Florida Agenda

In last week’s column (Open for Business, August 11, 2011: “No West, Young Man”), we reported about the ongoing fallout from the invitation to speak last month by the Wilton Manors Business Association (WMBA, “Wimba”) to Congressman Allen West. Among reactions to the invitation and subsequent cancellation of the planned August 8th meeting, an email to Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick from Dr. Marc J. Romano  outlined the latter’s “objection to” the invitation for West to address the business guild. Of the 22nd Congressional District representative, Romano wrote: “He has made numerous comments that reflect he is homophobic and a bigot.  His views support policies and beliefs that discriminate against the LGBT Community and he is not welcome here.”

The invitation from WMBA drew sharp criticism from a number of gay rights activists, including Michael Rajner, legislative director for the Florida Democratic Party GLBT Caucus. The ensuing controversy led to the decision by the group’s Board of Directors to cancel the event.

Lawyer-activist Dean Trantalis, a former Vice Mayor and city commissioner in Fort Lauderdale, says that a want of prudence may have been a factor. “As the saying goes,” notes the Wilton Manors attorney, “‘the road to Hell is paved with the best intentions.’”
Trantalis believes that “the invitation to Allen West to speak at a WMBA meeting shows great insensitivity to the
community which comprises much of the area in which the organization services.”

As to the House freshman Republican’s opposition to such LGBT issues as repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) and federal recognition for same-sex unions through a repeal of the noxious and wholly un-American Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Trantalis, a WMBA member, offers that “Mr. West is offensive by any standard, and his pretense to wanting to discuss just items of business [at the cancelled WMBA meeting] mocks the very core upon which this community has been built.”

Responding to West’s comments in a letter written to WMBA President Celeste Ellich and the group’s members in which West implies that his critics are “intolerable individuals,” Trantalis protests that “we are not intolerable. Every opportunity West is given to speak condones his actions and his rhetoric. We’ve heard what he has to say, we’ve shown the world his very words. Why should we be once again subjected to his ridicule and condescension?”

(As was noted in last week’s column, Open for Business, August 11, 2011: “No West, Young Man”), Your Kindly Scrivener offers the possibility, or even likelihood, that the Distinguished Gentleman’s usage of the word “intolerable” may have been a malapropism – a la “Slip” Mahoney of the 1930s and 40s Bowery Boys movies, 70s Vegas headliner Norm Crosby, or international comedy sensation George W. Bush – that was meant to place-hold for the more civil “intolerant.” Or maybe he just doesn’t like gay people.)
In response to Romano’s email, Wilton Manors Mayor Resnick replied that “the invitation was extended by … Celeste Ellich, as president of a private business association [WMBA]. She never consulted with or advised the city of the invitation.” Added Resnick: “By the way, I’m a member of the GLBT Democratic Caucus and did not learn of this from them either.”

This Ain’t My First Time at the Rodeo, Fellas
Wilton Drive’s newest dining spot, Rodeo, has some enticements to introduce you to their great selection of Southwestern, Tex-Mex, Barbecue, Cajun/Creole and traditional Southern cuisine. On Tuesdays between 4p.m and 10p.m. they are offering 30% off the price for bottles of wine. Wednesday is Teacher Night; teachers who present a valid teacher ID card between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. receive 20% off their individual bills. And their Happy Hour runs from Tuesday through Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., which includes 30% off all drinks from the bar.

By the Numbers (Hail to the Chief Edition)
A comparison of approval ratings during the third Summer of recent U.S. Presidents’ first terms:
• 42.5%: Barack Obama approval
rating, Summer 2011
• 62.5%: George W. Bush approval
rating, Summer 2003 (won re-election in 2004)
• 47.5%: Bill Clinton approval rating, Summer 1995 (won re-election in 1996)
• 80.0%: George H.W. Bush approval rating, Summer 1991 (lost re-election in 1992)
• 39.5%: Ronald Reagan approval
rating, Summer 1983 (won re-election – by a landslide – in 1984)

If you’re “Open for Business”, you can contact Business Writer and Director  of Sales, Cliff Dunn, with your story at Business@FloridaAgenda.com

In response to the Cover Story, “A Tale of One City Divided” in the Florida? Agenda, August 11, 2011.

Dear Editor,

Let me understand what happened…

Businesses in Wilton Manors are struggling. Unless they are alcohol related they seem to be closing faster than new business opening. Many spaces promote Coming Soon but realistically they have been Coming Soon for so long I have doubts the doors will open.

WMBA, a private organization of WM businesses, invites Representative Allen West to speak to them. Being a member of a small business committee in Washington DC he could enlighten the WM businesses on government programs and opportunities to help them survive during these challenging economic times.

