Remember two civil-rights heroes

I was asked to speak at Friday’s renaming of W. Jennings Street in honor of Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, the two Florida A&M University students who lived on Jennings Street in 1956 when they sat in a whites-only section on a city bus.
Their actions helped ignite the Tallahassee Bus Boycott, and begin a tradition of student activism at FAMU and across America that has carried forward to this day, as noted very eloquently by FAMU President James Ammons.
The street, which runs between Bronough and Melvin streets, is now Jakes & Patterson Street. Here is a link to a photo gallery on the event.

To read full remaks, click on the link below:

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Sure I go on momslikeme.com, so what?

Some of my Facebook friends were giving me a hard time because I joined the Facebook group for Tallahassee’s momslikeme.com.

Leslie Boyd, a reporter who worked with me at the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, started it out with this post: “Uh, Bob, you're not a mom.”

Technically, no, I said in response.

Well, that set off a bunch of other comments both on my Facebook page and in my e-mail inbox.

My friend Ted Power, publisher of Gannett’s newspaper in Reno, joined the fun by saying I had always been “like a mother” to him. Ruben Betancourt, a Facebook friend, said that I was “Tallahassee’s Mom and Dad.”

And so it went, all in good fun (at least I hope so).

But I do go on the momslikeme.com site (and so what?), and not only because I supervise the site. I like it for the recipes. I’m considering adding a few of my own to the mix.

This month, 6,387 unique visitors have gone onto the site. That’s a lot of moms – and the occasional dad.

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Why Charlie Crist is so popular

I spent much of the last week in the company of other reporters and editors from around the state and almost all day Thursday sitting on a plastic folding chair listening to speaker after speaker talk about the state’s financial mess.

Not just any speakers: We heard from the state’s top brass including Gov. Charlie Crist and CFO Alex Sink, Senate President Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Ray Sansom, Democratic Leader Sen. Al Lawson and House Democratic Leader Rep. Franklin Sands.

My journalism friends and I talked about how Crist could still have a 67-percent approval rating while the popularity of nearly all other sitting executives and legislators in the country sinks with the economy. What follows are some of my thoughts.

Conclusion No. 1: Charlie Crist is immensely popular in the face of the state’s worst financial crisis because he is not like any of the others in style or rhetoric and is genuinely a nice man. Conclusion No. 2: He is a far better politician than his peers, and no one is a close second. Conclusion No. 3: He is able and willing to put aside political differences to get what he wants and thinks is right for the state.

This is no idle chat: Eroding popularity makes it difficult to govern or, in Florida’s case, to even effectively disagree with a popular governor. It’s what allows the governor to maintain popularity while he and lawmakers drain the Lawton Chiles Endowment, make steep cuts overall in public and higher education and programs for the disabled and so on.

The governor’s popularity and style are so different from other politicians, it makes them sound like they are, well, mere politicians with a hard-edge tone, using words that seem designed to pierce, not merely make a point, and prove their own righteousness.

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What people are saying about Obama

Look, I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing.
Strip away all of the politics and all of contrived made-for-TV stuff of any inauguration, and there was a man who had fulfilled his dream, surrounded by his lovely and so very proud wife and family, in front of millions of people.
And on top of all that, he is the embodiment of the hopes and dreams of so very many millions more.
I’ll admit fighting back an "emotional reaction" or two. I'll also admit to being a little jealous: I wish I could call out the National Guard, the FBI, CIA and the Army as my girls were entering their teenage years.
“You want to date my daughter?” I would ask. “OK, but you have to be cleared by the Secret Service first. It’s just the rule.”
I asked my Facebook and Twitter friends what they were thinking. To read their comments, click on the Tallahassee.com link.

