Guest column: Robin Nadeau worked for a more sustainable world

We moved to St. Augustine in 1999. I was first contacted, encouraged and empowered by Robin Nadeau in 2000, after Robin read my December 3, 2000 St. Augustine Record column, “Democracy under pressure,” about the strange case of Bush v. Gore (Florida election recount lawsuit). Below is my 600 word guest column about Robin Nadeau, from yesterday's St. Augustine Record (coincidentally, I saw my first butterfly of 2012 while walking that morning):


Guest column: Robin Nadeau worked for a more sustainable world
Posted: February 5, 2012 - 12:32am

By ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine

Hundreds of Robin Nadeau’s friends joined her family, celebrating her life on Jan. 23.

“Thinking globally, acting locally,” always young at heart, Robin knew “freedom is never free.” “Speaking truth to power,” she worked for positive change and a more sustainable world.

Citizen Robin Nadeau (1926-2012) was a zealous environmentalist, peace activist, government reformer and free speech defender. Robin won the Daughters of the American Revolution National Conservation Award for work planting/saving thousands of trees (where greed once endangered them all).

Robin supported “Medicare for All,” Solar/Wind energy, Progressive Taxation and Environmental Justice. She opposed polluters’ promiscuously weakening our environmental laws. She exposed the horrors of nuclear power plants, offshore oil, and dirty money in politics.

She succeeded in convincing governments to buy park land, including a now-threatened 6.1 acres at St. Augustine Beach.

Robin was kind, logical, thoughtful, winning progressive victories with information, research, diplomacy and tact. Robin had what Ambassador Andrew Young calls “soul force.”

Few said “no” to Robin Nadeau.

A faithful convert to Roman Catholicism, she supported Occupy St. Augustine, Grandmothers for Peace, NAACP, League of Women Voters and Sierra Club. She championed equality for gays and lesbians.

Robin encouraged and nurtured so many people.

Robin knew that “decisions are made by those who show up,” showing up for decades. Her work was a tale of two cities (St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach) and St. Johns County, persuading all to adopt tree protections, serving for decades on city and county boards and as TREES VP for 13 years.

In December 2006, Robin persuaded me to help investigate our Mosquito Control District’s luxury jet helicopter purchase and organophosphate spraying. Together, we helped kill the $1.8 million, no-bid helicopter, winning a refund. It took us nine months, enduring AMCD’s then-chair’s insults and arrest threats. The people won. Robin wrote in her autobiographical note, “I contributed to an ultimately successful effort to replace use of organophosphates to control mosquitoes in St. Johns County with environmentally friendly techniques.”

In 2007-08, Robin and I sought ballot-petition signatures for Democratic Congressional candidate Faye Armitage in local parks. Someone threatened to have us arrested, exclaiming, “I know the law!” Gently, Robin and I stood our ground. First Amendment rights prevailed.

Robin believed in hope, forgiveness, democracy and Democrats: as precinct committeeperson, Robin worked hardest of all.

Robin Nadeau lived with joy, wit and style, getting things done (often working until 3 a.m.). Like Thomas Jefferson, she loved beauty and she designed her own home. She had an infectious laugh, threw wonderful Twelfth Night parties, and made the best orange marmalade.

The Record printed a cognitive miser’s 2004 letter, attacking “the Robin Nadeaus of the world.” I responded, “thanking the Robin Nadeaus of this world,” who bring us moral strength.

“Robin Nadeau family values” are based on love, reality and kindness — the opposite of “faux FOX-TV family values,” based on prejudice, ignorance and hatred.

With all of her beautiful heart, soul and “PBS mind,” Robin Nadeau avidly supported the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore since 2006. St. Augustine Beach Mayor Gary Snodgrass remembers Robin telephoning him about the proposal two months ago — he was in the shower, but took her call.

Robin’s inner strength showed on Nov. 1, as park supporters were called “Nazis” and “Communists” by angry, misguided “Tea Partiers,” who momentarily scared off our County Commissioners from supporting the Historical Park and Seashore. Enough. errant nonsense!

Give Robin Nadeau the last word. She wrote, “I think my greatest achievement lay in my contribution to enactment of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore Act of 2012.” Let’s do it for Robin! www.staugustgreen.com


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Ed Slavin has a bachelor of science in foreign service from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from Memphis State University (now University of Memphis).