Just in time for Sunday's Super Bowl, this superb commentary by Miami teacher Paul A. Moore asks the reader to look away from the bright lights and headlines for a moment to consider the sobering reality faced by young African-American men living outside the spectacle surrounding this game.
The Indianapolis Colts are back in the Super Bowl.
The CBS Corporation broadcast the Colts' 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI from then Dolphins' Stadium. CBS cameras will be trained this time on a Colts vs. New Orleans Saints match up in Super Bowl XLIV from the same stadium, now renamed for the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. The game is described with Roman numerals to reflect the grandeur and spectacle of it. The Roman Empire had nothing on the NFL.
Family and friends of Rod K. Williams say he wanted to play football someday. But Rod was shot and killed two days before the last Super Bowl in Miami. His corpse was wrapped in plastic garbage bags and left in a Little Haiti-area dumpster. The body decomposed in the shadow of the stadium while the game was played. Five days later the smell attracted attention to the dumpster and the body of Rod K. Williams was finally discovered. No one had reported the 14-year-old boy missing.
An estimated one billion people kept track of the score of the score of Super Bowl XLI on television or radio. Tony Dungy's charges beat Lovie Smith's Bears to claim the Lombardi Trophy. Dungy was lauded after the victory as the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl. While Peyton Manning was named the game's Most Valuable Player, many of the "skill players" on both teams were Black men. They made spectacular plays that shook the stadium. The Bears' Devin Hester returned the opening kick-off 92-yards for a touchdown.
Three young Black men who survived Rod K. Williams were probably watching Hester's electrifying runback. They all played football well enough to dream. Their minds likely wandered to the kind of fame and adoration and glory and respect for themselves one day. And where else had they ever seen such effusive praise for African-American men not much older than them?
My Fox Boston reports that a 6 year old in Florida turned on his brand new PSP from Wal-Mart only to find a picture of a naked woman. When his mother called the Wal-Mart to tell them about the device and the hundreds of pornographic pics on it they kindly offered to give her a new game for it!
Doorguy is nevertheless hopeful, as he explains in this fine post at dKos, which we urge you to read and recommend if you re a dKos participant:
Last Saturday, my wife and I attended the Founders Day Festival in Winter Garden, a small, turn-of-the-century town just west of Orlando that was once the capital of Central Florida's citrus industry.
I grew up here and I hate the place. Until the 1980's, Winter Garden was also the capital of the local KKK. Now it's surrounded by 30,000 corporate builder houses ($300,000 median, lots of foreclosure signs), and struggling to gentrify---the sort of place Sarah Palin would call "real America." The evening was a family obligation thing, in-laws, so I went.
I wore my Obama t-shirt.
"Showing the colors in Orlando, Fla." (Note that Winter Garden, although a separate city, is essentially an Orlando suburb, along with the below-discussed Ocoee).
For a little history of the "racial tensions" in the Central Florida area ... on the flip we take a quick look at Ocoee, murders of NAACP members, and the delightful Sheriff Willis McCall, who remained in office until 1972.
Hey there, this is my first post on FLA Politics.I'm interested in green technology. Recently I've been following the Sunshine Energy project offered by FPL, which has been in the news a lot lately.
The Sun Sentinel is reporting that Florida Power & Light is planning to spend $2.1 million on renewable energy instead of passing the costs to customers. There were over 39,000 customers who enrolled in its Sunshine Energy, paying an extra $9.75 per month – totaling $11.4 million since the program started in 2004 – to support renewable energy.
I became an environmental activist in the early 1970s just as I was completing my doctorate in ecology at the University of British Columbia. It was the height of the Cold War and the height of the Viet Nam War and we were compelled to take a very public stand against activities we thought to be catastrophic both for people and for the planet.
I joined a small committee that was meeting in the basement of the Unitarian Church. We organized a protest voyage against U.S. hydrogen bomb testing in Alaska and had tens of thousands marching in the streets. When that H-bomb was set off at Amchitka Island in November 1971, it was the last hydrogen bomb the U.S. ever detonated.
It was the birth of Greenpeace, the organization I co-founded, spending 15 years in its top committee, helping to lead environmental campaigns around the world.
