Muslim Capitol Day in Florida Receives New Recognition

Gov. Rick Scott

I had reached the 22nd floor of the Capitol and stepped off of the elevator to find myself approached by half a dozen men and women with young faces and inquiring eyes, some with hijabs and some without. I felt a sincerity of distrust as questions of, "who are you?" and "who are you with?" echoed in the hall; they came to the Capitol expecting the worst.

I left just a brief explanation before a young woman in a gray suit nodded and asked me to follow her. She took me to Elena, one of the organizers who quickly verified my attendance and as I turned toward the hall I became aware that someone was speaking in the main room and that the sound quality wasn't up to par. The entrance way was blocked by a single line of peering women in customary garb with the exception of a camera man with a boom mic. I manage to squeeze in; not only can I hear, but I can see that I am probably not 15 feet away from the speaker, Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott's message on Muslim Capitol Day was a familiar one to Florida; "It's about creating jobs and making Florida business friendly."

After Scott's unlikely appearance (and hasty photo shoot), former democratic congressional candidate, Z.J. Hafeez, recognized all those who traveled to the event from Florida areas such as Gainesville, Tampa, Daytona, St. Petersburg and most of all, Orlando. He added, "Today is an amazing opportunity for you - even if you're too young to vote, you can still lobby."

Ahmed Bedier (United Voices for America)

Ahmed Bedier, formerly with CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and Director of United Voices for America, delivered tension to the upcoming senate bills, Application of Foreign Law (SB 1294 and 1273); he explained the legislation was specifically proposed to target Muslims given they originally specified Sharia law. He reminds the audience that similar legislation is being considered in 12 other states.

Ahmed urged attendees to talk to their legislators about religious freedom and enforcement of immigration; "Don't punish those who contribute to the economy," he said. Ahmed lectured that domestic employees like in-house maids are exempt from the E-Verify system. He indicated that illegal employees are essentially slaves exploited for their labor while those who can afford to have domestic maids are not risking legal penalty. Ahmed believes that a domestic employee who is also an immigrant would not likely ask for help from the authorities had they been a victim of rape, adding, "We cannot criminalize undocumented workers."

Two precocious children, a boy and a girl too small to stand behind the mic, were propped up at the podium to read their letters in favor of education.

The following speaker Reverend Charles McKenzie reassured, "I cannot be what I aught to be if you cannot be what you ought to be...We will be heard," and "We live by our faith. We live under the law." Z.J. announced an hour break for attendees to speak with their representatives; he kids on the square, joking not to come back for lunch until they have. He said, "this is your task."

Between Sessions

"I wish we had our crosses on."

During lunch a heavy set camera-man with shaggy graying hair and a tripod disagreeably revealed he was in favor of the foreign law bill. He asked me, "Just tell me, is Sharia law good or bad?" He turned the camera on. The recorder's red light blinked and I stood in disbelief. "Do you really think that everything is black and white?" I said. It isn't. The question was adversarial, a false dichotomy; Technically the recognition of an agreement between two people is Sharia law - but that wasn't the point. Foreign law is already unconstitutional by definition. He didn't understand. "Have a great day," I said. He was convinced Muslim laws were going to take over America.

After lunch was over I noticed a potential family of three women and two children in bright summer clothes apprehensively move off of the elevator. They were evidently there to tour the building and weren't informed that it was Muslim Capitol Day. In passing the eldest woman seethed, "I wish we had our crosses on."

Round 2

Visitors from the legislature had turns to speak, one of the first being FL House Representative Jim Waldman. In open opposition to senate bill 1273, he explained it would, "harm all religions and not just Islam." Within introduction to the next speakers Ahmed agreed with Waldman, saying that the bills would also apply to the Ten Commandments.

Two speakers of the ACLU warned about the proposed immigration laws in Florida, citing Arizona's cousin bills in the house, (HB) 7089 Enforcement of Immigration Laws and senate bill (SB) 2040 Unauthorized Immigrants. They describe that the only way of attaining reasonable suspicion as to whether someone is an illegal immigrant or not is through the act of racial profiling. Returning to the Foreign Law bill, they expressed the legislation could affect years of civil law in US courts, even dating back to the Warsaw convention.

