St. Augustine City Commissioners Monday voted to apologize for past racial injustice wrongs. See article below. I first proposed something like it in April 2005. Thank you for listening, Commissioners.
As Commissioner Jones’ original, unexpurgated resolution said (in the immortal words Matt Damon said to Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting"), "Let the Healing Begin."
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
City apologizes for racial wrongs
City apologizes for racial wrongsJones dissents over changes to make resolution 'look pretty'MARCIA LANEmarcia.lane@staugustine.comPublication Date: 02/27/07
The St. Augustine City Commission apologized Monday to all who "suffered the indignities" and "painful emotions and anger" during the city's civil rights turmoil in the 1960s.
However, the commissioner who made the resolution didn't vote for it after other commissioners changed two words at Monday's St. Augustine City Commission meeting.
"I don't need someone else to tell me how to express my feelings," Commissioner Errol Jones said after the vote. Jones, who is black, said he had been thinking about the need for the city to apologize for some time.
During the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast he decided "once a year we people get up and say rah, rah for civil rights and then 364 days of the year they go home and do nothing about it. That's blacks and whites. We need to be doing things that have long-term effects."
His resolution called for the city to "formally and sincerely expresses its regret to all who suffered the indignities endured, the painful emotions, and anger during the time. For this, we show nothing but sorrow."
Other commissioners raised concerns over the word "its," arguing that could lead to legal challenges.
"I'm not against this resolution. I think it's very apropos during this time. I'm just concerned about the wording of it and what it may open up for St. Augustine," Vice Mayor Don Crichlow said.
He suggested several sentences changes.
Commissioners also disagreed with Jones' assertion that there had been no healing of wounds caused during the civil rights demonstrations that rocked St. Augustine in 1964.
They suggested changing a phrase in Jones' original resolution that read, " We the City Commission of the City of St. Augustine, do herein express our words of profound regret and remorse ... 'Let the healing begin.' "
Commissioner Susan Burk wanted "let the healing begin" changed to "let the healing continue."
"Since 1964, I believe a lot of healing has occurred. To suggest otherwise is wrong," Burk said.
Jones replied, "The wound is there and the need for an apology of this type is needed. Not, not, not, as we say, shining it up or making it look pretty for Sunday School. We're telling it like it is. I'm not prepared to accept an amendment that glosses over the seriousness of it the importance of it."
Burk then said, "You're not willing to accept changing even one word."
Jones said she was right.
There was no argument over the words "that we celebrate the efforts of the foot soldiers who worked to change the system of racial segregation in what the future will view as one of St. Augustine's greatest gifts to America and to the world."
Commissioners eventually passed the resolution with the two changes. Mayor Joe Boles, Commissioner George Gardner and Burk voted for the resolution.
Jones and Crichlow voted against it.
Jones said later he would not give up on pushing for a resolution in which the city and people took responsibility for the injustices.
"You can't hide it. We have had no reconciliation," Jones said. Before people can move on, he said, they have to admit the injustices.Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/022707/news_4432045.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
The St. Augustine City Commission apologized Monday to all who "suffered the indignities" and "painful emotions and anger" during the city's civil rights turmoil in the 1960s.
However, the commissioner who made the resolution didn't vote for it after other commissioners changed two words at Monday's St. Augustine City Commission meeting.
"I don't need someone else to tell me how to express my feelings," Commissioner Errol Jones said after the vote. Jones, who is black, said he had been thinking about the need for the city to apologize for some time.
During the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast he decided "once a year we people get up and say rah, rah for civil rights and then 364 days of the year they go home and do nothing about it. That's blacks and whites. We need to be doing things that have long-term effects."
His resolution called for the city to "formally and sincerely expresses its regret to all who suffered the indignities endured, the painful emotions, and anger during the time. For this, we show nothing but sorrow."
Other commissioners raised concerns over the word "its," arguing that could lead to legal challenges.
"I'm not against this resolution. I think it's very apropos during this time. I'm just concerned about the wording of it and what it may open up for St. Augustine," Vice Mayor Don Crichlow said.
He suggested several sentences changes.
Commissioners also disagreed with Jones' assertion that there had been no healing of wounds caused during the civil rights demonstrations that rocked St. Augustine in 1964.
They suggested changing a phrase in Jones' original resolution that read, " We the City Commission of the City of St. Augustine, do herein express our words of profound regret and remorse ... 'Let the healing begin.' "
Commissioner Susan Burk wanted "let the healing begin" changed to "let the healing continue."
