Island Issues

Walk To Demonstrate Support For Local Police; Cross The Line Crosses The Line For Veterans

Walk To Demonstrate Support For Local Police; Cross The Line Crosses The Line For Veterans

Opining weekly about the hapless Fernandina Beach City Commission, its slippery City Manager Dale Martin and his double-talking sidekick Commissioner Chip Ross is getting depressing.

The city’s suspicious and inept actions concerning the fiasco surrounding the missing FEMA funds for marina reconstruction deserve attention, and we’ll keep after it because massive sums ($12-15 million) of our tax dollars are involved. Their plans to jack up property taxes by 10.2 percent also deserve commentary.

However, a couple of other activities deserve attention this week: one that already took place, and another scheduled for Thursday, July 2.

This coming Thursday, July 2, a group of locals decided it is time to shown gratitude for the cops. They’ve had it with the verbal, written, and physical abuse police have been receiving nationwide since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, May 25 by a rogue cop.

Enough is enough they determined. It’s time to show appreciation for one of the toughest jobs anywhere. The Jacobin experiment in chaos in Seattle clearly indicates that without police, there is no justice and certainly no peace. Pundit, author, investor, and businessman Joel Ross says millions of voters are now scared and very angry at what is happening. And they should be. “The only thing between us and total crime and mayhem is the police who are being severely restrained and punished for doing their job,” he adds.

To show support for our local police force and those nationwide, A peaceful “Support The Police” walk will be held in downtown Fernandina Beach, beginning at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 2.

Those wanting to show their support for the local police should gather at Parking Lots C and D at the south end of the Marina. They’ll walk down Front Street to Centre St., then go north to Central Park and back down Ash to 2nd Street South and back to the parking lots.

This is NOT a political event and is not sponsored by Republicans or Democrats or any candidates. It is an ad hoc group of local residents who want to display their appreciation for the work of the police department. So, if you join in do not bring political signs or signs proclaiming for any other cause. Signs or banners proclaiming support for the police are welcomed. So are American flags. Participants are also asked to wear face masks and adhere to the County and City COVID 19 safety measures (see story below).

“Support The Police” signs (pictured above) were created for folks to plant in their yards. The demand for the signs was greater than anticipated and more have been ordered. They will be ready about July 8. When they arrive, I’ll announce where they can be picked up.

For more information about the “Support The Police” walk inquire at PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden, 12 South 2nd Street, go to PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden Facebook page or email Donna O’Neill at donnadee1@comcast.net .

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Cross The Line: Last Saturday was the second annual Cross the Line, Paddle for Veterans; organized by three local veterans and one very courageous gal who piloted a plane around the world.

Billy Cimino (US Army), Paul Lore (US Marines), Starla Hansen (US Air Force), and Ruth Maestre, (a pilot who competed in the 2001 London-Sydney air race), head up the Cross the Line Foundation, a local nonprofit that raises money for U.S. military veterans.

Kayakers crossing the line. Photo courtesy of Sara Sands.

The quartet’s signature event was their second annual, nine-mile kayak trip from St. Marys, Georgia to the Fernandina Harbor Marina. The event, held the third Saturday in June, strives to raise awareness and money for veteran suicides and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Each year money raised is donated to a veterans-related organization chosen by the local Cross the Line team. This year’s event — which had approximately 100 participants — raised more than $10,000 that was donated to K-9 for Warriors in Ponte Vedre. K-9 for Warriors provides service dogs to warriors suffering from PTSD, brain injuries, and other trauma as a result of military service post-9/11.

Cimino, one of the organizers, said that even though fund raising was slowed a bit due to the nationwide pandemic, the event was a “huge success, raising awareness for a worthy cause that is often forgotten by the general public.”

Next year’s event will be held the third Saturday in June 2021. Information about the Cross the Line Foundation is on its website www.Crossthelinefoundation.com. Cross the Line has also started a scholarship fund for veterans and children of veterans.

Next week, we’ll get back to covering the hapless Fernandina Beach city government which makes Mel Brooks’ Governor William J. Le Petomane’s office in Blazing Saddles look competent and efficient.