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Remembering those who came before Obama

The drive in the car is always a chance for talking with my son. Last night, we talked about Martin Luther King Jr., C.K. Steele, Ralph Abernathy, Rosa Parks, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson.
Jakes and Patterson were the young Florida A&M students who ignited the Tallahassee bus boycott in 1956 and helped spread the civil-rights movement to Florida’s capital city.
We spoke of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Monte Irwin, Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson, ball players who not only changed America’s national pastime but also helped change America.
The Tuskegee Airmen and Seaman Doris Miller of the USS West Virginia, the first African American to win the Navy Cross for heroism at Pearl Harbor; he deserved the Medal of Honor.
Doug Williams, first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl and Sam “Bam” Cunningham, whose talents as a running back for the University of Southern California caused Alabama to integrate its football team under Bear Bryant.
Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court justice; Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the first African American secretary of state and first African American woman secretary of state.

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Speaking for my daughter's friends

A little girl I know has been hospitalized at Shands in Gainesville since Dec. 23. She has been battling infection, fever and an array of respiratory and other ailments since undergoing a spinal-fusion operation.

Doctors inserted metal rods into her back and wired them to her spine to prevent scoliosis, or curvature. Over time, the rods fuse to the spine to keep it straight and strong. Post-operative infection is a big concern in cases like this.

I’m not a doctor, but I know this stuff. My daughter had the same operation four years ago without complications. We were told it was necessary to stop her back from collapsing on her lungs and heart, crushing them until she would die.

I talked with our friend’s mother last night. She and her husband have been traveling back-and-forth to Gainesville, trying to balance work, caring for their other child and being with their daughter in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Christmas came and went with barely a notice. Birthdays are coming up. Progress is slow; answers are slower.

I’ve been asked to speak at a fundraising gala to benefit Gretchen Everhart School’s PTO at a dinner Jan. 29 at the Tallahassee Woman’s Club. It is $125 a plate; $800 for a table. The school does a great job for children with disabilities, but funding is short. This is the first time the PTO has tried something so ambitious. So if you want to come, let me know.

But if you do, don’t expect a lot of happy talk from me. My message will be that it is time to stand up for our children. Florida is shamefully behind most of the nation in how it treats developmentally disabled children, and things aren’t going to get better soon.

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Speaking for my daughter's friends

A little girl I know has been hospitalized at Shands in Gainesville since Dec. 23. She has been battling infection, fever and an array of respiratory and other ailments since undergoing a spinal-fusion operation.

Doctors inserted metal rods into her back and wired them to her spine to prevent scoliosis, or curvature. Over time, the rods fuse to the spine to keep it straight and strong. Post-operative infection is a big concern in cases like this.

I’m not a doctor, but I know this stuff. My daughter had the same operation four years ago without complications. We were told it was necessary to stop her back from collapsing on her lungs and heart, crushing them until she would die.

I talked with our friend’s mother last night. She and her husband have been traveling back-and-forth to Gainesville, trying to balance work, caring for their other child and being with their daughter in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Christmas came and went with barely a notice. Birthdays are coming up. Progress is slow; answers are slower.

I’ve been asked to speak at a fundraising gala to benefit Gretchen Everhart School’s PTO at a dinner Jan. 29 at the Tallahassee Woman’s Club. It is $125 a plate; $800 for a table. The school does a great job for children with disabilities, but funding is short. This is the first time the PTO has tried something so ambitious. So if you want to come, let me know.

But if you do, don’t expect a lot of happy talk from me. My message will be that it is time to stand up for our children. Florida is shamefully behind most of the nation in how it treats developmentally disabled children, and things aren’t going to get better soon.

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Note to pilot: So much for the good life

Allow me a second to speak for my kind: men.
Marcus Schrenker, dude, what were you thinking?
Take a look at picture No. 2 in our photo gallery. Marcus is depicted looking rather handsome, standing in front of a car I can’t afford and a private plane I can’t afford with his arm around his wife Michelle that I … well, I better stop there.
Other photos in the gallery show his home I cannot afford on a reservoir.In short: Wealthy and successful; lots of toys; fine home; even finer wife. Everything a man could want.
Sadly, incredibly, other photos show the results of all of that being not enough for the man. A crashed plane and what authorities believe might be evidence of his plot to fake his death.
Schrenker is at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital this morning, still recovering from what seem to be self-inflicted wounds. When he recovers, Marcus is being taken to federal court. He would be held at Gadsden County jail, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have anything nearly as comfortable to sleep on as his home in Indiana.
It might be a while before he goes there again.
Schrenker, who was flying alone Sunday, is accused by authorities of jumping out of his six-seat Piper after setting it on autopilot and allow it to head toward heavily populated areas along the Florida-Alabama coast. It crashed in a swamp within some 75 yards of some homes in East Milton, according to the sheriff’s office. He apparently used a parachute, though later might have suffered self-inflicted wounds.

