anywhere other than up. … As a black male, you must go above and beyond to show strangers what type of person you really are.”

But here’s the code that’s missing: a clarion clear message that refutes a dysfunctional culture that entices and entraps too many impressionable black males. Call it a stereotype perception-breaking code. And, no, we’re not necessarily talking about hoodies, although the hip-hopsters adopted it as the preferred look of nuanced menace, but, yes, we are talking about jailin’ drawers that prompt mainstream America, not just vigilantes, to contemptibly dismiss those who sport them.

Put it this way. Where are the massive  national rallies, marches and vigils condemning misogynistic rap lyrics and all things “gangsta”? And 70 percent illegitimacy birth rates? And the denigration of good grades as “acting white?” This can’t be what Martin Luther King Jr. had in mind.

Rallies for Trayvon justice are as understandable as they are necessary. No one should be able to disregard police instructions and pursue their way into confrontation and a deadly force, Stand Your Ground self-defense. It’s legally oxymoronic and societally unconscionable.

Obviously, the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons need single, high-profile coalescing events to warrant their direct involvement. It’s easier to invoke the name of Emmett Till than Nicholas Lindsey or Donte Morris. Obviously, the all-grievance New Black Panther Party and the International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement are part of the no-help problem.

We need justice for Trayvon Martin. But America’s muti-cultural, multi-racial issues transcend race. It means rethinking our ongoing perversion of the Second Amendment as much as it means responsibly raising all kids of all hues. Diversity allows for common values, not different standards. These are lessons even children can learn.

Harper Lee would agree.