TEDIOUS TALKERS: Local Hate Websites Mad About Picasso, Dr. Hayling, Sophistication, Gay Rights Amendment to Fair Housing Ordinance, etc.

Another beautiful day in a beautiful place.
The St. Augustine Record last Sunday praised St. Augustine's "growing sophistication," as shown by our Picasso exhibit and other indicia of local progress. 

Nice letters (below) from Dorothy Israel and Pierre and Shirley Thompson on St. Augustine. Note the pitiful Philadelphia Inquirer coverage, lacking in attention to African-American history, gently and briefly skewered by Dr. Israel. See below.

Down on St. George Street, a few misguided haters are parading with their hate Obama gear, gone mad because our country stands for civil rights, including “our Gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters,” as President Obama said in his Second Inaugural Address.

A few misguided misanthropic nativists seethe with hatred, like the 1840s Know-Nothing Party.

Over on the local hate websites, our local Know-Nothings are yammering about their hatreds du jour -- our Picasso exhibit, the 450^th, about how 75% of the population of St. Augustine is “liberal” and we need a “conservative” appointed by our City Commissioners to replace William Leary, who is resigning to move to California near his daughter. 
What do they mean by "conservative?"  They favor massive spending on military and law enforcement, without checks and balances.  They like no-bid contracts when they and their kiretsu members are on the receiving end.  They race-bait shamelessly.  They are not real "conservatives."

These are not people whom the late William F. Buckley, Jr. would hang out with -- he denounced racists and the John Birch Society as kookoo (the same ilk that called President Eisenhower a Communist is now calling President Obama a Communist, fueled then as now by money from the infamous oil-rich Koch family).

In the spirit of the Koch Brothers, the local hate website blasts Leary and other City Commissioners, questioning both their integrity and lack of dedication to white supremacy (e.g., our “traditions”).
The angry lone hate website operator, cadging for advertising dollars, has even advocated a "boycott" of the St. Augustine Record.

The hate website – operated by the longtime PR chair for the local St. Johns County Republican Party – demands that Republicans push a candidate on City Commission for a nonpartisan office. But City Commissioners don't run as Republicans or Democrats and should not be appealed to appoint a person because of primal fear of donkeys, elephants, African-Americans or other illegal considerations.

The hate website was previously unmasked by the St. Augustine Underground'sindefatigable reporting – it sister sites heap scorn on ethical officals and people who speak at public meetings and work to improve our City.

The hate website is neither vox populi nor a “news “ operation, by any stretch of the imagination – but a few stray advertisers are apparently fooled, including one for Myrtle Beach, S.C and its highrises, eerily described as “60 miles of pristine beaches.” (Think any critters survive in the shadow of high rises?).

The hate website operator hates the fact that our City just voted to honor African-American civil rights pioneer, Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S., with his second city award – the La Florida Award, the City's highest honor.

The hate website operator and his associates have previously disrespected Rev. Andrew Young and bitterly opposed his monument, deriding St. Augustine's significance in Civil Rights history, while casting aspersions about the Foot Soldiers Civil Rights monument. Our former City Manager tried to say that only "Spanish colonial" history could be honored in the Slave Market Square, when there are Confederate and other war memorials there.  Forgive them.

This hate website operator and a couple local mossbacks hate the fact that more Hispanic and African-American tourists are visiting, and this is no longer a whites-only tourist town.

An avatar on the hate website who calls itself “Preacherman” states: “shame on them all for voting to make st. augustine SODOM, which is btw, a felony by Florida statue (sic),” proceeding to spread vague rumors about an elected official.  This hate website operator and his funders dared call others in our community "Shameful," simply for speaking their minds in public fora. Forgive them.
The "Preacherman" sounds not unlike one of the kooks who spoke in opposition to City of St. Augustine Ordinance 2012-15, which adds "sexual orientation to our Fair Housing Ordinance."  It was adopted by three unanimous 5-0 votes, commencing August 28, 2012 and ending December 10, 2012.

This hate website operator attacks our reform City government for promoting diversity and Civil Rights tourism and for honoring Dr. Robert Hayling and Rev. Andrew Young.

This hate website operator attacks the vast majority of our city residents for being 75% “liberal.” See West Wing video (below).
We are "liberal" in St Augustine, and we're proud of it.
As FDR said of the 0.01%, we "welcome their hatred.”

During 2005-2010, this hate website operator attacked those who criticized the old City government for pollution, making pointless personal attacks on people who had the facts and the law on our side. We were right and the haters were wrong.

