When did activism become anarchism?

It’s nothing but sad to see, read, and hear about the millions upon millions of dollars being spent for the RNC, and the DNC,to be fair, to “protect” the cities from so-called “anarchists” — or what some might call activists, or what others might call Americans just doing their duty — registering their public complaint against policies, people, parties. Um, sort of like the tea tax protestors of yore.

Everywhere you read — people who want to peaceably protest are being labelled anarchists. It’s the kind of hyperbole that deranges our nation. Jiminy cricket, when did activism become anarchism?

Went to WSLR last night to hear Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyer’s Guild, and co-host of the weekly civil liberties radio show, “Law and Disorder,” (which airs on WSLR on Sundays at 10 a.m.). I felt pretty uninformed sitting there in the audience and hearing about documented incidences of “snatch squads” — where protest leaders have literally been snatched from the street by hooded (identity concealed) law enforcement officers and stuffed into a van. Heard about a lot of other things too — things I’m still digesting and don’t fully understand and want to research more. But this much is clear to me — our civil rights are eroding and a lot of us — myself included — aren’t doing anything about it.

I really commend WSLR for providing these kinds of lecture events.

Interesting article about the most notable economic protests — and their outcomes in the Christian Science Monitor

Hot off the e-presses: Judy Joyce Winn’s The Silver Seahorse

One of the women I admire the most, a friend, mother, fellow writer and fabulous artist named Wendy Winn, lives across the pond in Luxembourg. But we’re lucky that Wendy’s equally talented mom, Judy, lives here in Florida, and we’re lucky that today she’s releasing a new e-book, The Silver Seahorse.

I don’t have an e-reader, so I haven’t yet read the book, but if her writing is anywhere near as lovely as she is, Seahorse is bound to be a good read. I haven’t seen Judy in years and years, but I’ve always remembered her as a groundbreaking woman (she is, among other accomplishments, a licensed pilot), and now she’s breaking new ground as an e-book author.

Here’s the back cover description:

Nessie Polite has everything figured out. She’s about to graduate with a master’s degree in architecture, has a job in the wings and a longtime boyfriend who is a lawyer. Then her mother, Kaylynn, is killed in a nasty auto accident that may have been murder…a murder meant for Nessie.

She inherits a special seahorse necklace Kaylynn always wore and a half interest in the “Silver Seahorse” gift shop. But now someone is stalking her, her supposed dead father is a fantasy, and to top it off, her boyfriend is cheating on her. Who is her father? And who wants to harm her? Will she find answers in her home town of Beulah Beach – or must she travel to the island of St. Thomas? Will she find true love or true danger in her quest for answers?

Click here to read more, and to purchase the book directly from the publisher, MuseItUp.

Wine, cheese and the Sarasota News Leader

Put this on your calendar: The Democratic Club of Sarasota is holding another Wine, Cheese & Politics gathering this Wednesday, and the event will feature some of the reporters and editors at the Sarasota News Leader, the new e-publication I’ve both blogged about and written for. The event description is titled “Can Florida Survive Rick Scott?” but plenty of other topics will be covered, including last week’s primary results and this fall’s general election.

Like all Wine, Cheese & Politics events, this Wednesday’s powwow will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the sixth floor at 1350 Main St. in downtown Sarasota. Wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverages will be served, along with tasty snacks and sweets.

New column: Why Dent’s ‘experience’ isn’t the right kind

I’m wading into the supervisor of elections primary this week in my first guest column for The Sarasota News Leader, a new online outfit I blogged about back in June.

They publish a fresh slate of stories and columns each Friday, and I’m happy to report they liked a piece I wrote about Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent enough to include it in this week’s edition. To sign up for SNL updates, just enter your email address in the box on the upper right of the homepage; if you’re more of a Facebook fan, head here and click “Like.”

Here’s a taste of what I wrote about Dent (the link to the full version is below):

Earlier this week, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial board recommended Kathy Dent in the supervisor of election race. The board stressed Dent’s on-the-job experience as its deciding factor.

Dent has experience, yes. But it is an experience fraught with incidents of disingenuousness, a lack of full disclosure and missteps that, viewed collectively, render that experience less than impressive. A brief recap:

In August 2006, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the company that supplied new voting machines to be used in that fall’s elections, notified Dent’s office of some potential problems for users. ES&S instructed Dent to install new posters in voting halls to insure the public was made aware of the proper protocol to follow to make sure their votes were recorded by the new machines. The posters — which Dent, over nearly three months leading up to the election, never did make public or install — would have advised voters to push “firmly” on the touchscreen. The posters would have emphasized that voters must carefully “hold down” their selected candidate’s box “until it is highlighted” — a delayed process that might take several seconds, the posters warned.

Dent’s decision to not put up the new posters during the November elections, which included the contentious race between Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan, was inexplicable. But what followed was even more confounding.