"Since 1964, I believe a lot of healing has occurred. To suggest otherwise is wrong," Burk said.
Jones replied, "The wound is there and the need for an apology of this type is needed. Not, not, not, as we say, shining it up or making it look pretty for Sunday School. We're telling it like it is. I'm not prepared to accept an amendment that glosses over the seriousness of it the importance of it."
Burk then said, "You're not willing to accept changing even one word."
Jones said she was right.
There was no argument over the words "that we celebrate the efforts of the foot soldiers who worked to change the system of racial segregation in what the future will view as one of St. Augustine's greatest gifts to America and to the world."
Commissioners eventually passed the resolution with the two changes. Mayor Joe Boles, Commissioner George Gardner and Burk voted for the resolution.
Jones and Crichlow voted against it.
Jones said later he would not give up on pushing for a resolution in which the city and people took responsibility for the injustices.
"You can't hide it. We have had no reconciliation," Jones said. Before people can move on, he said, they have to admit the injustices.Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/022707/news_4432045.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
Friday, February 23, 2007
Editorial: City tour guide test lacks pivotal partof city's history
Editorial: City tour guide test lacks pivotal partof city's history Publication Date: 02/23/07
St. Augustine's official tour guide manual ignores a key part of St. Augustine's history: black history.
The manual, which is sold to prospective tour guides, encompasses a dress code, ethics, tour routes, basic historical information, historic sites, modern facts and figures and suggested readings about the city's history. Prospective guides are expected to study it and then be tested on its contents in order to become a licensed tour guide for hire.
The licensing was developed years ago after city officials heard numerous complaints about the lack of uniform tour information. Guides were not licensed and almost every tour was different depending on who told the story.
The city's past often was told through family histories, folk lore, and many times, half truths about St. Augustine's five centuries. For example, in years past, some guides would comment that Napoleon Bonaparte had visited St. Augustine's Prince Murat house on St. George Street. In truth, Murat was a nephew of Bonaparte.
It is not clear how the guide missed on the city's black history. It was last revised in 2002.
Examples of black history missing from the tour guide are:
Fort Mose de Gracia de Santa Teresa, the first free black settlement in what is now the United States. Mose was a fort and a town run by runaway slaves from the British colonies. Fort Mose protected the northern defense of Spanish St. Augustine from 1738 until 1763 when Spanish rule gave way to British rule. The fort itself is non-existent but the site is a state park, north of the city off U.S. 1.
Lincolnville, the city's oldest black business and residential section. It was established by freed slaves after the Civil War. It is one of the city's historic districts. Famed singer Ray Charles is said to have performed at clubs in Lincolnville while he was a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
St. Augustine's role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including the arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for trying to integrate the Monson Motor Lodge Restaurant. St. Augustine was the only city in Florida where King was arrested. Numerous sites have recently been marked by the Civil Rights Memorial Projects Committee.
The St. Augustine City Commission must take charge of the problem and fix it because the study guide and test are part of the city's licensing requirement. It's time for St. Augustine City Commissioner Errol Jones to take the lead on getting the tour guide and test revised. He will find no shortage of black heritage groups in the city ready to help. We encourage him to move on this project soon.
St. Augustine's prospective tour guides deserve the most accurate information possible about the city's history. It's disgraceful that the city's official tour guide and test ignores black history. Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/022307/opinions_4423046.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
St. Augustine's official tour guide manual ignores a key part of St. Augustine's history: black history.
The manual, which is sold to prospective tour guides, encompasses a dress code, ethics, tour routes, basic historical information, historic sites, modern facts and figures and suggested readings about the city's history. Prospective guides are expected to study it and then be tested on its contents in order to become a licensed tour guide for hire.
The licensing was developed years ago after city officials heard numerous complaints about the lack of uniform tour information. Guides were not licensed and almost every tour was different depending on who told the story.
The city's past often was told through family histories, folk lore, and many times, half truths about St. Augustine's five centuries. For example, in years past, some guides would comment that Napoleon Bonaparte had visited St. Augustine's Prince Murat house on St. George Street. In truth, Murat was a nephew of Bonaparte.
It is not clear how the guide missed on the city's black history. It was last revised in 2002.