***

A Reminder: For those folks unaware or confused about what’s going on at City Hall in Fernandina Beach, in this Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddle scene just substitute City Manager Dale Martin’s name for Governor William J. Le Petomane’s (right) and Chip Ross’s for Hedley Lamarr (left), then imagine they’re discussing the Fernandina Beach City Marina.

Governor Le Petomane: (looking at a document on his desk) “What the hell is this?”

Hedley Lamarr: “This is the bill that will convert the state hospital for the insane into the William J. Le Petomane memorial gambling casino for the insane.”

Governor Le Petomane: (standing up proudly) “Gentlemen, this bill will be a giant step forward in the treatment of the insane gambler.”

More next week.

***

County Urges Businesses to Implement COVID-19 Safety Measures: Due to the recent increases to COVID-19 cases, Nassau County issued a press release last evening strongly encouraging the use of masks in public places. “Effective today, Friday, June 26, 2020. We are requesting that ALL businesses implement measures to protect the health and safety of the public,” it said. “This includes use of masks by both employees and patrons, ensuring social distancing of customers, and maintaining an occupancy of 50% or less. ”

The County said it is coordinating “this voluntary implementation with Nassau County Emergency Management, the City of Fernandina Beach and the Chamber of Commerce.”

According to the release between tomorrow and next Wednesday, July 1st, Nassau County Code Enforcement will begin visiting businesses to see if these recommendations are being followed. “Should it be determined that businesses are not voluntarily implementing these measures, the County will consider issuing an Executive Order making these safety measures mandatory and subjecting business owners to a citation,” said the release.

It added that the Chamber of Commerce and Nassau County Emergency Management are working on a system to distribute masks to businesses needing assistance in supplying them to employees and patrons. It said additional information about this will follow.

***

Baseball’s Best Play? During all this monument bashing, flag burning, anti-cop, hate-America, rioting crap, an incident 44 years ago stands out as one of the most vivid examples of patriotism I can recall.

During the year of the country’s bicentennial celebration April 25, 1976 the Chicago Cubs were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers when in the fourth inning a couple of jerks jumped onto the field, lay a U.S. flag on the ground, and attempted to set it on fire.

Cubs outfielder Rick Monday sprinted over and scooped up the flag, saving it from the flames, a move immediately hailed by the fans, who broke into a spontaneous rendition of “God Bless America.”  ESPN later named Monday’s act one of the top 100 plays in the history of baseball.

Monday, a 19-year major leaguer, who played American Legion ball in his youth, still has the flag and is a proponent of a Constitutional amendment to protect the U.S. flag from deliberate acts of destruction.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could learn from Mr. Monday’s action. They could grow spines and forbid the kneeling by players during the playing of the National Anthem. Professional sports stadiums and arenas are becoming nothing more than venues for ultrarich athletes to display disrespect and hatred for the country, the flag, and the military. I’m not paying to watch that. I’ve had it with their crap. They can all do whatever they want but I won’t be there watching or watching on TV since I find it difficult to cheer for both teams to lose. Like several of my friends I’m tired of being called a racist because I disagree with these professional bozo’s anti-American tactics.

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Orwell’s Prophecy Has Arrived: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” ― George Orwell, “1984”.

***

Get A Job! The coronavirus shutdown has probably killed off the pricey four-year vacation many high school graduates expected to spend on college campuses while being indoctrinated with left wing ideological rubbish.

Universities will soon realize that their massive scam of selling worthless degrees in Gender Studies, Art History and more is finally over when students and their locked down parents open their check books this fall and realize the money isn’t there. And neither is their patience.

Many students forced off campus by the pandemic are being callously told “no refunds” for their empty dorm rooms, cafeteria meal cards and classes they couldn’t attend.

Digging a massive student debt hole is not worth the risk for the useless products and services peddled by these university conmen. Neither they nor their parents are willing to pay extravagant prices for an online “education”.

Maybe college campuses can sell or rent their empty dormitories, buildings, cafeterias, lecture halls, safe places and stadiums to private enterprise who’ll put them to productive use, unlike the campus twits that forgot the core mission of their institutions was education.