Despite the fallout of 18,000 votes unaccounted for, despite the loud outcry from the public and media searching for any information that might help make sense of what had happened to those missing votes, despite the national spotlight that once again cast a pall over Florida voting practices, Dent’s office was not forthcoming about the ES&S warning letter and the recommended posters. When the existence of both was brought to light some time later by other sources on the Internet, the silence from Dent’s office, in retrospect, was deafening.

Click here to read the piece in full. If you’re a registered Republican, be sure to cast a vote in the Kathy Dent/Jon Thaxton primary that ends next Tuesday. And if you like what I had to say, let the SNL editors know about it.

Crime, faith and e-books

Are you an e-book reader? You may want to check out three books by an old friend of the family.

I remember long, hot summer days during which the author, Jeff Glendenning, and I played hours of tennis and then went swimming in the neighborhood pool. He was the older brother of one of my closest friends and I had a crush that went unrequited. Haven’t heard from him much over the years but now he tells me he’s published not just one, but three books on Amazon, each featuring FBI criminal profiler Tatum Jackson.

I haven’t read them, but if you love the crime genre mixed in with big questions about God and faith — you might want to check them out: Bully Pulpit, Pivot Point and Chantilly. They’re each available for $2.99.

Book lover paradise in Sarasota

Regular visitors here know I love books (did you notice the Hamlet quotation on my homepage?), but I don’t just love reading them — I also love the process of shopping for them. Few pleasures can match wandering the cramped alleys and navigating the towering stacks of an out-of-the-way independent bookstore with a sprawling collection of reasonably priced tomes.

In Sarasota, the opportunities for quality book shopping have dwindled over the years: We lost Sarasota News & Books (although we eventually got Bookstore 1 in return), Brant’s Books (at least temporarily — they’ve got a new location) and even Barnes & Noble’s big-box competitor, Borders. But two stores have endured through it all, each under the same Main Street roof: A. Parker’s Books and the Book Bazaar.

Parker’s offers a wide variety of rare and antiquarian tomes, and maintains an impressive rare book room, while the Bazaar sells a more conventional selection of used and out-of-print books. No frills here: There’s no café, no baristas, no lattes. Just books. Lots and lots of books.

I love the smart and friendly staff. I love the hushed quiet right on Main. I love the very smell of the place: that musty old-paper scent that only old bookstores have earned.

I heartily recommend visiting both — if you can’t find something you’re interested in, well then shame on you.

Joseph Monninger’s Finding Somewhere

A horse about to be put down. Two girls decide to take him on a road trip to freedom. Finding Somewhere — a new book by Joseph Monninger, my fiction-writing professor at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.

I remember reading one of his books back in, gosh, I guess it was 1992, and a line from that book STILL resonates in my head. I haven’t read Finding Somewhere yet, but I borrowed it from the Selby Public Library and gave it to my mom to read as she is recovering from her surgery. She said it was a great read. It’s technically billed as “young adult” reading, but I hate those labels — I mean, c’mon, what about The Little Prince?!

Anyhoo — check out Finding Somewhere if you’re interested. Haven’t seen Monninger since my college days, but his prolific writing is a burr in my saddle! (A good one!)

Here’s a quote from an interview Monninger gave recently — as a writer, I found it interesting:

I write standing up. I have a small cabin with a desk inside just below chest height. I started writing standing up because my back would get stiff and painful if I sat too long. Eventually, though, it seemed more natural to be standing. I feel more alert that way. So, that’s what I do. I recommend it.

Blinded by Sarasota’s LED Signs

I’m fed up with the ridiculous LED signs that are trivializing our environment, degrading the sensibility of our palm-tree-sunshine-lined streets, and obliterating our good sense with their garish obnoxiousness. (Can you tell where I stand on this issue?)

Business that should know better — frequently medical and health-related offices — are throwing these signs up along U.S. 41 and on residential streets near Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Usually overlarge, blindingly bright, and specifically designed to divert drivers’ attention from the road, the light pollution alone from these signs is egregious enough, but they’re ugly to boot.

Sarasota Blues Festival VIP Offering Doesn’t Fit

The Sarasota Blues and Music Festival is irking me with its $75 VIP tickets. VIP? In a parking lot across from Ed Smith Stadium? Whatever! Read my outrage at this week’s Sense and the City column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Observer, Herald-Tribune alumnus releases debut novel

Surely you remember the name Roger Drouin. During his stint as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune‘s city hall reporter between 2007 and 2009, Drouin landed countless local stories on the front page of our daily — notching scoop after scoop.

When he left the paper, it was to earn his MFA in the Florida Atlantic University creative writing program. It takes guts to leave a paying writing gig these days (trust me), but Drouin did it, and now he’s making waves with the publication of his first novel, No Other Way. The book tells the story of a bird photographer who finds himself in the middle of a fight to protect a remote forest targeted for natural gas exploration.

The book’s earning positive notices from a variety of readers. You can pick up a copy via Amazon.com in a print or electronic edition, and you can even read the first three chapters for free over at Smashwords.

Quality local books are rare — give this one a go.