Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Where is Abel thy brother?


Burial fiasco appalls family
July 10, 2007, ANI MARTINEZ, Miami Herald

Fort Lauderdale's Sunset Memorial Gardens cemetery has come under fire once again over allegations that it mishandled a grave site -- this time allowing a casket of a 28-year-old murder victim to float in a pool of water in an open grave.

Errol Williams said he found the coffin of his daughter, Cassandra Williams, of Coconut Creek, in the open grave on July 2, following a heavy rain. Her funeral was two days earlier, on June 30...

Cassandra Williams and her boyfriend, Chris Thompson, were shot to death in the 5200 block of Northwest 16th Court in Lauderhill on June 16. Their bodies were found that night stuffed in a car trunk a few miles away in Sunrise, said police...

Family and friends attended Williams' 3 p.m. service at Grace Funeral Chapels, 5980 W. Oakland Park Blvd., on June 30. From the funeral home, they traveled to the cemetery at 3201 NW 19th St.

After a quick service there, the family left, thinking the grave site would be covered. It was not.

On July 2, Errol Williams returned at 9:30 a.m. to visit his daughter's grave site one more time before he and his wife returned to their Cape Coral home in Lee County.

He was distraught to find the open grave.
The precious daughter Cassandra is murdered, then her family suffers again to see their daughter's body neglected and alone.

It seems impossible that Earth can keep spinning once per day and not crack apart into a million fragments because of this cruelty and pain.
And the Lord said unto Cain, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Literacy important enough to strip from budget

Budget Cuts Take Bite Out Of Library Hours
July 9, 2007, Jacksonville News
Jacksonville book lovers recently got some bad news as the continuing story of the city's budget bind takes a bite out of local libraries.

In response to the 2007-2008 budget cuts, the library will cut nearly $3 million by reducing services and programs.

Last week, Mayor John Peyton pointed in his inauguration speech about how important literacy is to youth.

"Literacy is the No. 1 predictor of educational success," Peyton said.

"Therefore, I must now rip $3 million from kids and their families who want to use the library."


Mom and son at the library
Jacksonville News photo

That last quote is not the mayor. It was his fountain pen talking.

The old joke asks how one can tell that a lawyer is lying. Answer: his lips are moving. Similarly with this politician, his mouth says one thing and his actions say quite another thing.

He did have the decency to do it straight, and not hide behind a nefarious smokescreen of accounting.

However, Mayor Peyton will doubtless find a good reason for buying a new SUV to chauffeur him around town on official business, or for stipulating a pay raise for a nephew or some other politician trick.

Meanwhile, kids and their families are left high and dry.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Twisted elitism, Orlando style.

Elitism is defined as favored treatment, as if it were an entitlement, due to supposedly superior economic or intellectual status. I.e., railroad tracks - there is a right side and a wrong side of the railroad tracks. Elitists are on the right side. "These people" are on the other side of the tracks.

Except in Orlando.

Otherwise, someone could explain why a "scholarship" service for lower income kids to go to summer camp is actually elitism. It is as if the elitists have quantum-tunneled to from the right side of the tracks but did not land on the wrong side of the tracks: they landed in a parallel universe. OOPS.

"YMCA is ousted from kids' program
Orange County says the nonprofit's limits on voucher use 'gave the appearance of elitism.'"
July 8, 2007, David Damron, Orlando Sentinel

Orange County officials are upset with area YMCAs for not expanding a program for low- and moderate-income children to the nonprofit's facilities in more affluent communities such as Winter Park, Dr. Phillips and Lake Nona, saying it smacks of elitism.

The county has dropped the YMCA from its list of participants for The Club, which provides $300 vouchers to about 1,000 children to help pay for costly summer camps, because the YMCA insisted the vouchers be used at its facilities in less affluent areas such as Tangelo Park or South Orlando

Tell me this isn't a government operation.

I guess it is another episode in Florida's continuing daytime drama inspired by the true story of Theresa LePore, the Democrat election supervisor in Palm Beach who biffed an entire national election and then blames the Republicans.

In the big scheme of things, if it is more important to help kids from well-off neighborhoods and criticize those who help kids from poorer neighborhoods -- the wrong side of the tracks -- then either I am a monkey's uncle or Al Gore really DID invent the internet.