***

Just Asking: Has anyone produced one shred of evidence that the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a rogue police officer in Minneapolis May 25 was a racist act? If so, what is it?

***

The People Behind BLM: Shaun King, the controversial Black Lives Matter activist known for pushing false claims has called for the destruction of Jesus Christ statues and Christian churches for their depiction of the “white” holy family, which King argues are forms of “white supremacy” and “racist propaganda” that promote “oppression.” BLM is not a simple organization seeking a better life for blacks. It is a radical Marxist based group with strong anti-Semitic, anti-white policies. These are extremely dangerous people.

***

NASCAR Noose Nonsense: Fifteen FBI agents descended on Talladega Speedway to investigate an allegation that black race car driver, Bubba Wallace, claimed someone planted an intimidating noose in his team’s garage. It wasn’t a noose said the FBI team, but a garage door pull chain, that has been in that garage for a number of months, well before it was ever used by Mr. Wallace. It seems to me those 15 FBI agents could have served us better by investigating the folks funding hate groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter rather than running around chasing stupid rumors of alleged “hate crimes,” and looking for monsters hiding in a child’s bedroom closet or under the bed.

***

Being Dumb Could Be A Plus: Former L.A. Times columnist and TV script writer Bert Prelutsky says one of his fans sent him a meme that pictured an angry Joe Biden jabbing his finger at someone and saying: “Dementia, my ass!  I’ve always been this dumb!”

After chuckling, Burt realized that if Biden would actually say something along those lines, it could actually boost his campaign. It would be like when Ronald Reagan, 73 in 1984, turned the tables on Walter Mondale, 56, during a presidential debate, saying he wouldn’t make an issue of his opponent’s youth and relative lack of experience.

It was probably one of the cleverest bits of political jujitsu in American history, turning a minus into a plus.

Burt reminds us that with Biden, even his supporters know that his brain, which was never first-rate, now closely resembles a chunk of 78 year-old Swiss cheese.  Instead of denying the obvious, Burt says he would probably do well to admit it, suggesting he at least has a sense of humor about his decline. It would at least resonate with people of a certain age who make nearly as much noise just getting out of a chair as a flamenco dancer makes while trying to pound his or her way through the floor.

***

Karma? Former Associated Press reporter, IBM colleague, and friend tells me the story of how he was in the McDonald’s drive-through the other morning and a young lady behind him leaned on her horn because he was taking too long to place his order.

“Take the high road, I thought to myself. So, when I got to the first window, I paid for her order along with my own.”

“The cashier must have told her what I’d done, because as we moved up she leaned out her window and waved to me and mouthed ‘Thank you.,’ obviously embarrassed that I had repaid rudeness with kindness.”

“When I got to the second window I showed them both receipts and took her food, too. Next, she had to go back to the end of the line start all over.”

Moral of the story: “Never honk your horn at old guys.”

***

History Repeating Itself: When Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1920s and 1930s his ally Ernst Rohm created the Sturmabteilung (Brown Shirts). Their job was to disrupt meetings of and wage terror campaigns against opposing factions. The Brown Shirts mission was to riot, beat up, burn, and kill anything that got in the way of the Nazi’s National Socialist agenda. How are the black-shirted Antifa thugs and Black Lives Matter groups that now run Seattle any different?

***

Churchill statue before it was defaced by London loonies.

Dumber Than A Barrel Of Hair:  Left-wing activist and chair of something called the Lambeth Independent Police Advisory Board, Lorraine Jones, revealed on air in the UK last Saturday that she doesn’t know who the late Prime Minister Winston Churchill was. In an interview she told the TV host “I personally haven’t met him.” Churchill led Britain during World War II in its battle against the Nazis and died in 1965. He is considered by many historians to be the greatest political leader of the 20th Century. When asked about removing a statue of Churchill this dunce responded saying: “I’ve heard arguments on both sides; some say he’s a racist some say he’s a hero. I haven’t personally met him, but I would say that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community.”

17 Comments

Lisa Giza - 23. Jul, 2020 -

Is it still possible to get a “Support the Police” sign?