Rep. Geraldine Thompson

Angie Boynton from the Marion County School Board, Rep. Darryl Rouson and Rep. Dennis Baxley focused on positivity; Rouson stated, "My office is open," while Baxley asserted that he lived in his constituents district, they didn't live in his. Rep. Geraldine Thompson (video) said, "Remind your legislators of the challenges your communities face."

Muslim activist Amira Taylor shared her experience of a failed attempt to speak with Senator Hayes and his staff. He was not only a representative of her district but the person who endorsed the Application of Foreign Law house bill 1294. She inspires the audience to take advantage of their resources, noting that, "you don't have to sit at a typewriter anymore."

In between speeches and cheers, Ahmed returned to the podium with an announcement that Muslim Capitol Day was to be recognized from the Floor for the first time in history.

Reverend McKenzie (video) ended with a heavy note; "We are the tidal wave that will rollback the winds of ignorance."

Rick Scott Facebook Townhall: "Sorry for the technical difficulties"

Florida Governor Rick Scott held a Facebook Townhall accepting questions from 7:15pm until 7:45pm, closing out a final message at 8:06pm, answering a total of 13 questions. The Facebook Townhall was a different medium from the twitter Townhall Scott held in January, which ended abruptly after one tweet had labled the Governor a "jackass." Insults toward Scott did not end the Townhall this time, however no one seemed to be sure where questions were supposed to be posted and where Scott was going to answer them.

The delay of responses from Gov. Scott clued that there were issues from the beginning; the Townhall was a Facebook thread directly set up on the state website at flgov.com yet Scott posted this (link) as a first message on his facebook profile instead at about 7:40 pm, 25 minutes after the launch of what was supposed to be a 30 minute session:

captured at about 8 pm

A reaction from the state website Facebook feed on flgov.com:

In order to put a comment on his Facebook profile instead of the Governors feed on the state website, you have to "like" his page. 

Scott answered questions as "hard hitting" as, "Debi Wachendorfer asked about property insurance" and "Eric Parsons asks what about Florida Agriculture? Any plans?"
 

Unlike his profile page, where lukewarm questions of already-fans were being "answered", questions from concerned Floridians were inflating the feed on the Governor's state website where the facebook Townhall was meant to take place:

This was also among them (notice the "likes"):



I had a question of my own:

The comment from Leaflet blog had dropped from the top of the feed to several comments below despite it being there after refreshing the page and that no new comments were posted afterward. There isn't evidence as to why but I will say it's disappointing not to see Scott's caricature on the top of Florida's state website.

before(click)

after(click)

Scott ended his final note at 8:06pm with this message:

Yes Governor, we sent our ideas - and it appears you don't want to look at them.

Post of the Day - The Pensito Review

Via the Pensito Review: 

To justify ending Florida’s Prepaid College program — the largest in the country — Republican state Sen. Evelyn Lynn claimed the popular plan is, “a huge liability — far larger than pension, far larger than most anything we have.”

Nationwide, Republicans and tea party members echo the cry that because tax revenues are down, programs they have long targeted must be cut. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R/Tea) is using the message to cut education funding and gut environmental and consumer protection laws. But in this case, and so many others, Republicans are simply making stuff up to bolster their flimsy logic.

• The Florida Prepaid Tuition program has $10 billion in assets and $9.5 billion in liabilities
• For those able to do math, this means the program is running with a $500 million surplus
• Two years ago, Sen. Lynn herself floated the idea of raiding the Florida Prepaid plan to fund other initiatives

Translation? - "Successful state programs are not part of the Republican initiative."

FL GOP Rep. Says 11-Year-Old Was Gang Raped ‘Because She Was Dressed Like A 21 Year-Old Prostitute’

Republican Kathleen Passidomo, a Florida House representative from Naples, said the following during a debate for the states public school's dress code:

There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.

Did you really try to convince Florida that a girl in middle school, who was led into a warehouse by a group of men, men with intentions, could have thrown on a sweater and prevented herself from being abused? That the 11-year old was raped because her parents are to blame for the way she was dressed? I guess most Muslim women are never raped, either.

The reaction in the room afterward? Silence.

18 men sexually assaulted a kid with threats of beating her if she didn't do what she was told and in the year 2011, the victim blaming continues. 

