A few years back I went to Barbara Jordan's district office for an appointment where 2 Aides, instead of Jordan, were trotted out to meet with us; two burly guys. The men were were very polite and friendly. We got to talking and both admitted they had never been to the Everglades (both born and raised here). The bigger of the two admitted to a fear of alligators. When I left I wondered how many of our Commissioners and their staff have never ventured a few miles to the West of their districts into the vast acreage of Everglades National Park. I thought to myself: "How can you protect what you don't understand or know?" If in one's mind it is just a swamp that is a repository for dangerous alligators, it would make sense to let development creep into the buffer lands. Did they understand the link to our drinking water supply, or the importance of the birds nesting there? No. Shopping Centers are a lot more friendly to some than nature when uneducated. Herald: Do a survey, find out how many at County Hall have been to this important National Park.Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Barbara Jordan's Aide, Not a Gator Fan. By Geniusofdespair
A few years back I went to Barbara Jordan's district office for an appointment where 2 Aides, instead of Jordan, were trotted out to meet with us; two burly guys. The men were were very polite and friendly. We got to talking and both admitted they had never been to the Everglades (both born and raised here). The bigger of the two admitted to a fear of alligators. When I left I wondered how many of our Commissioners and their staff have never ventured a few miles to the West of their districts into the vast acreage of Everglades National Park. I thought to myself: "How can you protect what you don't understand or know?" If in one's mind it is just a swamp that is a repository for dangerous alligators, it would make sense to let development creep into the buffer lands. Did they understand the link to our drinking water supply, or the importance of the birds nesting there? No. Shopping Centers are a lot more friendly to some than nature when uneducated. Herald: Do a survey, find out how many at County Hall have been to this important National Park.
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15 comments:
I agree and have seen the same things both in the City of Miami and in the County.
Having respect for Animals such as Sharks and Alligators has given me a branding of "environmentalist" to many of the people in the legislature, Unions, et al.
It's pretty Ridiculous.
Have you ever been in Overtown or Liberty City with the intent to understand the problems of the inner-city. Do you fear the African-American males in that environment? Even if not, it would be unfair to accuse you of racist neglect of the maladies plaguing Black folks. Just as it's unfair of you to translate a failure to visit the Everglades or a fear of alligators in two Barbara Jordan staffers to mean they cannot fathom the environmental issues surrounding the River of Grass.
Ironically, the Black community is, historically speaking, one of the staunchest allies of the environmental movement. It's your white corporate brothers that you have to worry about.
Andrew....hold on there. I have been to Liberty City, Overtown and everywhere else in the County. Don't pigeon hole me. Read my post again. It is not about BLACK. It is about the entire commission. How do you know Jordan's staff is black, just because she is? I could be talking about white guys.
Come on, don't bring race into this. It is about the lack of understanding of most environmental issues by most of the commission and I am giving them the benefit of the doubt --giving them an excuse for their horrendous voting record on anything environmental...saying they don't understand. Would you prefer I just call them ignorant of the issues?.
For the record: Sally Heyman and Katy Sorenson (the ONLY white non-hispanics on the commission, have by far the best records on the environment. Except for Moss, you get no good votes from the black commissioners. Get real Andrew.
"blinded by racism" you are aptly named. Who owns Lowe's? That's where the real power is. There are no people of color in that boardroom, beyond some token, I assure you. All of our commissioners, Black, Hispanic and white, are powerless caretakers for corporate power. Heyman and Sorenson may differ on the issues but they are joined in irrelevance with their counterpart Moss.
And oh, Anonymous we can't have you getting sick, but it's hard to avoid the central role race plays in the history of this country. This Thursday Obama is going to sit down for a beer with a white Cambridge police officer and a Black Harvard professor because race still does matter in our society. But you redeemed yourself to me your last comment, "The commission, they all stink."
And Genius, I was probably unfair to you but it can't be understated that the battle to preserve this planet must unite people across racial boundaries with it is going to have a chance to win.
Hey Andrew - although you write real nice, you did inject race into it. The post doesn't infer anything about race. The point of the post was how decisions are made by people who have no first hand knowledge of "what's out there". By injecting race, you've gone way OT.