Will T. - 27. Jun, 2020 -

Truth!!
Thank, Dave!!

Will T. - 27. Jun, 2020 -

Thanks that is!!

THOMAS JOHNSON - 26. Jun, 2020 -

I previously sent email asking how to subscribe.
Do not duplicate.
Thanks

Larry Thornberry - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Clearly Lorraine Jones of the UK, who proves education in Old Blighty is every bit as hopeless as it is here, has a great future in government. Perhaps as Minister of Education. Are you sure there’ll always be an England?

Wil - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Incorrect. The FBI said it was a noose. NASCAR has 1864 total garages. Eleven had ropes and only one had a noose. It was out there in 2019. Coincidence Bubba got that stall. NASCAR released the real image of noose and not the faked one circulation. Glad it was nothing. Stupid act by someone last year. Garages are new and used only one time prior. The truth is out there. A crewman found it not Bubba. And the day before someone hired a plane to fly the confederate flag. Well. The fake one since the confederacy was around four years, Obama was around longer. And Bubba always receives racial slurs. So I would rather err on side of safety.

tony crawford - 26. Jun, 2020 -

David, once again much thanks for bringing us to date on City politics. That is, and has always been a topic near and dear to our hearts, if not our wallets.
The support for our local police is a source of pride for all who live here. We have a wonderful department who serve us all well, day in and day out.
You did mention Biden as being a chunk of Swiss cheese. I mean how could anyone ague with that after he has made such mind blowing statements such as –“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” or” I look very much forward to showing my financials, because they are huge.” or in 2004 he said “The concept of shaking hands is absolutely terrible, and statistically I’ve been proven right.” .He is a womanizer as well, I mean who else would say ” Certain guys tell me they want women of substance, not beautiful models. It just means they can’t get beautiful models.” He also has this thing for fat people when he said “I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.” His world role models are beyond reproach,“[Kim Jong-Un] speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” His knowledge of history must have been taught to him by Obama when he said of the revolutionary war efforts “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. I know we all know Dr.Sanjay Gupta from the fake news tipped him off that wind turbines do in fact cause cancer. Once again thank you for your insight on Biden.

David Scott - 26. Jun, 2020 -

I assume we’ll see you Thursday at the “Walk For Police” Tony.

Dave Lott - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Walking with the other Support the Police folks in spirit.
Yeah, NASCAR did a bit of ready,fire, aim on the Bubba Wallace “noose” incident. I understand Bubba’s sensitivity after leading the call to prohibit the Confederate battle flag at NASCAR events, but better to investigate before going to such great lengths.

Louie Louie - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Nice article today, I know this might surprise you – some of us like Dumb Biden better than our current Tweetie Bird Cult leader.

Suzan Veltre - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Supporting the Police IS a political statement. Political party support is paramount during an election year. It is impossible to support the police and support the left’s agenda. Why why why why are party signs during police support show inacceptable??? What would it matter if both law abiding Trump and Biden supporters showed up together to support the police. If we all support law and order then there really shouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand…..you can fully expect BLM signs. Mature intelligent people of all races instinctively know that lovingly supporting the Black Community and supporting BLM are horses of not only different color but entire bred. So in summary. As long as BLM signs will undoubtedly show up, candidate signs will also appear and rightly so and I think discouraging them is frankly discouraging in itself..:particularly at a time when our police need our support…the support of ALL

JEANNE WYATT - 26. Jun, 2020 -

I’ll be walking with you in spirit. Probably not able to walk the distance with my health in the hot sun. Great effort to express the belief of most of us and prevent the minority from ruling the show.

Rick Fine - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Dave, ever wonder why old alt-right white men frequently wrap themselves in the flag? They claim to love good old American symbols and values, but clearly can’t stand Americans. These are extremely dangerous people.

Pat Keogh - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Dave:
One of your best! Still laughing at the Dementia line. May qualify you as an elder abusist.

Brian - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Bubba Wallace. Bubba Watson is a golfer

Katie - 26. Jun, 2020 -

Great article on Cross the Line. Thanks Dave.

CHUCK HALL - 26. Jun, 2020 -

See you at the walk/march. Thanks