Depress ctrl and + keys together to increase text size; depress ctrl and – keys together to reduce
Todd German, above, Chairman of Hometown PAC, called me yesterday to say he and Hometown had received an email from Rick Boettger, below,
saying, if Hometown did not delete the comment by County Commissioner George Neugent, below,
at Hometown’s recent candidate forum:
That if someone (Rick Boettger) went off his meds and filed an ethics complaint against him (George Neugent), then that would be dealt with in due course, then Hometown could expect to be named as a co-defendant in a future lawsuit.
Todd said, after George said that, he (Todd) saw Rick in the audience raise his hand, as if he wanted a chance to reply to George. But it was a candidate forum, and the audience does not get a chance to weigh in at candidate forums, so Rick was not given an opportunity to reply to George.
I said I was perverse enough to wish Rick was given a chance to respond, that would have been very interesting, and would have taken candidate forums down here to an entirely new level, a paradigm shift. However, I understood why Rick wasn’t given a chance to respond, and I didn’t see he had grounds to sue Hometown for what George said in front of at least 100 citizens in the audience, after he was asked about the ethics complaint by forum panelist Bill Becker, who is News Director of US 1 Radio, 104.1 FM.
Bill frequently serves as a moderator or panelist at candidate forums down here, put on by various organizations, Hometown PAC being one such organizations which hosts candidate forums.
Rick once told me that he had attended Yale Law School for a while, then he got himself kicked out. He is not, therefore, entirely a lay person when it comes to the law of defamation. He has told me he reads my posts at www.goodmorningkeywest.com. That leaves me thinking he does not agree with my holdings forth that civil litigation for damages tends not to be a good idea and produces bad karma.
Of course, all of that will draw more attention to Rick’s ethics complaints against George.
Moving laterally,
In today’s Citizen - www.keysnews.com, my cheery thoughts in italics:
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Ducks down, but not out
City leaders start talking about new franchise deals
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
As city commissioners sat down Tuesday to start hashing out new franchise agreements for the four sightseeing tour companies in Key West, there was no elephant in the room at Old City Hall.
But there was a little talk about ducks.
“What are we going to do with ducks?” Commissioner Mark Rossi said, referring to the amphibious vehicles that offer land and sea tours of various cities. “This is all on the table.”
The “ducks,” which resemble World War II-era GMC DUKW vehicles, have been grounded since the Navy closed the harbor to civilian vessels, citing military training priorities.
But at Tuesday’s workshop over franchises, which expire in February, no one from Historic Tours of America, which runs the Conch Train and Old Town Trolley, or CityView, which owns Duck Tours Seafari, indicated they were getting out of the duck business.
They just don’t have a ramp to launch the vehicles, City Manager Jim Scholl said.
“The ramps we have are not ideal for that type of operation,” said Scholl. “The city doesn’t have an obligation to provide ramps on private property. The only ramp that’s not available is the one at Truman Waterfront. Simonton Beach ramp is there and obviously the city marina ramp.”
As for the companies’ idea to build a new ramp at Trumbo Point, Scholl said the Navy has an objection to it and it’s far from a go.
By February, commissioners expect to have hammered out all of the elements of each tour, from vehicle size, schedules and whether tour guides need a headphone system rather than the amplified speakers.
“We have heard a tremendous amount of complaints about the noise coming out of these things,” said Rossi. “I hate to say it but when I go to other localities and ride the big red bus around the world, the first thing they hand you on the big red bus are a pair of earphones. We have to decide. Do we want it to be earphones or speakers that you hear in the neighborhoods? I don’t know.”
Earphones, obviously. Should have been done ages ago.
Commissioners congratulated each other for starting ahead of the February deadline.
Both sightseeing companies sent representatives, who kept their remarks brief and without talk of ducks.
