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What You Missed This Week in La Gaceta

From As We Heard It, by Patrick Manteiga

► Consistent voters received several text messages this election cycle from candidates. Most of us look at them and then swipe them away, but a few voters responded with their own text. One female candidate shared with us a few of the responses. One registered voter texted, “I hope your children get cancer.” Another text read, “send nudes.” …(to read more, buy a paper)

► The Florida State Park System’s leadership must be infiltrated by well-connected developers.
The Department of Environmental Protection has floated the bonehead idea of building large hotels on our precious natural lands and cutting down trees and evicting eagles and deer to build massive golf courses. The golf course idea arose during Governor Rick Scott’s term, who is now a U.S. senator. He also had the bright idea of sunsetting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
If you want to oppose the paving of our state parks, there is a meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 2902 W. Bearss Ave., in Tampa, and another meeting on the same date and time at the District Event Venue, 11141 U.S. Hwy 19 N., Suite 204, Clearwater, to discuss Honeymoon Island State Park.

► School Board was the most interesting of all the races and perhaps the most significant. All four incumbents, all who are Democrats, had Republican opponents. All of the incumbents had also voted to place a referendum on the ballot to raise property taxes to pay teachers an extra $6,000 a year and support staff and additional $3,000.
A Republican in each race was backed by anti-tax forces that spent big money to defeat the incumbents. In two of the races, the Republicans were backed by Moms for Liberty and Governor Ronald DeSantis. The governor’s PACs also spent big money in these races.
All the incumbents won or placed first and will go to a runoff. This is a huge defeat for Governor Ronald DeSantis, Moms for Liberty and Republicans. It is a huge win for teachers unions, the Democratic Party and bodes well for the tax that will appear on the November ballot.
In District 1, incumbent Nadia Combs won her reelection outright and won’t be in a runoff. She won with 52.99%, or 14,507 votes. Layla Collins had 37.06%, or 10,145 votes, and Julie Magill received 9.96%, or 2,726 votes.
Layla Collins had everything going for her. State Senator Jay Collins is her husband. He used his influence to fundraise for his wife and brought in contributions from out-of-town sources that normally don’t get involved in school board races.
She was also supported by the governor and Moms for Liberty. There was a lot of negative, nasty mail targeted against Combs, but in this case, the negative campaigning didn’t work as Combs won reelection.
This election and the others showed that the governor’s endorsement isn’t worth what it used to be. This is the second cycle of elections in Hillsborough County where the governor has failed to take out his School Board targets….(to read more, buy a paper)

► The incumbent republican Ken Hagan dominated in the [County Commission] District 2 primary. He got 78.24% to Melissa Nordbeck’s 21.76%. Democrat Patricia Alonzo will now see if she can defeat Hagan in November. This is a big challenge, as Hagan has not lost an election and held elected office since 2002.
In District 4, newly appointed Republican County Commissioner Christine Miller defended her seat against fellow republican Cody Powell. She received 68.73% to his 31.27%. She will be challenged by Democrat Nicole Payne in November.
Payne won the Democratic primary 63.39% over Jonathan Chavez, who received 36.61%. … In countywide District 6, there was a Republican and Democratic primary.
Chris Boles won the Republican primary with 59.01% over Jim Davison, who received 40.99%. Boles had the firefighters union behind him along with elected Republicans. He also spent twice as much as Davison and ran a more traditional campaign than Davison.
On the Democratic side, Sean Shaw dominated with 80.99% over Joseph Ryan Taylor, who received 19.11%.
The race between Boles and Shaw will be carefully watched, as it could tip the County Commission to be much more conservative. If Shaw wins, the Commission will have four Republicans and three Democrats. Hagan has been known to sometimes side with the Democrats. If Boles wins, it is five Republicans to two Democrats. If this is the case, conservative Republicans would dominate Commission votes….(to read more, buy a paper)

From Chairman of the Bored, by Gene Siudut

► A little more than two weeks ago, Aug. 7 to be precise, marked 25 years of me living in Tampa.
It’s an easy day to remember, not because of anything numerical but because of the occurrences of the day.
I moved to Tampa from New Jersey with Paul Guzzo, formerly of La Gaceta and presently of the Tampa Bay Times. His brother, Pete, followed suit a couple weeks later and the three of us lived in an apartment complex on South Westshore Boulevard called The Cove.
Paul and I drove in a U-Haul truck with his dog, a half-dalmatian/half-Australian Shepherd named Habit, coming along for the ride. The ride down was uneventful except for the occasional stop to let Habit relieve herself and one stop at a Hardee’s in South Carolina where I saw a person put hot sauce on a piece of fried chicken. Until then, I didn’t know that was a thing people did.
…(to read more, buy a paper)

