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People helping people

Don’t you just love how a natural disaster brings out the best in people?

In a small, stuffy trailer Tuesday, on the northern tip of a decimated island, an international showdown was brewing.

Moments earlier, Mexican Consul General Jorge Lomonaco from Miami walked among uprooted trees, peeled aluminum and shells of homes in the Pink Citrus Trailer Park on north Pine Island, at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor.

A fraction of the park's 500 Mexican residents have remained, finding shade from a scorching sun under broken trees and awnings. Of those, about a dozen swarmed around him.

"The manager said we have to clean," 39-year-old Leticia Blanquel told him. If they don't clean the debris from the park on their own and pay the rent, they'll be out, residents said they were told.

Lomonaco had planned to visit areas populated by Mexican residents after Hurricane Charley passed. His first stop was Tuesday in Pink Citrus, located in a small unincorporated area of Lee County with a population of about 2,000. He was alerted to the park residents' woes through Spanish-language media.

As residents told him their concerns, Lomonaco listened, worried that the lives of these laborers were about to get even harder. Many of the immigrants' homes were ravaged. For some, their jobs were gone, too. But retirees and mariners on the island had something they don't: a Social Security number.

Lomonaco feared that their illegal immigration status would leave the Mexican workers the most vulnerable of all hurricane victims.

"We're concerned about their welfare," Lomonaco told a park caretaker in the cramped trailer after walking through the park in jeans and work boots.

"Yes, as are we," said caretaker Ellie Carrier, sitting behind a desk, legs crossed, an unlit cigarette between two fingers. "Unfortunately, we don't run on thin air."

"Excuse me?" Lomonaco asked, as a large fan labored in another room.

"We need money," she said.

I really feel for this mobile home park manager. After all, she faithfully provided substandard homes at outrageously inflated prices to poor immigrant laborers who have little or no choice in where or how to live. And now those Mexican ingrates expect her to actually clean up and repair her own property and make it fit for human habitation?

The two quickly began talking over each other.

"It's unfair," he said.

"In this part of Florida, there are thousands of homeless people" from the hurricane, she said. "We need the lot rent in order to keep operating."

The residents, who work jobs in landscaping, construction and in citrus on mainland farms, own the trailers, but pay $190 in monthly rent for the lots, plus utilities.

"We're hoping that FEMA comes through for these people," she said. "But, unfortunately, we're not a charity operation."

If residents don't pay the rent, they risk losing their lot, she said.

"That's a threat," Lomonaco said.

The two were pointing fingers, alternately yelling, "Let me finish my sentence!"

"We're not threatening anyone," Carrier barked.

"But I don't think it's fair to be charging rent in a trailer park that isn't running at all," Lomonaco said.

If it's not running, why were there still so many people remaining in the park, she asked.

"They don't have anywhere else to go!" he yelled.

There was no running water, no septic service, no electricity, no security, he said.

"Security for what?" she shot back.

The workers need to feel safe about leaving their belongings in the trailers cracked open by trees so they can go to work or find food and water, he said.

The lack of water and electricity were not the park's fault, Carrier said.

They've been asked to clean, he said, echoing the residents' concern that if they didn't clear the fallen trees and rubble, they would lose their lots. If they stayed back to clean up the park, they couldn't work.

"They've been asked to clean around their trailer," Carrier responded.

Lomonaco told her the park managers should stop thinking about money and give the residents a break until they could get back on their feet.

His office would be asking for copies of leases, he added.

Carrier paused.

"No one who owns a trailer here has a lease," she said.

"I'm going to ask a lawyer to look into this," he said.

Lomonaco walked back outside to visit with residents.

"Don't sign anything," he told them in Spanish.

The owners of the park, registered with the state as Palm Harbor Development Group Inc. of Tampa, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Something to think about

People in SW Florida are really hurting right now. No refrigeration, shortages of basic staples such as water and food, a broken infrastructure, sweltering heat. I could go on and on, but most everyone has an idea of what’s happening and the fact that this is the direct result of an unavoidable natural disaster. (We can argue about population density and placement of mobile home parks some other time, but for now, let’s just say that some serious destruction would have occurred even with better planning or zoning or whatever.)

Meanwhile, in Iraq, millions of completely innocent people are living in similar, often much worse conditions caused by the unnatural disaster that is our president. And those are the lucky ones who weren’t killed, maimed, or arrested during our illegal invasion and occupation of their homeland.

Vote early

Starting today. All over Florida.

Beginning today, voters can cast early ballots at several polling places in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. Early voting for the Aug. 31 primary runs every day, except Sundays, through Aug. 30.

In partisan elections, only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote unless the primary determines the final outcome of the race and there is no write-in candidate. Everyone can vote in the nonpartisan school board and judicial races.
......

Although early voting was scheduled to begin today in all 67 counties, it won't happen in Charlotte County, which was devastated by Hurricane Charley. Election officials planned to hold a statewide conference call today to figure out whether problems exist elsewhere.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood was also planning to assess whether the storm was going to disrupt the Aug. 31 statewide primary for the U.S. Senate and a long list of state and local offices. But the primary was not an immediate concern, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said.
......

Early voting was launched two years ago as part of a reform package after the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Early voters can choose between an absentee ballot, which is filled out with a pencil and mailed in, or the usual voting machine methods.

Here’s a hint: if you choose an absentee ballot, you’ll be leaving a verifiable and recountable paper trail.

Where to vote

Jeb!’s jack-booted thugs intimidate black voters

I mentioned this in passing about a month ago, then it was forgotten amidst all the other mini-scandals and stories of pre-voting intimidation. Herbert goes into more detail:

State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

The officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush, say they are investigating allegations of voter fraud that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March.

Officials refused to discuss details of the investigation, other than to say that absentee ballots are involved. They said they had no idea when the investigation might end, and acknowledged that it may continue right through the presidential election.
......

Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voters leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.

Not surprisingly, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city's black vote.

The president of the Orlando League of Voters is Ezzie Thomas, who is 73 years old. With his demonstrated ability to deliver the black vote in Orlando, Mr. Thomas is a tempting target for supporters of George W. Bush in a state in which the black vote may well spell the difference between victory and defeat.

The vile smell of voter suppression is all over this so-called investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Joseph Egan, an Orlando lawyer who represents Mr. Thomas, said: "The Voters League has workers who go into the community to do voter registration, drive people to the polls and help with absentee ballots. They are elderly women mostly. They get paid like $100 for four or five months' work, just to offset things like the cost of their gas. They see this political activity as an important contribution to their community. Some of the people in the community had never cast a ballot until the league came to their door and encouraged them to vote."

Now, said Mr. Egan, the fear generated by state police officers going into people's homes as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to voting is threatening to undo much of the good work of the league. He said, "One woman asked me, 'Am I going to go to jail now because I voted by absentee ballot?' "

According to Mr. Egan, "People who have voted by absentee ballot for years are refusing to allow campaign workers to come to their homes. And volunteers who have participated for years in assisting people, particularly the elderly or handicapped, are scared and don't want to risk a criminal investigation."

Florida is a state that's very much in play in the presidential election, with some polls showing John Kerry in the lead. A heavy-handed state police investigation that throws a blanket of fear over thousands of black voters can only help President Bush.

The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State.

What?!? Jeb! suppressing the black vote? Surely, this must all be an innocent mistake...

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