The duck in the living room. After last night’s workshop, I saw Mayor Craig Cates at Key West Pub’s karaoke. I said the very last thing they want is those ducks on city streets. The are fine in the water, let them stay there. He said City View wants to give up their ducks to get more trolleys, they have been pushing for that for a while. I said, yeah, that’s true. I didn’t say what I really thought. Nor did I speak during citizen comments last night. I wasn’t in the mood. However, I did ask Craig what was City Commissioner Teri Johnston’s turn lower Duval Street into a pedestrian mall commment about? (not reported in this Citizen article). Craig said a study for that was included in the city’s annual budget, but he didn’t think it would go anywhere. I said I thought it would be a good thing for the city, if lower Duval was a pedestrian mall during the afternoons and evenings. After Teri said that in the workshop, I said to the people around me, as far as I knew, I was the only person who had promoted turning lover Duval into a pedestrian mall.”
Historic Tours of America, which has run the Conch tour train since 1958 and Old Town Trolley since 1976, has a 20-year franchise agreement set to run out Feb. 7.
“We think the franchise arrangement works,” said attorney Ginny Stones, on behalf of HTA. “In the last 12 months, historic Tours of America has paid $432,000 in franchise and license fees to the city. We look forward to the adoption of a franchise ordinance that would allow us to continue with that good partnership with the city of Key West.”
Brandon Dimando, general manager of Duck Tours Seafari, owned by CityView, said competition among the tours has served the city well.
“The overall cost to the consumer has been down,” Dimando said. “(There is) more variety of options for the consumers.”
In Key West, the duck tours have a dramatic history.
By 2010, the city was forced to pay $8 million to Duck Tours Seafari to settle an antitrust violation case, having allowed only HTA to have the ducks. HTA paid Seafari an undisclosed amount.
That was right in the front and back and side and top and bottom of my mind last night, after several city commissioners praised HTA for providing free transportation for a local one-day annual charity event. I said to people sitting around me, to earn that kind of praise from city officials, HTA should write the city a check for $8,000,000. Amens came back. Perhaps an aside, but probably not, that $8,000,000 whomping changed nothing about how the city behaves. It still goes out of its way to get sued and defend damage suits as if they are frivolous and cannot possibly be lost by the city.
In 2012, HTA launched Southernmost Duck Tours, in 39-foot-long, 8-foot-wide blue Hydra Terra amphibious vehicles that sport painted cartoon ducks and seat up to 48 people. The company dubbed the vehicles “our unique ducks.”
Hydra is a great name for these sea monsters, when the are on city streets.
CityView’s ducks are 31-feet-long, 8-feet-wide, 13,000-pound, taxicab-yellow vehicles. Each duck seats about 28 people. CityView’s duck tour career was short. The city approved their duck launch in January 2013, but by the end of February the Navy had announced no more civilian boats could use the harbor, essentially putting all duck tours out of business until further notice of an available ramp.
HTA and CityView pay off handsomely to the city each year, said Mayor Craig Cates, who pronounced topics raised Tuesday as “small issues.”
“They pay off the gross,” Cates said, asking commissioners to put their concerns in writing before the next workshop. “At the end of the day, the burden’s all on them. The concern about having more people in the trolleys, that’s a business decision.”
Commissioner Jimmy Weekley agreed that there are no major disputes over the sightseeing tours but that the franchise agreements remain a critical component for the city.
Really? No major disputes? How about probably 90 percent of people living in Key West, if they really tell how they feel about trolleys and conch trains clogging city streets and blasting neighborhoods with amplified noise, would say, in their quality of life heart of hearts, they wish there were no trolleys and conch trains in Key West.
But none of the commissioners in office today ever had a chance to weigh in on the franchises before now, given the 20-year deal with HTA.
“When these first started we weren’t dependent on a tourist economy,” Weekley said. “We’ve grown so much. It is a major part of our economy being able to provide this to our visitors. I don’t think there are any major issues that can’t be overcome.”
As for the trolley-styled buses and the Conch train, they keep lots of visiting cars off the island streets, Commissioner Tony Yaniz said, “If we did not have them, trust me, we’d have a hell of a lot more people in cars,” Yaniz said. “They do provide a mode of transportation.”
