Over on MICHAEL GOLD’s histrionic “Historic City News” website, he’s yammering today because loyal red-blooded Americans -- progressives and African-Americans -- defeated the Republicans and the Tea Party on redistricting in St. Johns County, Florida. It takes a village.
“Why do the heathen rage?” “Why do the Republicans and the Tea Partiers rage?”
Rabid Republicans and Tea Party members wanted to violate the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act by reducing the African-American population of School Board and County Commission District 2 from 14% to 9%. They almost got away with it.
Progressives stopped them. It only took 35 days. We won.
Our School Board was ill-advised by its lawyer, who doesn’t know any more about the Fifteenth Amendment than a dog (and actually refused to work with our County Attorney on Veteran’s Day to come up with the workable solution that finally solved the problem).
Our School Board was guilty of adopting an illegal, Fifteenth Amendment violating scheme – “cracking” related communities into separate districts to dilute minority voting strength.
Why?
Our St. Johns County School Board was gulled by ideologues who want to turn back the clock. These ideologues are not interested in education, or equality.
Sadly, our School Board listened to the likes of former St. Augustine Republican Club Chairman ROBERT SMITH, former County Commissioner BRUCE MAGUIRE, political candidate ALAN KELSO, St. Johns County's Republican State Committeeman (and leader of one Tea Party faction RANDY CONVINGTON) and other nabobs, voting to violate African-American’s rights on November 8th. Judith Seraphin told the School Board that if they did it, we would ask the Justice Department to file a lawsuit. She kept her promise.
Only some 26 hours later, on November 9th, Judith Seraphin and I wrote the Attorney General of the United States and the United States Commission on Civil Rights, requesting an investigation and hearings before the Florida Advisory Committee of the USCCR.
Only some 35 days later, the School Board reversed itself, voting 4-1 for the compromise plan that includes both West Augustine and the Town of Hastings, preserving the status quo in District 2 , which is 14% African-American.
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young writes about how important it is to let people “save face,” do the right thing, and reconcile.
We were hoping that the School Board would learn its lesson. We were hoping that the School Board would seize the opportunity to “save face,” apologize to the Rev. Ron Rawls and others it treated with disrespect, and help reunite our community. Our hopes were dashed, and our all-white School Board blew it.
Instead of “saving face,” our School Board members showed their behinds.
School Board members reportedly made hostile remarks, reportedly attacking us for “committing truth.” School Board members were resentful because progressives reported them to the Justice Department and criticizing their actions.
As the Irish say, “It’s not the hangman, but the murderer, who brings dishonor on the house.”
Evidently, these politicized Republican pachyderms have incredibly thin skins when it comes to First Amendment protected activity criticizing them.
Former County Commission Chairman Ben Rich told Folio Weekly that St. Johns County was one of the “last bastions of the Ku Klux Klan.” My late friend, KKK-buster Stetson Kennedy, told me that many Ku Klux Klan members had transmogrified into Republicans and Tea Party members.
As demonstrated by the outrageous “editorial” by MICHAEL GOLD, I reckon that victory is sweet.
MICHAEL GOLD says “de jure segregation” is over. Obviously. That begs the question.
De facto segregation continues to exist in our schools, with unequal funding, unequal employment practices, and gross insensitivity. The reason we know about the School Board’s gross insensitivity is the utterly unspeakable behavior shown by Board members to African-Americans, including the Rev. Ron Rawls.
At the School Board’s workshops, African-Americans came out in large numbers to support fair districting, only to be treated with disdain and disrespect. School Board member WILLIAM FEHLING made smarmy remarks about whether there was a contest to see how could bring out the most voters. School Board member WILLIAM MIGNON (a/k/a “FILET MIGNON”) told me “that’s life” when I complained to him afterwards that the School Board was practicing Apartheid.
School Board members thought they could violate the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act with impunity (and immunity). That’s what St. Johns County and St. Augustine officials did for years (as when St. Johns County Commissioners redistricted in 1998, eliminating the only African-American Commissioner ever elected by changing from seven Commissioners elected from single-member districts to five Commissioners elected at-large (with a residency requirement). The County Commission did so outside the ordinary course of business, not in response to a decennial census, and without hiring a consultant – it was pure racism.