This hate website operator began operations at Christmas Eve 2006, acting on behalf of a "downtown merchant" or local businessman, first attacking the homeless and then soon moving on to other targets. On Christmas Eve 2007, the hate website operator wrote about how a lady who had cancer should die a "horrible painful death" (she did, eventually).
The hate website operator and his "Anonymice" buddies busied themselves as the former City Manager's heyboys, viciously lambasting Environmental Justice advocates and defending our City's illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir.  The Old Guard's lapdog then defended spending $300,000 on dodgy legal and engineering work aimed at moving 2000 truckloads of contaminated solid waste back to Lincolnville (where it was illegally dumped and removed in the first place, dumped in our Old City Reservoir). That plan was killed. We were right and the haters were wrong.

That polluting former City Manager is gone – gone for nearly three years. There has been great progress since then. 

The John Birch Society, Tea Party and KKK are unhappy. They want others to be unhappy, too.  That is their "business plan" -- making people unhappy -- read their writings!  They go to St. George Street for the express purpose of offending people.  Ignoring these dybbuks is best.

The hate website operator carries banner ads for the St. Augustine Tea Party, and has a history of giving  webspace to homophobes and racists to rant with cant.

This hate website operator often tries to divide our community. He seems to be against progress, against reconciliation and evidently longs for the bad 'ole days when segregationists ran the show.
The hate website operator made it his mission in life to defeat J. Kenneth Bryan, former County Commission Chairman, with four years of unmitigated racism and ranting cant emanating from several hate websites -- a retired Justice Department manager, Bryan was the second African-American County Commissioner in St. Johns County history, targeted by foreign-funded "developers" for defeat because he asked questions and refused to rubber-stamp dodgy and destructive projects that would turn our county into an unreasonable facsimile of South Florida.
This hate website operator loved it when good 'ole boys ran the government.  Why?  Our City and County gave his family uniform business no-bid contracts for embroidery and lots of exotic purchases, including pith helmets and cardigan sweaters. Tens of thousands of dollars of no-bid contracts.  Gone but not forgetten.

This hate website operator blames his failing business on liberals or progressives.

This hate website operator is now torqued off that our City spent money to bring a Picasso exhibit here, first of many temporary historic and art exhibits in our Visitor Information Center.  Sure beats no-bid contracts for embroidery, pith helmets and cardigan sweaters.

This hate website operator is especially miffed at the diverse guest list for the Picasso opening – calling them “Blue Bloods.” This same website operator and his avatars have for years mocked “newbies” and “Yankees” who come “uninvited,” and try to tell us “how to run our town,” always suggesting that dissenters either leave town or be run out of town, no matter how justified their criticism (e.g., illegal dumping, Sunshine violations, police misconduct).  "Uninvited," indeed. Harrumph. As if one had to have an engraved invitation to be active in governmental affairs.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, perhaps.
Now the hate website operator whines when he is “uninvited,” along with local John Birch Society, Tea Party and KKK supporters (Philistines are generally no friends of art anyway). 

This is our town, and our time, and the John Birch Society and KKK no longer elect City Commissioners in St. Augustine, as they did fifty years ago. 

The hate website operator raised $250,000 for our incumbent Republican Sheriff.  But the hate site operator failed at politics.  The hate website operator ran (and lost) for City Commission by a landslide in 2008.  Several of his wealthy friends or handlers ran (and lost) for City Commission by landslides on multiple occasions.   People don't want them in office.  They don't trust them.  They don't think they care about people like us.  There's a reason for that perception -- they are other-directed, developer driven, hick hacks.

The hate site operator and his handful of overbearing cultists remind me of the old joke about the insect reclining on the log floating down a river, about to pass beneath a bridge, yelling up to the bridge tender to raise the bridge because he's so big.  These are small people, with petty, selfish, perceptions.  And as Bill Clinton said in his Second Inaugural, “Nothing big was ever accomplished by being small."

Commissioner William Leary is asirrepressible as he is irreplaceable – think this through, please. City Commissioners, please try to choose someone as intelligent and ethical and environmentally conscious as Bill Leary, imbued with independence and kindness and patience, someone willing to listen and learn. 

May I suggest three suitable names: Deltra Long or J. Kenneth Bryan or John Valdes?

St. Augustine wears the hate website operator's "scorn as a badge of honor". Hatred belongs in history's dustbins, as our 2008 and 2012 elections proved. Hatred is repugnant to our American values.

As Mayor Joseph L. Boles, Jr. says, "St. Augustine was America's first diverse city and our most diverse city."
St. Augustine will continue to make progress – haters' approval is neither desired nor required.

As Bill Clinton said in his Second Inaugural Address,  "Let us remember the timeless wisdom of Cardinal Bernardin, when facing the end of his own life. He said, "It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time, on acrimony and division.'" We agree.
It takes a village.
We're proud to be “liberal” in this liberal democracy – starting with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, through present times, “liberals” made this country great – winning the rights of women and African-Americans to vote, safeguarding worker rights, civil rights and environmental rights. 

See the West Wing video, below, on what it means to be a "liberal" a/k/a "progressive" (versus "conservatives," who opposed "all those things.") 

"We wear their scorn as a badge of honor."