Maybe Tony lives in an alternate reality Key West. Maybe he doesn’t know that many people who ride conch trains and trolleys are cruise ship passengers. I’m on my bicycle on city streets day and night. I see first-hand the traffic congestion caused by visiting cars and pickup trucks, and by local cars, pickup trucks, electric cars, pedi-cabs, mopeds, delivery trucks, city buses and taxis, and by trolleys and conch trains. Riding a bicycle allows me to avoid most of that congestion, by getting up on sidewalks and/or using other streets. I have no problems finding a place to park my bicycle. At Hometown PAC’s forum the other night, I saw lots of cars parked in front of Tennessee Williams Theater at Florida Keys Community College, but no bicycles locked to the bicycle racks other than my own and two bicycles which looked beaten up and out of use.
gfilosa@keysnews.com
A Santa Fe, New Mexico homeless inquiry sailed into my email account yesterday, and led to extended discussion.
Key West’s soup kitchen
Dear Mr. Bashinsky,
I decided to write you after just now reading your article, “Are homeless people part of Key West’s One Human Family?” (dated August 2013) that I found on the Internet on “Good Morning Key West.” I thought to try to write you for insight or advice and I am hoping that this email account is still active.
I am recently homeless (March 2, 2014) in Santa Fe, NM after I was evicted from a month-to-month (unwritten sublease) situation with about 2 days notice. For the first three months, I lived in my car and then in an act of stupidity (after going out with friends to celebrate a new job I was to start on June 1, 2014) was arrested for a DWI on May 31. I spent 20 days in county jail because I was indigent and could not afford the bond. Since my release on June 20, I spent one sleepless night by the Santa Fe River before I was admitted to the Saint Elizabeth’s Men’s Shelter here in Santa. I have been at the shelter since that time, but I am required to leave on October 22 since I have been there more than the maximum they can allow by policy for a person like myself who is not disabled or under a doctors orders, etc. I have been sober and looking for work to get me out of this homelessness since my arrest on May 31.
Since the temperatures are already starting to drop in Santa Fe and I do not have any ties here, I am thinking of relocating to warmer climates in case it takes me a bit more time to find employment. I am considering Key West as a next location and that is why I located your article.
My previous career was as an engineering project manager, but I would be willing to take any work to get me out of homelessness. I hope to be able to find some work soon after arriving, but I am not sure that is realistic. After my recent/current experience with homelessness I would be interested in working in something to help the homeless if that is available, but again I will do anything to get back on my feet at first.
Any insight or advice you might have is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Sincerely,
John
I replied:
Hi, John - please call me Sloan.
I lived in Santa for nearly 2 years, starting early January 1986. Winter there can be really cold, and heaps of snow, too. [Santa Fe is at 7,300 feet elevation.]
Are you done with your D.U.I. case? Can you leave that area without getting into legal trouble?
Do you still have your car? If so, is it insured, and can you legally drive it? If not, how would you travel to Key West?
Certainly, it is a lot warmer here in winter, than in Santa Fe. There is an overnight homeless shelter, which is free, and there is no time limit for staying there. You have get in line to get a spot each night, and you have to be out of there by 7:30 a.m. each day. You cannot leave, or store, any of your belongings there. There are no lockers to lock you belongings in at night, when you sleep. Theft is a problem there, if you are not careful. They do not screen out people using booze and other drugs, but it is not allowed to carry that in there, except what already has been consumed. They have showers, but no laundry. Expect warm, to cool, to cold showers.
There is a soup kitchen here, which serves a big meal daily. You can get food stamps pretty quick. We have a Salvation Army Thrift Store and a K-mart, where you can get cheap clothing and other things you might need. You will need to get either a local driver’s licence or a Florida I.D. The homeless shelter has people who can help steer you through that, and to looking for work. I have no idea if you will be able to find work here. Rent is sky high here.