School Board members violated the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. They thought they were above the law.
That’s why Judith Seraphin and I reported our St. Johns County School Board to the Justice Department. We’re proud that we did – it was the right thing to do. We’d do it again, and twice on Sunday!
No good deed goes unpunished.
We’ve both been called “bullies” by the bullies who wanted to inflict racism on our schools.
We’ve been called “racists” by the racists who wanted to erode African-Americans’ ability to elect one (1) of five (5) school board members.
When bullies call you “bullies,” that’s a reverse compliment.
When racists call you “racists,” that’s implied flattery.
When bullies and racists express the desire that you leave town, “they’re just whistlin’ Dixie.”
I’ve lived here for more than 22% of my life.
I’ve lived here for more than twelve years.
We love this town.
We’re proud of the growth we’ve seen in our elected officials, and in the increased compassion and competence of local governments.
We’re proud of what “We, the people” have accomplished here in a few short years.
We helped win a Federal Court order to fly Rainbow flags on our Bridge of Lions, in honor of Gay Pride, triumphing over our former City Manager’s homophobic bigotry (and three City Commissioners who couldn’t find it in their heart to treat Gays and Lesbians with the same respect they treated Flagler College, which was allowed to fly its flag 59 days during 2004 and 2005, while United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. noted that the only thing “historic” about Flagler College (established 1968) was one historic building.
We reported that same former City Manager’s dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir, resulting in fines and a cleanup. The solid waste is now in a Class I landfill. The former City Manager wanted to deposit it in our Lincolnville community – using 2000 trucks to put it back from where it was illegally dumped and removed in the first place.
We reported that same former City Manager’s years of dumping semi-treated sewage effluent into our saltwater marsh through a “pipe” with massive holes in it -- resulting in fines and a consent order that reduces pollution.
We held that former City Manager accountable.
We’re proud that he did the right thing and retired.
We’re proud that we now have a new City Manager – and two new City Commissioners – who “get it” – they respect citizens’ rights. They respect our environment. They understand that government officials are supposed to be just stewards – not our “rulers.”
We were proud to see two (2) Civil Rights monuments erected in our Slave Market Square this year.
We were proud to see work begin on fixing all of Riberia Street this year , not just the white part, which is all our former City Manager ever intended to fix. Our City Commissioners floated a bond issue – getting the job done, instead of lollygagging – spending some $11 million, all told, to do the job.
We are proud our City and County are working to provide water and sewer to West Augustine, which was historically neglected. (The first time I ever spoke to a City Commission meeting, invoking the Fifteenth Amendment and criticizing the City of St. Augustine for not annexing West Augustine, I was threatened with arrest after the meeting by the former City Manager).
We are proud our Mayor and Commissioners greeted Occupy St. Augustine supporters graciously and warmly on December 14th, giving two Flagler College students extra time --- Mayor Boles even joked how the Commissioners were all part of the 99%, as established by their financial disclosures.
We are proud to see our City – as a result of Occupy St. Augustine’s requests -- is scheduling a workshop next month on restoring our artists and entertainers to places of honor. For too long our City has been arresting artists and entertainers for First Amendment protected activity --- a sin, a crime and a tort.
We are proud that our Mayor, City Manager and City Commission now treat citizens with dignity, respect and consideration.
No longer do elected officials insulting citizens when we raise concerns.
We are proud that no-bid contracts are going out of style at both the City and the County. (By the way, our City and County gave MICHAEL GOLD’s family business, JR Uniforms, more than $700,000 worth of no-bid contracts for uniforms, embroidery, “pith helmets” and “Cardigan sweaters”).
We are proud that the estimable WHETSONE-MAGUIRE family no longer owns City Hall.
For too long, they threw their weight around like Republican lords of all they survey, treating our City government as if it were, in FDR's words, “a mere appendage to their own affairs.”
“Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mobs,” FDR said.
The fact that the WHETSTONE-MAGUIRE family no longer owns City Hall is evidenced by the PZB’s recent tabling of its demand to build a 300 foot long dock on our Bayfront across City bottomlands. The arrogant WHETSTONES have advanced a claim of ownership through developer mouthpiece GEORGE McCLURE. Stay tuned.