From The Reasonable Standard, by Matt Newton

► At the end of my final year at New College of Florida, the school library had a book sale.
I recall the books were not in the best condition. I purchased a superficially good-looking multivolume set of old history books and they began to crumble as soon as I opened them at home. They soon became desk props.
For many years, the props occupied a corner of my parents’ house until they were either sold at a garage sale or finally collapsed into dust.
But I did not regret buying them. The sale supported my school.
And selling them to me was certainly better than tossing them in the garbage. Which is exactly what New College’s new administration chose to do with a massive number of books last week.
This was discovered when students found a massive dumpster filled with books behind New College’s beloved Jane Bancroft Cook Library.
The optics were bad. And the explanation was worse. … (to read more, buy a paper)

From In Context, by Doris Weatherford

► I was very sad to see the news about Ben Sasse. He recently resigned as president of the University of Florida, our state’s traditional flagship university. I knew that he was extremely unqualified for the job that Ron DeCeiver gave him (while ignoring any faculty input) because Sasse’s academic experience was limited to a small Lutheran college in Nebraska. Yet I’ve always respected Lutherans and hoped he would follow that creed. I was wrong.
Turns out that his experience in Washington was more important — and more telling. The governor and his lackies on the UF Board of Trustees chose the Nebraska senator because he shares their traditional Republican values: putting self-interest first. Now that he is off his throne (ostensibly because of his wife’s health, but nonetheless planning to remain at UF), we learn of his outrageous spending. In his 17-month tenure he has dropped money on things that do not benefit either students or faculty – which is what a university is. Administrators are there to administer, not to reign or rip-off. …(to read more, buy a paper)

From Silhouettes, an interview with Ronnie Oliver, by Tiffany Razzano

► Ronnie Oliver grew up in Alabama, where he was raised in a single-parent home by his mother. He saw how she struggled with four children and knew he wanted to do something with his life that would not only make her proud, but would also help lift her out of poverty.
A star athlete in high school, he dreamed of playing professional football. He thought this could be a good way to uplift his family.
Oliver was awarded a football scholarship to Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Before he finished his degree, he was offered an opportunity to try out for professional football teams, so he left university.
“But it didn’t work out for me,” he said. “I came to the realization that it was time for me to leave that profession alone and try to get my degree and start working with kids.”
Even amidst his pro athlete dreams, Oliver knew one day he wanted to work with children. He knew firsthand the impact mentors could have on a child.
“I came from a single-family household. I had a lot of relationships with coaches and teachers at my high school. I didn’t have a father figure in my life,” he said. “My coaches and teachers kind of raised me a little bit. They taught me right from wrong. I had a twin brother, and they did that for him too. They were like, ‘Hey, we want you to go the right way and not the wrong way.” …(to read more, buy a paper)

From Líneas de la memoria, por Gabriel Cartaya

► El jueves pasado visité el Club Cívico Cubano de Tampa y sostuve una agradable conversación con su presidente, Dr. Daniel J. Plasencia, con Abel Hernández, que se desempeña como administrador y con la Sra. Dania Sellers, tesorera de esa amplia, diversa y hermosa instalación.
Próximamente va a celebrarse el 60.° aniversario del surgimiento de ese magnífico club, fundado en 1963 por un grupo de exiliados cubanos que encontraron en Tampa un buen lugar para vivir. A ese buen clima espiritual contribuyó a la herencia que varias generaciones de cubanos dejaron en la ciudad desde fines del siglo XIX, cuando se asentaron en Ybor City y West Tampa fundamentalmente y legaron sus apellidos, costumbres, asociaciones, platos preferidos, música y bailes, en fin, su identidad.
En ello pensaron los cubanos que en la década de 1960 se unieron en torno a un proyecto que devino en el Club Cívico Cubano, como espacio de socialización que fue extendiéndose desde la familia cubana a representantes de otras nacionalidades hispanoamericanas y, finalmente, a toda la sociedad multicultural que vive y visita la bahía de Tampa.
Si bien desde el año anterior ya estaba concebido el club, es en julio de 1964 que se convierte en una organización sin fines de lucro, asentada en la Secretaría de la gobernación del estado de Florida en correspondencia con su legislación. Su primer presidente, el Dr. Enrique Jova, jugó un importante papel en el proceso de fundación, legalización y primera etapa de funcionamiento de esta institución, cuando no contaba con una edificación propia y debía celebrar sus actividades en diferentes espacios de la ciudad.
… (to read more, buy a paper)

From Briznas culturales, por Leonardo Venta

► Nacido en Buenos Aires, Argentina, el 24 de agosto de 1899, Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo, o simplemente Jorge Luis Borges, es una de las figuras prominentes de la literatura universal.
La idea del mundo como representación es una constante en la obra borgeana. Según esta propuesta, el objeto carece de existencia fuera de la representación. En uno de los tempranos textos del genio argentino, el híbrido cuento-ensayo “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”, el narrador formula: “La verdad histórica, para él [Menard], no es lo que sucedió; es lo que juzgamos que sucedió”, es decir, la percepción de la realidad.
Una nueva dimensión fusiona la metafísica y lo fantástico, como parte de una estética literaria que revolucionara la literatura regionalista y el realismo decimonónico que le precediera. Otra propuesta muy presente en la obra de este autor, es la realidad observada cómo un sueño, lo cual implica cierto escepticismo ante el destino y el rol del hombre en el universo. …(to read more, buy a paper)