Miaexile, of course I didn't need to inject race into it, because race is ever present in the minds of anyone socialized in these United States of America. It's always there and if you were honest about it, you'd admit it.
Let me point out the racial undercurrents of Genius' posting. These things did not nullify the point he was trying to make about the absolute life and death struggle that must be waged to preserve the Everglades but they were there.
First, of the 13 commissioners offices that he could have gone into to make his point, he used Barbara Jordan's. Now I have no truck with Jordan. She's a hack that ill-serves the African-American community. But Genius (and he deserves that title) chose her to make his point rather than Sorenson or Heyman.
Second, he portrays one of Jordan's staffers as afraid of alligators. Now admittedly, as he says, who is to say that staffer is Black. But I guarantee you in the minds of 99.9% of the white readers there popped up some shuffling scratching Black man who afraid of alligators. Those silly Negroes!
And finally, the picture that accompanies the posting. Look at it. Is that not a woman of color in a canoe with a white male over the caption "Barbara Jordan, this could be you."
Race comes "pre-injected" in every facet of American life.
Andrew: That IS Barbara Jordan's head I put on a white woman's body...that I shadowed in...it is photoshopped....The other person in the canoe is a woman too. I was trying to say: "You could enjoy the everglades BABS...happy smiles all around!!!"
second: The reason I mentioned Barbara Jordan's office is because that is where I had the conversation. I didn't have it in any other office. So would you want me to make up a story? Finally thank you Andrew, for calling me a genius and I appreciate your watching out for my racial fairness...but honestly, this one was color blind.
Color blindness is impossible. You're a brilliant man but you were raised in the USA Genius. The only thing we're blind to is our racism.
And jeez, that's a woman in the back of that canoe!
Genius is a man? Now I'm really confused.
Andrew does make some good points. Maybe there should be at least as much effort trying to understand the "social environment" as the "natural environment".
I wouldn't want to raise my family in a barren wasteland, nor would I want to raise them in a war zone.
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And I've got my glass on now and I see it is a woman in the back of the canoe and a very attractive one at that!
And if Genius is a woman and not a man as I assumed in my pig-headed male chauvinist mindset then we have another lesson learned. Along with all of us being socialized with racist ideas we are also wired to think in sexist misconceptions that must always be checked.
And if by some chance the woman in the back of the canoe is you Genius, what's the digits?
No pictures of me on this blog...and I am happy being a man or a woman, take your pick!
Hell, I don't know what the deal is. You can't even get the commission or the mayor out of their community to visit South Dade.
I bet that most of the county elected officials "second offices" that we pay for are in an east-west corridor that runs right through the heart of the county right through to Miami Beach. Martinez and the mayor hide out in the same shopping center. The rest of them who can justify the corridor area location can't be too far away from those two offices. Maybe it is a form of government aid to commercial property managers in Central Dade?
I will reconsider the South Dade thought, they may (no guarantee) visit South Dade if involves campaign fund raising and the farm bureau; at least the mayor and Seijas will visit then. Of course, that is a totally different swamp than the Everglades and they should not be allowed to count that as a trip to the Glades.
I don't think our commissioners, other than Moss and Sorenson, had a clue (or even have, currently) of what Hurricane Andrew meant to the community. The commissioners didn't think to hop in their county cars and drive south. It was too hot and messy for them anyhow. But, as the Evil One said, she wished Hialeah could have the economic impacts that South Dade got out of Andrew.
Just to be fair, I suspect many other commissioners, mayor and staff do not have a clue what is in North Dade or Central Dade, for that matter. They haven't a clue where the county parks are, what historical features exist or the where the drug holes are for that matter. They do know where the Tennis center is on Key Biscayne though. They love the free tickets to the tournaments.
How can our elected officials be good guardians of the public trust if they do not see, visit and understand the places, people and issues that they are charged with overseeing?
I wish I had the body of the lead chick in the canoe,,, not the head though, I have enough issues with my own head, without taking someone else's.
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