Wake up, my friends. It's 2026. Time to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Let freedom ring.
I learned about no-bid contracts and corruption from my Mother and my Father, who taught me to fight corruption. My Father taught me, as JFK's father taught him, that "you have to stand up to people with power, or else they walk all over you."
The New York Times reported on June 19, 2026 about the Department of the Interior's botched no-bid contract for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: "On Friday night, Mr. Trump blamed at least some of the problems on 'vandalism” by people who he said were out 'to destroy and demean our beautiful work.'"
What a magnificent metaphor for the vandalism of Donald Trump and other developers.
Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establishing a democracy on our shores. They pledged to create the world's first democracy, "E Pluribus Unum," out of many, one."
Trump claimed recently there are no limits on his power. Dangerous. Wrong. Undemocratic. Constitutionalism means limited government. Anything less is unAmerican. It is authoritarian, and beneath the dignity of a free people. No kings here.
We, the People, defeated the Confederacy and its laws allowing ownership of human beings.
We, the People, defeated fascism. My father and the 82nd ABN DIVN helped liberate the first French town from the Nazis on D-Day, June 6, 1944 before the sun even rose that day.
"We SHALL overcome," as President Lyndon Baines Johnson said to Congress after Selma.
The late "voice of Lincolnville," Ms. Carrie Johnson led some 300 residents in singing "We shall overcome" on January 10, 2008 at St. Paul A.M.E. Church on the occasion when We, the People exposed and defeated controversial "Jim Crow" style City of St. Augustine City Manager, William Barry Harriss, who dumped a contaminated landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir, 40,000 cubic yards in West Augustine), an environmental justice community.
Today, fascism is back, attacking democracy, with more than 1400 police-bashing January 6, 2021 insurrectionists now pardoned by President Donald John Trump. Americans see right through them, at last.
As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Don't give up. Don't despair."
Let freedom ring. "Be not afraid." (It's in the Bible some 106 times).
"Be not afraid" of juvenile gerrymandering, lying, cheating billionaires and trillionaires.
This is our county, our country, our time and our place.
Dr. King once said St. Johns County was "the most lawless" place in America. Saint Augustine, our City's patron Saint, was an African Bishop who wrote, "An unjust law is no law at all."
Today, developers dictate unequal and unfair treatment. Their cat's paws treat the citizens as their doormats.
These Vandals and Visigoths buy elections and write laws with campaign contributions and dirty tricks, carving their initials in Mother Nature's back. .
We, the People, still seek to protect "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Misguided misanthropes once closed our elections, creating one-party rule by developer cat's paws. For years, We the People were tediously told that "you have to" register Republican to count in local government.
But on August 18, 2026, everyone can vote in the Universal Primary for St. Johns County Commissioners from Districts 2 and 4.
We SHALL overcome. Yes we can!
The times they are a-changing in 2026. There's a Universal Primary on August 18, 2026, when everyone can vote for County Commissioners from Districts 2 and 4.
Democrats, Independents (No Party Affiliations), Vegetarians -- ALL can vote this time.
Please do so.
2 comments:
Ed, your voice is needed now more then ever!
Thank you!
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