I am not one given to prayer. I do, however, talk to myself upon awakening each morning. It’s something of a mantra that I repeat that involves my expression of gratitude for not yet needing algebra in my adult life. I also thank the variety of Gods I imagine floating around in Cloud Cuckoo Land that I don’t live in Florida.
As states go, Florida has some good points. The weather is pretty nice, there are some great golf courses, and the fishing can be rewarding. For eight years I used to play my New Year’s Eve gig and fly to Miami in the early hours. I’d meet up with my parents and we’d go to the Orange Bowl, usually cheering for Nebraska back when they were a football powerhouse. At the end of the game, I’d drive a rental car to Tavernier, a sleepy little community at the western end of Key Largo. That’s where my Aunt Helen and Uncle Ray had a clapboard cottage on a shady lot.
They also had a great fishing boat and for a week or so each January Uncle Ray and I would fish for red snapper and grouper. In the evenings, we’d dine on our day’s catch that Aunt Helen would cook to perfection, and finish our meal with a slice or two of Key lime pie.
The last time I fished the Florida Keys, Ron DeSantis had yet to be born and Florida had yet to elect as its governor the crazed lunatic we’ve come to know and despise. His thirst for power is driven by naked ambition. He has pursued reckless policies that divide Floridians and may even put them at risk. He is out-Trumping Trump as he strives to gain prominence as America’s most divisive politician.
His actions show him to be a racist, anti-intellectual who sees America in danger of falling to an imagined agenda created by the liberal left. He also believes that the word “gay” should never be spoken.
“That’s what we’re doing in Florida, standing up for people’s freedoms,” DeSantis told Fox News. “We’re opposing wokeness. We’re opposing all these things.”
It’s not abundantly clear what “all these things” are, but rest assured that high on the list are LGBTQ, Critical Race Theory and the New York Times 1619 Project. Like masks and social distancing, both CRT and 1619 have been widely banned in Florida’s public schools.
DeSantis displays his lack of knowledge by not recognizing that CRT is not offered as a curriculum choice until one suffers high school successfully and gets into a college whose professors don’t own KKK robes. Think of CRT as kind of an advanced study in the history of race relations in America. The 1619 Project is considerably more insidious as it teaches history—warts and all—to younger students.
To suggest that DeSantis is worried that such information might pass into the minds of unsuspecting children is to suggest that the wart in question just might be the governor of the Sunshine State. In the course of my school education about Florida, there was never a mention about the removal of its Native Peoples or its being a slave state. I do remember learning about Ponce de Leon and his search for the Fountain of Youth which, as it turns out, was pure myth.
I’m not a big fan of the word “woke.” Before somebody coined the term to describe those who are enlightened, we had the word “enlightened.” It is far beyond my ability to understand how somebody can be opposed to enlightenment.
Hell, history shows that there was even an actual Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects. Wikipedia notes that “the Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.”
Evidently, only monarchs and the Catholic Church opposed such pursuits at the time. The Church tended to lean on superstition and fear, the monarchs on inheritance. I can only imagine that DeSantis would have opposed any conversation on the steps of the Pantheon.
A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism, communism, and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment, three more reasons for the guv to hate enlightenment.
Before the Age of Enlightenment came the Renaissance, an era of notable achievements in art, architecture, politics, science and literature. It was an age of humanism that found man to be the “measure of all things.” Leonardo DaVinci painted the Mona Lisa and illustrated his ideas for an airplane and the aerial screw, a helicopter. It was also then that somebody invented the flush toilet. I’m guessing his name was Loo.
And the predecessor to that time was the Dark Ages, a centuries-long era in which superstition and misbelief defined a time of no notable progress in the arts, sciences and letters. The Church did very well back then, what with uneducated pagans in loin cloths wandering around afraid of their own shadows.
It seems that Governor DeSantis would be most at home in the Dark Ages.
He has his eyes on the Oval Office and is working to feed the fears of his constituency—that same bloc of evangelical Republicans that is best known for giving voice to QAnon and other insipid ideas of conspiracy. DeSantis is masterful at manipulation and can easily get his political base worked up into a flag-waving frenzy—a la Trump. All he has to do is remind his audience that Antifa is a dues-collecting club of anti-Americans.
DeSantis authored a legislative proposal called Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (Stop W.O.K.E.) Act, that will give businesses, employees, children and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination. The Stop W.O.K.E. Act would be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and would take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory.
The governor routinely succumbs to right-wing pressure groups because he has no particular policy positions or core beliefs, unless you count being anti-enlightenment a core belief.
Photo illustration by Courtney A. Liska
Grilled Grouper with Lime Butter
Grouper is not unlike sea bass or halibut. It has a mild taste and can be breaded and deep-fried for a most delicious sandwich. Below is how I remember Aunt Helen cooking it. A rice pilaf is a nice side.
1 1/2 pounds grouper fillets
2 Tbs. unsalted butter (softened)
3 Tbs. lime juice
zest of 1 lime
freshly ground black pepper
salt
Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium- to medium-high heat.
Stir the zest and juice of one lime into the softened butter.
Brush lime butter on each grouper fillet and season with salt & pepper.
Place fillets on the grill and cook 5-6 minutes per side, until the fish will become opaque and flaky.
Once the fillets are cooked through, place on serving dish and brush with any remaining butter.
Serve with additional lime wedges or pico de gallo.
Thank you, Jim. A good explanation of CRT. Sadly those who would benefit from your explanation probably won’t read it. I do think it’s a shame it somehow got labeled Critical Race THEORY. Why not Honest Race HISTORY?
It appears there is nothing new under the sun. From McCarthyism in the 50s to DeSantis today. And I well remember the 60s when the battle cry was “America, right the wrongs.” that would have you branded a traitor to your country. It is a shame we seem to have made so little progress.
Esther Bejarano, an Auschwitz survivor, would tell young people about the Holocaust, “You are not guilty of what happened back then. But you become guilty if you refuse to listen to what happened.” That applies equally to the ugly stains on America’s history.
The Florida guv is guilty, guilty, guilty!
How Provocative! I feel fortunate to have been able to read this article, & wish that its truth would be considered widely.