Hastings de-chartering effort revelatory about abuses of power by government

Government is instituted by the just consent of the governed.

Thomas Jefferson said we are free to alter or abolish governments if they are unresponsive.

First Hastings' government is guilty of being in the thrall of soeculators like ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD, who were charged no impact fees and asked for nothing in exchange for a racially discriminatory annexation that violated the Fifteenth Amendment and Voting Rights Act, threatening to dilute minority voting strength in a majority African-American town.

Then Hastings' government increased water bills by 30% (instead of looking to speculators to pay their fare share of new capacity, as I suggested to the Town Council in 2005).

Now Hastings' government may be abolished.

An ancient Chinese curse says, "may you live in interesting times."

Hastings and St. Johns County are living in "interesting times," wrougt by greedy, wetland-killing, tree-killing, uglifying "developers" spending the money of gullible investors, including people from China, India, Australia, South Korea and Canada, to name a few.

What if governments folded because of lack of interest and popular support?

What if those who have enabled ROBERT MICHAEl GRAUBARD and other alleged fraudfeasors were defeated and faced indictments?

What if St. Augustine's city government were de-chartered due to waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery and dupery?


Respect is earned. As Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission Chairwoman Jeanne Moeller said last year, most people "don't trust [our] government."

As Senator Gary W. Hart put it best, "you won't get the government off your backs until you get your hands out of its pocket."

To dull Republican billionaires who see government as a mining operation, giving them subsidies for their disreputable lifestyles of the rich and aimless, we've got news for you. The gravy train is at an end.

The people in their righteous wrath are outraged at government as a polluter, as shown by the City of St. Augustine's Philistinism in secretly dumping solid waste in the Old City Reservoir while doing nothing about a Living Wage or other protections for Ripley's Believe it Or Not! Museum and Tour Train employees whose pay and benefits were slashed by a Canadian billionaire.

Stinky St. Augustine officials need to be replaced with competent, compassionate, honest officials. Otherwise, will our Nation's Oldest City of St. Augustine be next to face de-chartering?

And what if the Pentagon had to hold bake sales to buy nuclear weapons?

What do you reckon?