What does this lyric mean? It is an easy answer: when you have nothing, you don't need to worry about losing much else due to an action. Welcome to the "Sunshit" State of Florida. Sorry, Sunshine. Say it three times, Powell – SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE.
Again, while there is a lot to like about the warm weather, palm trees, and ocean blue, there is a lot wrong about this place. Much of it, if not all, is the people. This is a land of folly, bad decision-making, and hubris abound. And it is not new. They've been screwing it up here for a while.
For example, look at the Everglades, one of Florida's
most critical water sources, which has been under attack for decades. The vital waters are being levied and blocked to build more homes and roads. The essential peat in the soil is disappearing. The fisheries that make their home in the saltgrass rivers are shrinking. The amount of phosphorous reaching the waters gives life to invasive plant species such as cattails, and the number of exotic snakes from Asia and elsewhere are killing off indigenous species.
It is alarming. But have no fear; what is fear if not fear itself? Get scared when a 30-foot constrictor squeezes your appendix up to your tonsils. Why worry about the environment? There are more pressing things to worry about.
First is all that diversity. All I can say is that I am glad that Florida's governor put a kibosh on this "woke" ideology. I mean, Ron is anything but woke. Do you know when he went to Yale? And he was not an elitist! Nope, he says it himself. Poor guy had to stomach all those ivy-covered brick buildings and join one of those secret clubs – St. Elmo Society. Can you imagine? Poor Ron. I am sure he was relieved to leave Yale for the safe, every man's place in the Sun school, Harvard Law. Remember, though, Ron DeSantis is no elitist.
Ron is a kind of Rod Blagojevich version 2.0. Both men look like they grew up eating hotdogs and cheddar fries, using Tegrin shampoo, and having the charm of chlamydia. Both men have used their office and constituents to feather their nests politically (a common practice, I know) and, in doing so, have entrenched stupidity and lousy policy into the Zeitgeist of those who operate in one of a few spheres.
First are the entitled white folks who can't seem to avoid their penchant for prejudice. I think for a while, they did try. I am sure they put their sheets away, tucked nicely in the back of drawers surrounded by mothballs. And, yeah, maybe they dreamed of riding a horse, torches a flame, their heads hidden under pointy triangular masks. But they did try. Didn't they?
In the second circle are the willing. Sure, they don't see themselves as who they are – the Archie Bunkers living in their pseudo-stucco homes behind the gates of their walled communities. No, they are folks who are simply enjoying the American dream. Some might not be 100% comfortable with the Florida status quo, but let's not rock the boat. After all, little Bobbie still had to be on that little league field with Rod Blagojevich's nephew's cousin, third removed by marriage.
Then there are those in the preverbal winner's circle – think Dante's Circles of Hell. These men and women are doing their best to change the world into what they want it to be – a vast white world with no strife, history, shades of grey, or room for genuine human experiences. It is a world called Florida.
The wiping out of diversity posts, sensitivity training, history, and the acknowledgment of people having differing perspectives is a page from Mein Kampf. And it is not a stretch to compare post-World War Germany to Florida. One of the best comparisons is the state's Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, and his bazaar stance on established science.
Rassenhygiene is a term that describes the eugenics movement of Nazi Germany. While these policies are different than what Ladapo and DeSantis preach (who knows what they think), the assault on science and facts is undoubtedly a page out of the eugenics playbook. One of the early manifestations of Rassenhygiene was in 1935 when the National Socialists enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which legislated racial purity by forbidding sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and non-Aryans as (racial shame). In short, to be valued, we all have to be the same, and this sameness happened by commandeering scientific truths and bending them to meet political ends.
That is precisely what we are seeing with Ladapo and DeSantis. The withering logic behind DiSantis's COVID policies and now the support of the (crackpot) Surgeon General's positions on vaccines, measles, and infection control is the start of a dangerous movement. Instead of implementing time-proven policies to protect the public, these two meatheads are doing the opposite.
Helmets for children riding e-bikes and scooters? Nope, don't need that. Vaccines to prevent one of the deadliest and once-eradicated infectious diseases? Nope, don't need that—using leeches in public health. Check. Vaccines being the work of the devil? Check.
This is not policy-making; it is the dismantling of critical thinking, cow-towing to the stupid and uninformed, and putting countless lives at risk.
For me, here are a few take-homes:
I'd rather send my kid to a wood shop than Harvard.
Prejudice and personal histories matter greatly, including incorporating them into public policy.
Science is real, and "alternative" facts are a catchall term used by stupid or arrogant people whose worldview of things does not dovetail with their creepy ideologies.