But it's ironic in the extreme that, as we mark the 100th anniversary of drinking water chlorination, my old organization and other activist groups aligned with it continue to oppose this most important public health achievement.
Via the New York Times this morning: "columnist Steve Lopez, writing in The Los Angeles Times about Juan Romero, the busboy who knelt down to help Robert F. Kennedy after he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel."
“People were six and seven deep,” Juan says, but he got close enough to stick out his hand. As Kennedy grabbed it, Juan heard a bang and felt a flash of heat against his face. Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin, had fired from just off Juan’s shoulder. ...
“He was looking up at the ceiling, and I thought he’d banged his head. I asked, ‘Are you O.K.? Can you get up?’ One eye, his left eye, was twitching, and one leg was shaking.”
Juan slipped a hand under the back of Kennedy’s head to lift him and felt warm blood spilling through his fingers. ...
“When I was in trouble, I would always go and pray to God to make my stepfather forget what I’d done, or to keep me out of trouble the next time. I asked Ethel if I could give Bobby the rosary beads, and she didn’t stop me. She didn’t say anything.
“I pressed them into his hand but they wouldn’t stay because he couldn’t grip them, so I tried wrapping them around his thumb. When they were wheeling him away, I saw the rosary beads still hanging off his hand.”
Let's set politics aside for a moment. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all the things you are grateful for in your life and to help those less fortunate. Florida's food banks are struggling and you can help with much needed supplies.
In a sea of blue enters republicgirl. Yes a registered repulican venturing into a mostly, if not entirely, democratic blogosphere. But I'm not here to prove anything as much as to exchange ideas and maybe find growth in my own. So bring it, I have a good sense of humor and can take it.
Most republicans I know are not so proud of the replubican party these days. Replubican ideas of old seem lost on the current crop of Politicans. Seemingly gone are the ambitions of smaller government, lower taxes, less spending, and personal freedoms. Enter in simply another way to spend and tax the life out of free enterprise, and place in another self interested politican looking for a way only to glorify him or herself. Wouldn't it be great to see a true statesman surface from either party. But it appears we have only those who wish the nation to serve them and their ideals, as oppose to serving the nation. Or for that matter the great state of Florida, from which I am born, raised, educated and currently live, work, and play in.
I am so tired to the phrase "religious right" Mostly because its BS. FYI there are republicain Christians, who believe in smaller government and the constitution. And don't see the advantage of forcing the rest of the nation via the courts or the legislative branch to adhere to their private or personal beliefs. I personally see no future in the argument against row vs wade. And it is not an issue any President will truely have any meaningful impact on. As a sister of a gay brother and a gay sister, it'd be safe to say I'm not conflicted about God's love for either of them regardless of their sexual orientation.
In Florida Solutions to the current property tax and insurance crisis are being blocked by fear and special interests. The school system and local governments will not collapase if snow birds and small businesses get the break they need to continue doing business in FLA. A strong arguement to the opposite could be made. If the solution that passes only addresses homesteaders, we will continue to see a sell off of second homes and investment properties, as we watch the baby boomers find more affordable options for their Second/ future retirement home. If the state's economy continues to implode we will have much bigger problems funding anything then we will if we can recaputure the retirement market before we loose it entirely.
(Shoulda bumped this earlier - promoted by Florida Politics)
Not happy with the state of Florida right now? Neither are the Florida Netroots - a network of online activists and bloggers who are working on building up the Democratic Party all across the state. Think of it as our 67 county strategy. We believe Florida will shift Democratic, but in order to do so its going to need a little push. We're willing to give it a shove, but we need your help. Can you spare $8? I've got 8 reasons to support the Florida Netroots:
As you know, Kenneth Quinnell would never ask you to help send him to Yearly Kos, but we at FLA Politics will: Let's do the Florida Progressive community proud and "Send Kenneth Quinnell To Yearly Kos".
Kenneth been invited to be a moderator at the conference, but does not have enough spare cash to go.
To help, just go to PayPal, log in, go to your "account", click the "Send Money" tab at the top, and enter "kq_n_mq@yahoo.com" in the "To:" box - we're almost there, so ANY amount will be very much appreciated.