Kathleen Passidomo, you're the lowest common denominator.

*source 1

*source 2

 

"Rick Scott Scam" by Stephen Goldstein

Whilst peering into the twitterverse, I found this musical treasure (in the style of Mark Russell). Well played, Mr. Goldstein. Pun intended.

What If We Could Talk About Anything

You don't have to completely agree with someone to have a sensible political conversation without lobbing insults and pitchforks. The following is a message thread between a Libertarian fellow and then myself. Out of respect I will not be including names or personal information.

"The standard Libertarian answer to Affirmative Action is that the market will straighten out racial discrimination. A company who hires the best workers regardless of race will be more economically successful than one that ignores a large portion of potential workers. This effect was very apparent in professional sports. Once the first black athletes were introduced to the pro leagues there was a much faster integration than in other areas of society because teams that recruited the best athletes without regard to color were more successful than teams that discriminated. All white teams couldn't compete with mixed race teams and they integrated relatively quickly. Even then, the few teams that were forced to integrate against their will were not forced by the government, but by contracts with their owners. By 1970 the NFL was almost 40% black without government intervention. So that is a good example of "affirmative action" driven by the market and not by the government.

Schools, public transportation, and other government programs are different. Those aren't affected by the free-market and the segregation there was government mandated to begin with so laws had to be changed to allow equality in those areas. Private businesses are still another issue. Restaurants that didn't allow "coloreds" had to accept the fact that they were ignoring part of their market and therefore intentionally hurting their own profits and I personally feel that a private business should be free to refuse service to anyone for any reason. I was in Mobile Alabama last week and there is a restaurant there that has what they call "white Wednesdays" and that is the only time whites are welcome in the establishment. They advertise this on their front window and I'm ok with it. I think it's extremely racist to not allow whites to eat there the rest of the week, but I firmly believe that they have every right to do that. The free market is inherently colorblind, it is the government that perpetrated the crimes of slavery and discriminatory "Jim Crow laws" for decades and I don't see more government intervention as a good solution."

Leaflet's response:

"I don't think that a free market could straighten out anything on the subject of race or sex conscious considerations and this is why: Affirmative action is required by law only where discrimination has already been historically proven. There is also suggestion that a business couldn't reach their potential if they openly discriminate current and potential employees - mainstream evidence against that is the overcasting success of Walmart, which has had some of the largest group discrimination lawsuits in the states. Surely people wouldn't stop going to Walmart if they heard of all the lawsuits they incurred, right? Hrm, as it turns out average people would rather eat their Monsanto hot dogs and apple pie than "inconvenience" themselves.

 In the same light, the portrayal of who exactly affirmative action effects is misconstrued; there seems to be a focus that blacks are the ones who gain the most advantage. Who benefits from affirmative action the most? White women. Seriously. And when you think about it and the incessant wage arguments that have been out in the open for years now, it's not very debatable in the job market.

Although we can agree that the progression of Sports in accepting racial integration was overall beneficial, it was still at its core enacted by the endeavor to profit. Bribery isn't exactly acceptance.

Of course no one liked the Jim Crow laws- but the black codes pre-existent to Jim Crow legislation were freely exercised by private businesses in the south. Had business owners even allowed blacks they might make a lesser profit because whites would no longer want to go there. Jim crow laws weren't a federal intervention, either - they were laws passed in the south by southern legislators after the civil war to perpetuate slavery by forced labor and other restrictions. 

I find it relevant also that we no longer have them because, well they're illegal now. Even though the south required you by law to segregate, the north did not - and the north did it anyway until civil rights laws were passed. A familiar example is Brown vs Board of education, which was held in Topeka, Kansas. Fighting government involvement now for reasons because of the way it existed soon after the 1860's would say that government is a solitary immutable object, when it should rather be defined as an ever-changing entity led by people we have the ability to vote out.

Just saying, yo."

Awaking the State - Tallahassee (Video)

Awaking the State - Tallahassee (Video)

Stephen King at Awake the State Rally in Sarasota 3.8.11

"Maybe my next horror novel could star Rick Scott" - Stephen King

Awake the State photos - Tallahassee

More photos Here

 

Leaflet's Albums

Awake the State - Cartoon

See you there. http://www.awakethestate.com/