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What's different between Hilton and Anthony cases?

Here’s the part I don’t get in blocking public access to dicovery documents in the Gary Michael Hilton case under the argument that the court, prosecutors and defense attorneys are concerned about protecting the pool of potential jurors from public opinion:

What is different about publicity in the Hilton case and what is happening in Orlando in the Casey Anthony case?

Sure, Orlando is a bigger city than Tallahassee, and has a bigger jury pool, but it has way more media. And the Orlando story has attracted far more publicity. A single story among many on OrlandoSentinel.com has 2,531 comments. The site this morning featured a story about "Good Morning America" nationally broadcasting an interview with the man who may turn out to be a key witness.

Not familiar with the story? Here’s a link to the Sentinel’s outstanding coverage.

The short version is that Caylee Marie Anthony was reported missing July 15, a month after the toddler disappeared, according to the mother, Casey Anthony.

Eventually, the child’s body was found by a utility worker, who appeared on GMA today to criticize investigators' search for the child. The mother has been indicted on a number of charges related to her child’s murder.

On the Orlando Sentinel site you’ll find the very documents in that case the public is being denied in the Hilton case: discovery documents, witness lists, investigation reports, etc. So, again, what’s different?

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Missing our point in Gary Michael Hilton case

It now appears that Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis may be ready to release some documents in the Gary Michael Hilton case scheduled to go to trial later this year.

Hilton, of course, is the man accused of the heinous murder of Cheryl Dunlap of Crawfordville. He’s also admitted to murdering a young woman in Georgia and has been possibly linked to the murder of an elderly couple in North Carolina.

Hilton was extradited to Florida in early June following an indictment in Leon County on charges of first-degree murder, grand theft auto and grand theft in connection with the December 2007 death of Dunlap, 46.

For months – and at a cost of lots of thousands of dollars in this tough economy – the Tallahassee Democrat and WCTV have been fighting for the release of evidentiary documents as stipulated by the Legislature. The two news organizations filed legal action in July to keep evidence open to public review.

Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber had asked the court to seal the discovery information -- the witnesses and evidence against Hilton assembled by law enforcement – after it had been turned over to the defense.

Apparently admonishing a reporter, in today’s Tallahassee Democrat State Attorney Willie Meggs says this: “I just wish you all could be a little more patient and wait like everyone else.”

Understandably, Suber and Meggs want to be able to seat a jury that can objectively view evidence presented in court. But that assumes that the only people qualified to fairly and objective view evidence as jurors are ignorant and uninformed.

That being the case, surely the attorneys can find enough people in Leon County.

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In line to get in FSU VS Duke

Lining up to get in FSU vs. Duke

Half time FSU vs Duke

Time out at FS vs Duke

Alex at FSU game

aKtion Club inspires me to write

Every so often – just when it is most needed – life offers you a gift of inspiration. I received mine last night.
I had been invited to speak to a group with the Killearn Kiwanis Club that supports its special chapter called the aKtion Club. Membership in the aKtion Club is comprised of developmentally challenged adults.
They have their own officers and, as a service organization, work with members of the Kiwanis Club to set their own agenda. These are people primarily living on their own or with family members. They have jobs and earn their own money and are both very proud of that and generous with their cash.Life has presented these folks with some special roadblocks, yet they seem most willing to navigate through it. I listened as they conducted regular business.
They shared in viewing photos and a large thank-you poster from a less fortunate family for whom they helped make Christmas special by providing food for dinner. The single-parent mom and her children pasted photos of themselves onto the cardboard poster. Mom promised that by next year they would try to help the club help another family.
The club collects dues of $1 from each member at their every other week meetings. Members also collect box tops and coupons and the aluminum lids from soda cans. The money they raise goes to Gretchen Everhart School, which serves special-needs children and where some of them once went to school, and to support the Ronald McDonald House.
They asked me to come speak to them about the news business; they are well aware of the economic issues facing all of us, including the media. I gave that talk, but before I could, I had to take a few minutes to get personal with them.I told them about my five children, stopping when I got to Jessica, my 16-year-old who attends Gretchen, to say thank you. As a parent, I said, I wanted them to know their efforts for children like my daughter mean a great deal.

