Last week, Big Sugar turned its hand to hiring unemployed Broward County actors to pretend to be Tea Party objectors to the purchase of US Sugar land by the state of Florida. The wide coverage landed with a thud in Tallahassee. Election results have convinced Florida politicians that the only questions they have to ask themselves: 1) have they gerrymandered districts well enough? 2) have they suppressed voters well enough? 3) have they isolated dissenters well enough, and 4) have they shown their willingness through their votes to destroy government from the inside?
Answers to these four questions correspond to job qualifications once elected officials leave office. They are looking to line their pockets; whether as lobbyists or "consultants" to the powerful, wealthy corporations that have locked down the state capitol.
Turned around the questions are also four good reasons to get involved in change.
The protest on April 9th in West Palm Beach is part of a rising tide of citizen anger, channeled by terrible decisions that sacrificed billions in property values along the Caloosahatchee and Indian River and quality of life so Big Sugar billionaires can get wealthier.
So far, politicians and their appointees (ie. governing board members of the district) appear immoveable on the issue of whether or not to exercise the US Sugar option, agreed to in 2010 by Big Sugar and opposed by Big Sugar five years later.
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| Jim Morin - Miami Herald |
The state of Florida is locked-down these days by special interests (Miami Herald cartoonist Jim Morin captured it perfectly, yesterday). Take some time, if you can, to join the Silent Majority on April 9th in West Palm Beach. What is at stake is not whether the Great Destroyers will get away it again in Florida. It is whether Floridians will ever regain control of government hijacked by radical extremists.
Here is a notice by Sierra Club:
Governor Rick Scott and his appointed water managers are refusing to buy sugar land needed to restore the Everglades. Tell them it's not okay.
Hey Miami, Broward and Palm Beach citizens!
Hop on the train (the Tri-rail train) to tell Governor Scott's water managers to Buy Sugar Land Now this Thurs., April 9 at 9 a.m. at the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach. Don't worry about the fare. It's on us.
Miamians, we’ll be on the P612 train from the NEW! Miami Airport Station at 7:00 a.m. (plenty of free parking) or you can join the train at the Metro rail transfer station at 7:09 a.m. (we’ll be the party in the first car)! Find your station address: www.tri-rail.com
Ft. Lauderdale friends, you can join us at 7:47 at Ft. Lauderdale station or check the schedule for other stops in Broward or Palm Beach Counties http://www.tri-rail.com/ We'll arrive at the West Palm Beach station at 8:45 and be transported to the protest and press event by 9 a.m.
You must RSVP for this special train offer. Simply send an email to jonathan.ullman@sierraclub.org with your name, cell phone and what station you're getting on.
Be a part of this important Everglades activity and have a great time getting there!
-- Jon Ullman, Sierra Club
3 comments:
The only other lobbyist group missing on that cartoon is FPL!
Humans' love of of sugar is not going away. And despite all wishes to the contrary it is unlikely sea rise is going to be arrested in our lifetime.
My objection is by the end of the century the river of grass will revert to being salt flats and tidal Marshes. By then big sugar would've moved on to greener pastures laughing all the way to the bank having sold swampland to the taxpayer for top dollar.
I'm going to see if anyone has written an article with research on what Florida will look like if the central portion turns into a salt flat and tidal marsh. That's quite interesting. I knew about the salt water intrusion but didn't think about what would then be created and what it would evolve into.
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