What bothers me most is that a group of individuals decided that the WM business community should not have this opportunity. An opportunity to collectively hear what assistance is in place and what Washington DC has learned in what works and what does not in assisting the business community, helping Wilton Manors.

Instead this group of individuals threatens OUR struggling businesses with boycotts and a “gays built this town and can destroy it” attitude. Really? When I read that in your previous article I fell out of my chair. Is that what we are about? As you travel down The

Drive, ask yourself how that is working out for us?

Look, I consider myself a Democrat and am NOT an Allen West supporter, never voted for him, never will. I think it sad that our business community, that we need for our tax base and growth for the Island City to prosper, had an opportunity for help and others with another agenda took that away.  Hopefully we all learn from this experience.

Thank you.
Michael Helms

Please send all your comments and letters to Editor@FloridaAgenda.com

By Cliff Dunn

In this column last week (Open for Business, August 4, 2011, “Go, West!”), Your Kindly Writer advised you, Gentle Reader, to “Stay tuned for the fallout,” a reference to the after effects of what began for some as a polite invitation to a Member of Congress to address the monthly meeting of a local business guild.

Following a firestorm of protest  (and now, the counter-protest), U.S. Congressman Allen West was dis-invited from speaking at the August 8 meeting of the Wilton Manors Business Association (WMBA, or “Wimba”), a meeting he had been invited to address. The de-invitation came after gay rights activists threatened a boycott of the Island City association’s member-businesses.

The announcement about two weeks ago that West, who represents portions of Wilton Manors as part of Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, would address WMBA on matters related to business and the economy, drew protests from a number of vocal LGBT activists.

Among them was Michael Rajner (seen in photo), Legislative Director of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, who wrote to WMBA members with an ultimatum: if the invitation for West’s planned visit wasn’t rescinded or declined by the Distinguished Gentleman, “community leaders and other social justice advocates” would “boycott any and all businesses” belonging to WMBA.

Reaction in Wilton Manors’ business community was mixed. Two individuals who asked not to speak on the record said they agreed with a July 30 South Florida Sun-Sentinel opinion piece in which that publication’s editorial board chides Rajner and others for “pressur[ing] the business group to drop its invite to Rep. West.”

Commercial photographer Michael Murphy of Oakland Park, a member of WMBA, said he was “pleased” with the board’s decision. “As a business owner and a member of WMBA, I want to do things that bring business to us rather than drive it away,” Murphy offered. “Although the decision to bring a sitting member of Congress to speak was probably made with good intentions,” he reasons, “the moment it created a firestorm, the decision needed to be rescinded; period.”

As to the congressman’s opposition to a number of issues which concern a sizable minority of residents of his district, Murphy is unambiguous. “As a gay man, I find his opinions un-educated and his words hateful. Congressman West does not even attempt to represent all of his constituents. He panders to a fraction of the people in his district, then insults the rest with his bigoted comments towards women and gays.”

West, who serves on the House Committee on Small Business, did not go gently into that good night, either. In a letter to Ellich written prior to the August 1 board vote in which he defends his right to speak at the WMBA meeting, West wrote: “I am concerned about individuals or organizations that would call upon a boycott and try to hurt hard-working small business owners only because an association wants to be better informed on business related issues that are taking place in Washington, D.C.”

After the meeting was cancelled, West emailed Ellich thanking her and WMBA for the invitation. He also cited the Sun-Sentinel editorial, objecting, as the newspaper wrote, to Rajner’s “demand that the business group withdraw its invitation to Rep.

West. One form of intolerance simply does not justify another.”

Taking up the refrain, West spoke of his support for “public discourse,” even when individuals don’t always agree with his, or other Members’ of Congress’, policy positions. “These are the foundations of our nation and what makes the United States of America an exceptional nation,” he wrote.
He has a point. But whatever goodwill West may engender by beating his breast and calling for a more tolerant and “civil society” would seem to be squandered by his caustic parting shots in last week’s letter to Ellich and WMBA. In what reads like equal parts truculence and petulance, West seems
to sneer from the page: “Clearly, we have learned who really are the intolerable individuals in South Florida.” (Presumably the Distinguished Gentleman meant intolerant rather than “intolerable.”)

As for the fallout over “Wimbagate,” Murphy remains sanguine, even philosophical. “I am glad it’s almost over; [now] we can get back to helping our local businesses in these difficult economic times.”

If you’re “Open for Business”, you can contact Business Writer and Director  of Sales, Cliff Dunn, with your story at Business@FloridaAgenda.com