Category: Editorials

A flood of emotion is likely to wash ashore tomorrow afternoon when the St. Augustine City Commission holds its 3:30 p.m. workshop in the Alcazar Room at 75 King Street.

The Downtown Coffee Club, loosely organized in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, keeps me entertained and informed every day — and although I attend for the conversation, we are, after all, coffee drinkers.

I have to admit that I grew up here in St. Augustine, therefore, I am a product of the St. Johns County school system and have never claimed to know everything — however, some things completely befuddle me.

I’m sure we all agree that the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is not only an environmental disaster, it also has the potential to cause severe damage to the Florida tourism industry.

At the McCollum for Governor, African-American coalition roll-out the other day a journalist asked me why as an “African-America” I was supporting Attorney General Bill McCollum for Governor when he failed to sign legislation creating a holiday during his tenure as a Congressman for Martin Luther King Day.

In a cartoon that really says it all, Florida’s east coast cities are depicted trying to move an Amtrak train up-the-hill by brute force — while the conductor quips, “Should be easier if you used the train-tracks … should be ‘ere somewhere!

I mean it. I want everyone aboard the proposed Amtrak – FEC Corridor passenger train service.

Several days ago while having a conversation with a friend about the current state of America, we both commented that “this is not the same place we grew up as kids,” and we have noticed the dismantling of the fabric of America.