Kenneth Quinnell would never ask you to do this, but we at FLA Politics will: Let's do the Florida Progressive community proud and "Send Kenneth Quinnell To Yearly Kos", where he has been invited to be a moderator but simply does not have enough spare cash to go.
To help, just go to PayPal, log in, go to your "account", click the "Send Money" tab at the top, and enter "kq_n_mq@yahoo.com" in the "To:" box - ANY amount will be very much appreciated.
Kenneth Quinnell would never ask you to do this, but we at FLA Politics will.
kid oakland of Daily Kos fame is coordinating the Yearly Kos regional meetings on August 2 in Chicago. He and I were talking the other day about who would be the best person from Florida to moderate the Southeastern regional blogger sessions at Yearly Kos. Without a moment's hesitation, I offered Kenneth Quinnell, the man behind the [Florida Progressive Coalition ]
Although I have never met or spoken to Ken (except 'electronically'), his energy, creativeness and commitment struck me as perfect for the job. Kid Oakland agreed that Kenneth was our man.
But there was a problem, you see Kenneth is a progressive, which means he doesn't have a lot of spare cash, and simply cannot afford to go. Between the air fare and hotel room (Kenneth is still looking for a room to share to save expenses (in the event he is able to go)), it will cost several hundred dollars that he simply doesn't have.
When I learned of Kenneth's predicament, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity for the Florida progressive blogosphere to take action. Why not raise a few bucks for Kenneth?
I reiterate that Ken would never ask you to do this, but we at FLA Politics will. Please contribute what you can to send Kenneth Quinnell to serve as a moderator at Yearly Kos.
To help, just go to PayPal, log in, go to your "account", click the "Send Money" tab at the top, and enter "kq_n_mq@yahoo.com" in the "To:" box - ANY amount will be very much appreciated.
Please spread the word via e-mail, blog posts, or pony express - lets send Kenneth to Yearly Kos. Its only a few hundred bucks - surely we can do this.
Shortly after I launched the Florida Netroots blog I was contacted by an Active Duty Soldier from Walton County, Florida serving in Afghanistan and by someone serving in the Executive Committee of the organization Florida Veterans for Common Sense.
Man, I remember being really overwhelmed by Columbine (I was only 11 then, so these things stuck to me.) The incident which happened today at Virginia Tech, which has killed 33 people (including the shooter himself), is just tragic beyond words. Details here.
Of course, despite this awful tragedy, it seems nothing can keep the right wingers from being complete assholes about this - trying to score some cheap political points on "gun control." Infuriating, just infuriating.
Despite it all, please keep the poor people in the Blacksburg area and Southwest Virginia in your thoughts and prayers. That's what really matters, anyway.
"The bill would force municipalities to pay the cost of relocating mobile homes and their owners if a park closes to make way for a new development." "Towns rip legislative plan that requires them to relocate mobile home residents".
Currently Florida cities have every monetary incentive to
allow developers to buy and close mobile home parks. Permits,
impact fees, enhanced tax base vs moral obligation to local
citizens. So they shrug when the victims beg for help and
shed a few crocodile tears for the residents.
This bill says the city must pay the relocation expense of
a closing mobile home park, not to make the city pay, but
to make the city do its job protecting the health, safety
and welfare of it's citizens by refusing to rezone the
parks for redevelopment. All the have to do is recognize
the Attorney General's opinion they can not rezone the parks
unless there is adequate and suitable housing within city
boundaries affordable to the client population.
Boy, a football championship, now two basketball championships in a row, and telling Jeb Bush to take a hike? It must be the best university in America!
The Palm Beach Post: "Florida was a madhouse after the 2000 presidential election, and Ohio's controversial totals provided the drama in 2004. Now, another dicey election has put the University of Florida into the college football championship game against unbeaten Ohio State on Jan. 8." A political football?
The campaign web sites of select candidates; click on "FB" to check them out on FaceBook, "T" to follow them on twitter, and "$" to donate. These are not paid ads.
- At "After All, He Is Black", we look at the inability of Florida "conservatives" to deal with racial issues.
- "Take this job ..." is a compendium of some of the things Florida employers are permitted to do to their employees.
Please leave comments or e-mail us with additional material for these projects.
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