Art by Warren Celli, prevailing plaintiff in Celli v. City of St. Augustine, 214 F. Supp. 2d 1255 (M.D. Fla. 2000)
Art by Warren Celli
-----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: dbirchim
Cc: compassionstaugustine
Sent: Fri, Oct 31, 2014 12:42 am
Subject: NO DIVERSITY: GLBTQ People Excluded From Compassionate St. Augustine's "Obelisk Art 450" List (Along WIth Meaningful Public Participation)
Dear David, John, Isabelle, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Commissioners, et al.:
1. I have reviewed the tentative list of 25 obelisk locations and subjects presented to Commission at 10/27 meeting, belatedly and reluctantly provided to me by Compassionate St. Augustine a few hours ago.
2. It lacks scholarship, respect and appreciation for our City's history -- nothing on GLBTQ history. Why?
3. If not substantially altered, public interest litigants could easily challenge this exclusionary list in federal court and win, based on the public forum doctrine. See Chief Judge Henry Lee Adam's Order Granting Injunctive relief re: City discrimination against Rainbow flags in Jensen v. City of St. Augustine, Florida, 3:2005cv00504 (M.D.Fla., June 7, 2005).
4. Please review the half-baked, half-hearted, unbalanced Obelisk Art 450 (OA 450) proposal with a gimlet eye, e.g., for conformity with our First Amendment, our values, and our Comprehensive Plan.
5. Pendente such agonizing reappraisal of the OA 450 proposal and its secretive etiology, please grant no permits to this secretive, exclusionary, privately-run group, which has recently given the cold shoulder to creativity and First Amendment protected activity, disrespecting GLBTQ rights in its idiocyncratic list of obelisk subjects.
6. Is this a community project, a private club or a cult? What does it mean by its angry statement to me about "OUR values?"
7. Please require openness, transparency and diversity in any use of our City property, streets and permits by OA 450. Otherwise, please advise me of any permits being granted so that we may consider an appeal to City Commission for review of Comprehensive Plan conformity. F.S. 163.3215; Homosassa River Alliance v. Citrus County, 2 So. 3d 329 (Fla. 5th Dist. App. 2009), rev. denied, 16 So. 3d 132 (Fla. 2009); 10/27 City Commission vote on standing re: 100 MLK demolition permit sought by St. Paul A.M.E. Church.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
904-377-4998
The selection of this specific obelisk as a visual brand/logo/symbol for the "Compassionate Saint Augustine" program is either off the charts ignorant, or one might suspect, highly devious from the outset.
ReplyDeleteThat it looks like a stylized KKK hood is of little doubt.
I understand that it is a copy of a genuine historical obelisk/monument in the city Plaza, but given the intervening history in Saint Augustine, with its sordid embracing of the KKK elite and destructive ideology, it is a very poor choice to represent the City of Saint Augustine that many of us want for the future. I have always felt an unsettling feeling when passing by this monument in the Plaza because of its resemblance to the KKK hood and have often wondered of the KKK hoods origin. Many say it is based in the dunce cap and I do not know which came first. That might be an interesting area of historical research for one of our city's history buffs. In any event the striking similarity to a KKK hood and the pre existing associations that it stimulates and communicates in the mind of the observer make it a very poor choice to symbolize compassion, which I might add is sadly lacking in the upper echelons of the Saint Augustine Self anointed elite. It is also a very poor choice to represent the citizens of Saint Augustine.
It would be a good and devious choice however if one secretively and subliminally wanted to keep alive and communicate the core values of the KKK.
When one creates a new brand/logo/symbol the first order of business is to test it for any preexisting look alike negative associations that might affect its ability to create and promote strong positive feelings in the viewer. This brand is a clear fail, citizens should demand that it not be used.
This twisted tangential culture shaping effort is also an excellent example of why the visual identity and experience of the City of Saint Augustine is now so fast becoming disjointed, cluttered, vague, and unappealing to the senses. A few self anointed elite cooks and crooks and no clear vision.
Look deeply into this program and you will see it has a very strong element of making the pigdebt more palatable. [Pigdebt is the total amount of recompense due to those who have been harmed, financially, physically, and emotionally, by the willful and intentional immoral usurpation of the 'rule of law' by Xtrevilist pigs for selfish gain.]