Examples of black history missing from the tour guide are:
Fort Mose de Gracia de Santa Teresa, the first free black settlement in what is now the United States. Mose was a fort and a town run by runaway slaves from the British colonies. Fort Mose protected the northern defense of Spanish St. Augustine from 1738 until 1763 when Spanish rule gave way to British rule. The fort itself is non-existent but the site is a state park, north of the city off U.S. 1.
Lincolnville, the city's oldest black business and residential section. It was established by freed slaves after the Civil War. It is one of the city's historic districts. Famed singer Ray Charles is said to have performed at clubs in Lincolnville while he was a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
St. Augustine's role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including the arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964 for trying to integrate the Monson Motor Lodge Restaurant. St. Augustine was the only city in Florida where King was arrested. Numerous sites have recently been marked by the Civil Rights Memorial Projects Committee.
The St. Augustine City Commission must take charge of the problem and fix it because the study guide and test are part of the city's licensing requirement. It's time for St. Augustine City Commissioner Errol Jones to take the lead on getting the tour guide and test revised. He will find no shortage of black heritage groups in the city ready to help. We encourage him to move on this project soon.
St. Augustine's prospective tour guides deserve the most accurate information possible about the city's history. It's disgraceful that the city's official tour guide and test ignores black history. Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/022307/opinions_4423046.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
Letter: City needs greater protection of resources
Letter: City needs greater protection of resources
Judith Seraphin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 02/11/07
Editor: Let's adopt a moratorium on development of our local St. Augustine area and the history, wetlands, forests, seashores and wildlife, at least until our 110th Congress holds hearings about preservation.
The alternative is developers who propose to develop housing on arsenic-contaminated lands, sewage-polluted lands and pesticide-contaminated lands that is undisclosed to buyers. The alternative to what should be a National Seashore, is daily turned into a "national sacrifice area" for developers, who systematically destroy all the reasons so many of us chose to move here in the first place.
The "alternative" is rubberstamping the short-sighted plans of those who are euchred to sell their generations-old birthright to foreign developers, destroying our region's nature for short-term profits, while refusing to disclose the owners of the sell-out organizations.
Let's follow the examples of my native Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, and of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and our nation's other national parks and national seashores.
Let's just say "no" to the secretive, other-directed, undisclosed, environmentally-insensitive (and foreign-funded) developers and investors who have no respect for our history, culture, wildlife and experience.
What's good enough for Boston, Philadelphia, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Washington, D.C., Guam, San Francisco and other national parklands is good enough for St. Augustine, Florida. Working with city, county and state elected representatives, the people of St. Augustine and St. Johns County must work to preserve our local/regional history and wildlife habitats inviolate, forever. I strongly support Ed Slavin's proposal for a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore," now.
Who among us could possibly disagree?Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/021107/opinions_439181b.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
Judith Seraphin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 02/11/07
Editor: Let's adopt a moratorium on development of our local St. Augustine area and the history, wetlands, forests, seashores and wildlife, at least until our 110th Congress holds hearings about preservation.
The alternative is developers who propose to develop housing on arsenic-contaminated lands, sewage-polluted lands and pesticide-contaminated lands that is undisclosed to buyers. The alternative to what should be a National Seashore, is daily turned into a "national sacrifice area" for developers, who systematically destroy all the reasons so many of us chose to move here in the first place.
The "alternative" is rubberstamping the short-sighted plans of those who are euchred to sell their generations-old birthright to foreign developers, destroying our region's nature for short-term profits, while refusing to disclose the owners of the sell-out organizations.
Let's follow the examples of my native Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, and of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and our nation's other national parks and national seashores.
Let's just say "no" to the secretive, other-directed, undisclosed, environmentally-insensitive (and foreign-funded) developers and investors who have no respect for our history, culture, wildlife and experience.
What's good enough for Boston, Philadelphia, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Washington, D.C., Guam, San Francisco and other national parklands is good enough for St. Augustine, Florida. Working with city, county and state elected representatives, the people of St. Augustine and St. Johns County must work to preserve our local/regional history and wildlife habitats inviolate, forever. I strongly support Ed Slavin's proposal for a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore," now.
Who among us could possibly disagree?Click here to return to story:http://staugustine.com/stories/021107/opinions_439181b.shtml © The St. Augustine Record
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Letter: City needs greater protection of resources
Letter: City needs greater protection of resources
Judith Seraphin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 02/11/07
Editor: Let's adopt a moratorium on development of our local St. Augustine area and the history, wetlands, forests, seashores and wildlife, at least until our 110th Congress holds hearings about preservation.
