Posturing over Confederate monuments is again an all-consuming political issue as the ideological street fight spreads across Florida.
"Old Joe" was hauled away this week from its 113-year perch outside the Alachua County Administration Building, returned to the local United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The president of the Jacksonville City Council wants Confederate monuments moved from public property to museums and other settings.
Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have started standing guard of "Memoria In Aeterna," a Confederate monument outside Tampa's historic county courthouse, after protesters in Durham, N.C., toppled a similar statute.
Critics say the markers represent racism and a time of slavery. Proponents say they are memorials to those who defended their homes during the Civil War.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump tweeted about the “beauty” of the memorials.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump tweeted. “Can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson --- who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!”
And of course, the Florida Capitol isn't immune from the chaos after last weekend's clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va. During the clash, a 32-year-old counter-protester died when a Nazi sympathizer allegedly sped his car into a crowd.
Saying Florida shouldn't “glorify” history's “ugliest moments,” Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democratic candidate for governor, called on Gov. Rick Scott to remove a Confederate soldier memorial that has stood outside the Old Capitol since 1882.
The monument lists Civil War battles participated in by Confederate soldiers from Leon County.
Another Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Winter Park businessman Chris King, went further.
“These monuments should be removed because we should not celebrate literal anti-American ideology or any ideology based on the oppression of any group of people,” King said in a statement. “And to those who say these monuments are needed to preserve our history, I say we don't need memorials celebrating this dark time in our history.”
Scott spokesman John Tupps noted late Wednesday: “We have received the Gillum campaign's press release.”
During a news conference Tuesday in Jacksonville, Scott said the fate of monuments should be discussed by the government, local, state or federal, that maintains the structures.
“We need to go through a process where everybody has to come together, we have a legitimate conversation, then we go forward,” Scott said.
Gillum's request Wednesday came a day after U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz asked Florida lawmakers to convene a special session to replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith as one of the state's two representatives in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran ridiculed the request.
Corcoran, a Land O' Lakes Republican who may be pondering a run for governor, called Wasserman Schultz, a Broward County Democrat, “out of touch” for making the request.
“We've already made this decision and are now having a conversation about which great Floridian we should honor,” Corcoran wrote. “The congresswoman should stop grandstanding and focus on balancing the budget federal budget.”
The Legislature voted in 2016 to replace the statue of Smith during a nationwide backlash against Confederate symbols after the 2015 shooting deaths of nine African-American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.
However, state lawmakers have yet to select a replacement for Smith. A Senate proposal would have led to a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator and civil-rights activist who founded what is now known as Bethune-Cookman University. A House proposal supporting a statue of Everglades activist and writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas did not get a hearing.
GAINER CRITICIZES `LAZY REPORTING'
A Panhandle senator called it “frankly lazy reporting” to link one of his failed bills from the 2017 legislative session with the deadly clashes in Charlottesville.
Sen. George Gainer, R-Panama City, responded through a series of tweets Monday as he took heat about a proposal (SB 1096) regarding motorists and protesters.
Gainer's proposal would have released drivers from liability if they unintentionally injure or kill protesters or demonstrators who go into roads. The measure would also have made it a crime for people to obstruct traffic during protests or demonstrations if they failed to acquire permits.
“The bill I filed during the last legislative session would have made it a crime for protesters to block traffic,” Gainer, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, wrote in the five-part tweet.
“Comparing that legislation with the reprehensible actions of the evil person in Virginia is quite frankly lazy reporting,” he continued.
“By simply reading the two-page bill, it's clear that my intent was to protect motorists who unintentionally cause injury or death to a protester blocking the flow of traffic. A person who intentionally uses their vehicle to injure or kill another should be prosecuted under the full extent of the law.”
The bill was withdrawn after it failed to get heard in the Criminal Justice Committee.
The attacks against Gainer started Sunday when he went on Twitter to simply post “If I do not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2.”
Immediately the replies were cutting, calling him a “racist” and charging that there was “blood on your hands.”
“Says the guy who wants to legalize murdering protesters with vehicles,” tweeted MillyvillMiller @MillyvillMiller.
“So how does the love go along with murdering protesters? Just asking,” tweeted Pamela Wolf @jpbzwolf_a.
Gainer, who told the Orlando Sentinel he didn't plan to refile the bill, continued to respond to several people later in the week and said, “This bill was filed during last year's legislative session. This is not active legislation. There is no bill to withdraw.”
A similar House bill (HB 1419) filed by Rep. Jayer Williamson, R-Pace, also died without a committee hearing in the spring session.
THANK YOU FOR GIVING OUR DAD A JOB
Jimmy Patronis, appointed at the end of June as the state's chief financial officer, had his first Cabinet meeting Wednesday. It opened with an invocation written by his sons Theo, 9, and Johnny, 6.
“Thank you, Gov. Scott for appointing our dad to the Florida Cabinet,” Theo Patronis started, before directing the audience to “Please stand and bow your heads.”
TWEET OF THE WEEK: “Congrats @BobbyOlszewski on your win tonight. We are looking forward to ensuring you join us this session as the new Rep for #HD44.” --- State Rep. Chris Sprowls @ChrisSprowls on the Republican special primary victory Tuesday by former Winter Garden Commissioner Robert “Bobby” Olszewski in Central Florida's House District 44.
