And the grandmotherly gadlfly gets up before the Hillsborough County Commission and practically whispers this unfortunate line: "you're talking about ghettoizing."Of course she said she was referring to a sort of racial gerrymandering. And she could have said this more mercifully. She also said the dreaded line "you want to be apart you should go back to where you came from."
Can we forgive a grandmotherly figure who knows not what she says?"
Nope. It's too late now. The train of demagoguery has left the station!
His selective journalistic conscience fully inflamed, the newspaper reporter begins scribbling.(Link here) He has found his low hanging fruit to ornament a potentially dry story about a new district, for Hispanics.
He and the news cameras have been waiting for this:, the Great White Whale of perceived "racism," to surface! "Harpoon her, great beast that she is!"
This dangerous creature: standing all of four feet seven inches, weighing in at seventy eight pounds with a voice of a small, angry finch. She is soooooo terrifying!
Even officialdom wastes no time in attacking. Never let a granny go unpunished.
County Commissioner Les Miller; "Let me apologize to the Hispanics that are here in this chamber watching, for the derogatory comments...that cuts deep. That hurts. It's painful. I apologize for the comments being made. (he repeated it!) I apologize for the comments being made!"
Clapping, and applause here. A Kumbaya moment serving to scold the gadfly. Bad, bad gadfly.
It helps to have someone willing to say something retrograde, something throwback, something impolitic, yes, something racist in her effort to get a decent debate going. Succulent red meat for the media to devour and pretend to be the defenders of ....meh, whatever.
The fact is, everything going on in any government body depends on the initial vote that put that public official into that chair. Because without the sanctity of the vote, you don't get a Less Miller in the first place. You don't get a black guy, or an Hispanic guy on the county commission. You don't even get a woman on the board, either. You don't get an openly gay man, or woman, on any county commission. You likely won't even get an agnostic, heaven forbid it!
Given the old system you certainly wouldn't get a tiny woman even daring to scold officials, as she does, so admirably, so valiantly, week in week out about their spending and so on.
So. If you want to get attention from the media say something which can be perceived as racist. Bring your granny.
Or go further! Come dressed as a chicken, perhaps, wear a funny shirt, and one of those crazy multicolored fake afros. Bring an accordian and a monkey. Make a stupid ruckus so the media can poke fun and ignore the heart of the issue. As they stumble blind in the darkness they create with their own closed eyes.
If you want to be ignored by both the media and public officials, what you must do is attack the heart of the issue. Raise a concern of the failure in our voting machines, that, if remedied, would solve the problems inherent with democracy. For this would erase a perceived need for special districts raised by a threatened minority feeling oppressed by the status quo.
Because failing the sanctity of "one person one vote" you don't get any diversity. Cry, whine into your Cuban coffee or latte all you want, baby. You don't even get the discussion of the creation of an "access district."
"No Commissionuh Thibedeaux, I don'ts beleebs I have, suh! Newfangled idea from yankeefolk no doubt, or perhaps thuh heeeeethuns!"
The term never, ever (and again now) ever! comes up. They don't even bother to consider something so outlandish.
Without the sanctity of the vote you get a sham, people. A governing board made up of ruling members of the local Mason Temple perhaps. Complete with all their coordinated red-herring issues and chicken feeding nonsense conflicts that the media, like hooked Snook, continue to fall for.
You get conspiring officials be they Masons, be they Poobahs, who since the 1850s have all been white hetero males of the same religious persuasions. Who for generations, have all been working for the same law firms, all the way back into dim-distant intolerant, enslaving past. Who have occupied all state legislature positions, as well.
You get nothing, citizen. You get bupkiss. If you or your family aren't part of the system that has been in place since before you were born, you my friend get no representation whatsoever.
You are told to go suck on a lollipop of untruth. You are lied to when you petition your sham government. They pat you on the head in the most patronizing manner, and send you on your way.
We have been approaching this commission, this county government, since July looking for one piece of paper to verify an erasure of 38,000 votes in District 3 (Miller) during the last election which the media - perhaps now bowing to some Beauregard sinister directive from the top - seems willing to forget along with the officials they are supposed to be watching for us. (We spoke again! That makes times three! We got no ink.)
So that the media and the officials themselves can erase history and continue to manipulate the system for their own means, bring back the Way Back Machine, and oppress the very people who democratic Commissioners Les Miller and Kevin Beckner pretend to protect.
Comes the surprising vote! The commission voted down 5-2, even the notion of handing the issue over to the voters of Hillsborough County by way of a referendum. Nope. No special and different districts for you, Hispanics.
Supremely quiet and officious commissioners Ken Hagan, Victor Christ, Alan Higgenbotham and Sandra Murman, (who seemed more concerned with events on the social calendar than any single issue) voted against it. And can you beleebs it? How in the world could they even consider not letting the citizens have a crack at this one!! Do you believe they voted that way?
Round and round like mice on a wheel, folks. That's you.
The Herring of (Perceived) Racism comes in at 1:10! We come in at 1:19. Commissioner Miller comes in at 1:26 or thereabouts.
Here's the meeting link.
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