The alternative is developers who propose to develop housing on arsenic-contaminated lands, sewage-polluted lands and pesticide-contaminated lands that is undisclosed to buyers. The alternative to what should be a National Seashore, is daily turned into a "national sacrifice area" for developers, who systematically destroy all the reasons so many of us chose to move here in the first place.
The "alternative" is rubberstamping the short-sighted plans of those who are euchred to sell their generations-old birthright to foreign developers, destroying our region's nature for short-term profits, while refusing to disclose the owners of the sell-out organizations.
Let's follow the examples of my native Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, and of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and our nation's other national parks and national seashores.
Let's just say "no" to the secretive, other-directed, undisclosed, environmentally-insensitive (and foreign-funded) developers and investors who have no respect for our history, culture, wildlife and experience.
What's good enough for Boston, Philadelphia, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Washington, D.C., Guam, San Francisco and other national parklands is good enough for St. Augustine, Florida. Working with city, county and state elected representatives, the people of St. Augustine and St. Johns County must work to preserve our local/regional history and wildlife habitats inviolate, forever. I strongly support Ed Slavin's proposal for a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore," now.
Who among us could possibly disagree?
Click here to return to story:
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/021107/opinions_439181b.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Judith Seraphin
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 02/11/07
Editor: Let's adopt a moratorium on development of our local St. Augustine area and the history, wetlands, forests, seashores and wildlife, at least until our 110th Congress holds hearings about preservation.
The alternative is developers who propose to develop housing on arsenic-contaminated lands, sewage-polluted lands and pesticide-contaminated lands that is undisclosed to buyers. The alternative to what should be a National Seashore, is daily turned into a "national sacrifice area" for developers, who systematically destroy all the reasons so many of us chose to move here in the first place.
The "alternative" is rubberstamping the short-sighted plans of those who are euchred to sell their generations-old birthright to foreign developers, destroying our region's nature for short-term profits, while refusing to disclose the owners of the sell-out organizations.
Let's follow the examples of my native Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, and of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and our nation's other national parks and national seashores.
Let's just say "no" to the secretive, other-directed, undisclosed, environmentally-insensitive (and foreign-funded) developers and investors who have no respect for our history, culture, wildlife and experience.
What's good enough for Boston, Philadelphia, New Bedford, Cape Cod, Washington, D.C., Guam, San Francisco and other national parklands is good enough for St. Augustine, Florida. Working with city, county and state elected representatives, the people of St. Augustine and St. Johns County must work to preserve our local/regional history and wildlife habitats inviolate, forever. I strongly support Ed Slavin's proposal for a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore," now.
Who among us could possibly disagree?
Click here to return to story:
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/021107/opinions_439181b.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Nocatee, Florida Superfund Site
The Davis family (Winn-Dixie supermarkets) chose the name of Nocatee for their massive housing development in St. Johns and Duval County forests. Nocatee was a perfectly good name for an existing town in DeSoto County, with its own Zip code.
Steamrollering environmentalists, the PARC group and the Davises got approval for Nocatee, tree-killing and all, with a few crumbs (parks in wetlands they could not develop anyway).
Now it turns out there's a Superfund site associated with that other Nocatee.
Public relations and marketing people from the Davis' Nocatee will now get to knock themselves out distinguishing their Nocatee from the other one -- the one with the Superfund site and litigation.
So eager to steal and exploit a perfectly good indigenous tribal name (and existing Florida place name), Nocatee's speculators must be waiting for their South Sea bubble to burst. Who knows, maybe people won't buy fancy homes in forests and wetlands in the middle of nowhere. Maybe the wildlife will survive the speculators who would crush their bodies into burning pyres of trees and animals.
Maybe Nocatee will be a spectacular speculator failure, foremost among many.
Meanwhile, since Folio Weekly reported several years ago pollution on some of the Davises' other land, has anyone bothered to do their due diligence about illegal dumping in this Nocatee? Has anyone used ground-penetrating radar and helicopter sensors to look for illegal dumping?
Or will homeowners be left to find barrels for themselves> That's the way they may find other surprises from real estate speculators (one of whom was recently caught trying to build a house on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, until the St. Johns County Health Department, on referral from County Commission Chairman Ben Rich, saved the day (after EPA and DEP officials were inscouciant).
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