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Facebook crowd ready when Bush wants to run

Jeb Bush says he won’t run for the U.S. Senate in 2010 because now is not the right time for him to return to elected office.

What that means, of course, is everyone else can and probably will.

The jostling has already begun, not just for the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, but for those that will be given up by the people who will now line up to run for the Senate. It’s like dominoes (the game pieces, not the pizza joint) lined up in a row, falling one by one.

Meanwhile, the former governor's fans and supporters have set up several groups on Facebook and a politician page to educate “society about the Bush legacy and just how great of a political figure Jeb Bush has been for Florida,” according to the information posted on the politican page.

There was sadness and disappointment on the page yesterday when Bush said he won't run this time, but the point is the more than 1,000 people who had signed on as supporters were there, ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work had he decided to get into the race.

The numbers would have quickly multiplied, members would recruit others, and a whole viral-marketing campaign would be under way without the former governor lifting a finger.

It is an interesting next development in politics: an organized, grassroots digital groundswell.

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Better the Gators than Sooners

OK, let’s get this straight: The only time blue and orange look good is on a New York Mets logo. And grown people mimicking a gluttonous reptile by waving your arms … well, you just look ridiculous.

I mean really: The whole alligator species should have become extinct centuries ago.

But as football teams go, these Gators are alive and well for a national championship bid. Well, a BCS championship. I don’t know how anyone else can be the real national champs until someone beats Utah.

And come Thursday night, I’ll be rooting for the Gators to beat Oklahoma and bring home another BCS title in their game against No. 1 ranked Oklahoma.

I won’t like myself for doing it. And I’m NOT about to go out and buy one of those silly-looking Gator-head flags or car stickers. But, hey, I’ll being sending whatever positive karma I might have to the University of Florida. I want it all back in good shape right after the game – win or lose. I don’t have much positive karma to spare right now.

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If we keep cutting education, who is going to count our ball players' money?

In my next life, I’m going to hit the math books more heavily. I might even try to stay awake in algebra class. It seems in all walks of life math is the most-needed skill these days.

Take subtraction, for example.

Right down the road from my office where I sit typing this blog, state lawmakers are doing a lot of math, trying to figure out how to subtract $2.3 billion from $70 billion.

I was always more interested in the social sciences and languages and spent a lot of time on the playing fields and on the wrestling mats. As it turns out, I should have paid more attention in math class (or at least some) or worked harder on my baseball skills.

As our students in public schools and local colleges and universities return to classes this week, that is just good advice for them to follow. I’m hoping our students are taking their math studies seriously.

For years, the gap between our students and those from other nations has been widening in math and sciences. We are seriously behind. No wonder our lawmakers are a bit overwhelmed.

They have to cut $2.3 billion due to revenue shortfalls. That's a great, big number. Let’s look at it written out: $2,300,000,000. The biggest trick in this equation is how to do that without 1) losing their own jobs and 2) creating more long-term harm to the state and its economy.

That makes it more than just a numbers game: It’s one of those long, complicated math equations shown in the form of a word problem. I loved those little stories, until I figured out they were asking me to solve a problem.

If the governor gets his way, $100 million will be cut from education. That was what he recommended to the Legislature. Simple enough. For now. Just wait, though, and see what happens down the road. Wonder why, for example, we are losing jobs to Asian nations? Check their math and science scores and then check ours.

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