There has been a lot of positive change in Our Town these past few years.
So when I read MICHAEL GOLD’s “editorial” about how terrible I am – and how terrible Judith Seraphin is, and how terrible County Commissioner Ken Bryan is – we all laughed and laughed and laughed.
Go to MICHAEL GOLD’s website and laugh for yourself.
Read MICHAEL GOLD’s website whining about the “great theatre before the St Johns County School Board; orchestrated by both local and out-of-town African-American special interests (Sic). Their purpose was apparent — use the once-a-decade requirement to apportion school districts in accordance with population changes to the political advantage of black voters by creating enhanced minority voting blocks.”
MICHAEL GOLD condemned “political grandstanding of a few opportunists, like County Commissioner Ken Bryan,” call it “obnoxious — not just to me, but to members of the School Board who said in last week’s meeting that they felt pressured to make a ‘politically motivated decision’ about redistricting instead of a better plan focused solely on the needs of local schoolchildren.”
MICHAEL GOLD and his crowd don’t care about school children. When School Board members and other Tea Partiers try to hide behind their bigotry school children, they sound like terrorists using children as human shields.
MICHAEL GOLD gave “Darts to Ken Bryan who sees racism in the heart of anyone who disagrees with his agenda.
MICHAEL GOLD says Bryan “acts like the stereotypical ‘angry black man.’”
Nothing could be further from the truth – Folio Weekly’s cover story on Ken Bryan was headlined, “Gentle Ken.” He is among the most mellow and laid-back public officials I have ever met.
MICHAEL GOLD falsely stated that Ken Bryan “makes it his business to hurl humiliating (sic), racist (sic) accusations (sic) at innocent (sic) victims (sic) whose only transgression may be to recognize our local African-American residents as a homogenous racial group with equal opportunities to do well economically, politically, socially, or academically. Period.” That’s totally incoherent, vapid and false.
MICHAEL GOLD also gave “Darts to Ed Slavin” (that would be me). MICHAEL GOLD says “I have tried (really, I have) to give him credit for incubating some ideas that could benefit the community and I think that he should be left alone to speak his opinions — even if I don’t agree with his conclusions. Slavin quixotically chases windmills. Unfortunately, whether for himself or his employer, Judith Seraphin, nothing good comes from his threats to the school board. Slavin’s knee-jerk threats of lawsuits are as obnoxious as Bryan’s threats to call in the Justice Department. “
Acting like a “stereotypical angry white man,” MICHAEL GOLD concludes that he has “had a belly-full of them both.” At this point, I won’t make any catty comments about the size of MICHAEL GOLD’s belly. That would be wrong.
MICHAEL GOLD concludes, “ We [angry white men] managed to survive over 400 years before their arrival, it won’t be the end of the world when they leave.”
We’re not leaving. Get a clue.
The rhetorical style of MICHAEL GOLD and his “Anonymice” NICs has been for years thinly-veiled calls for obloquy, brutality, or blacklisting, or running people out of town. No one much cares what MICHAEL GOLD thinks – Commissioner William Leary trounced him in the 2010 election. The only yard signs I ever saw for GOLD were on commercial properties owned by the WHETSTONE family.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, and remember – it’s our town, our county, our state and our country. It’s our government.
My father machine-gunned Nazis in three combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. He and my mother taught me that. “if you don’t stand up to people with power, they walk all over you.”
Our struggle here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County is about environmental protection, equality, and open, honest government.
As FDR said in 1936,"For these things, and for a multitude of others like them, we have only just begun to fight."
Let the WHETSTONES, BRUCE MAGUIRE, ROBERT SMITH, MICHAEL GOLD and other bullies wail and gnash their teeth and cry into their imported champagne.
We wear their scorn as a badge of honor. And in FDR’s words, we “welcome their hatred.”
St. Augustine and St. Johns County – after nearly 450 years – are finally maturing into a working democracy – our leaders are listening to us.
And the chances of the Ku Klux Klan ever electing another City or County Commissioner are now de micromis (microscopic). So there!
Fini!
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