I am blind-copying my reply to Father Stephen Braddock, who heads up Florida Keys Outreach Coalition, which offers people trying to turn their lives around get back to work and living inside, if they are sober, have clean urine. He may not be inclined to encourage you to come to Key West and enter FKOC’s program; we have too many homeless people here already. However, he may be able to refer you to people who can help you relocate and find work. I cannot imagine living a winter outside in Santa Fe, or near there.
There used to be a Zen monastery in Jimez, on the back road running between Albuquerque and Los Alamos. Perhaps if the monastery is still there, they might be inclined to give you refuge. There are natural hot springs in and around Jimez. It is remote. I haven’t been there since maybe 1993, it was tiny then, little to do, but you might be able to eke out a winter there, if you can get into that monastery.
There used to be several monasteries of varying religious sects, western and eastern, next to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in a small town named Crestone, as I recall. Go north out of Alamosa, Colorado, maybe 25 miles, turn right at the Crestone sign, drive about 10 miles into Crestone. Imagine winters there about like Los Alamos, which is higher elevation than Santa Fe and Jimez. The mountains at Crestone “vibrate”. It’s different there. And REMOTE.
If I publish your email to me, at goodmorningkeywest.com, perhaps that might generate a reply from someone in or near Key West looking for someone with your work skills and personal outlook.
Sloan
P.S. If you come to Key West, you can count on the city police doing all they can to make you wish you have never heard of Key West. Even so, we probably have 300 street people here, and probably that many again living in vehicles and/or couch surfing in private homes, and maybe 120 or so living in the county jail at any given time. The jail is on Stock Island, the next island up from Key West. Presently, the homeless shelter is on the same land where the jail is located, and the sheriff headquarters. Sheriff deputies tend to be less likely to jail homeless people, because the sheriff doesn’t like his jail being used as an extension of the city’s homeless program.
Father Stephen Braddock replied to John, with copy to me:
John-
I strongly discourage homeless people from coming to Key West because of the high numbers already here, the lack of resources to meet the needs, and the significant challenge to secure good jobs and long term affordable housing. I suggest seeking guidance from the men’s shelter in Santa Fe. I would hope that the case managers at St. Elizabeth’s http://www.steshelter.org would help you to identify more appropriate and realistic options to help you get back on your feet. Here is the contact information for the lead agency for homeless programs in New Mexico who should be able to direct you to other resources with the state:
Mr. Hank Hughes
New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness
P.O. Box 865
Santa Fe, NM 87504
Phone: 505-982-9000
Fax: 888-527-6480
Email: hank-h@nmceh.org
I wish you the very best. -Fr. Stephen
www.FKOC.org
John replied just to me:
Sloan,
Well, that’s completely discouraging. Also, St. E’s is not helpful in this regard other than to refer me to another shelter in Santa Fe and my goal is to get to a warmer climate. Guess I’ll have to punt.
John
I replied:
John, you can come to Key West, new homeless people drift in here regularly. However, I would be remiss if I did not tell you what it’s like here. Worse than remiss, I would mislead you.
It long has been my “theory”, with which I have heard Steve Braddock agree, that only God can street people. You are not to that point yet, but the analogy still applies.
I am not fond of religion, because it is lost. God, however, is very real and angels work me to death without apology.
You might try asking the same angels for help, they are around you, that’s how you learned about me. They might have some ideas on how you might can get involved helping homeless people, since you have had the experience yourself, which puts you into a very different perspective from someone who has not be homeless.
I have heard Steve Braddock say only someone who is, or has been, homeless is a homeless expert. That’s my view, too. It’s also my view, in God’s eyes, we are all homeless. That takes “There but for the grace of God go I” to an entirely different level.
So, if you feel moved in that direction, ask Jesus, Archangel Michael and Magdalene-Melchizedek for whatever help they can lend to you. Ask without conditions. Leave for them to fill in all the blanks - that is, let them design and implement your new itinerary. Then hang on for what could end up being quite a ride indeed.
That’s pretty much what I did in early January 1986, in my apartment in Santa Fe - I asked God for help. What came after that was impossible to imagine, as was the rigor of it. Then, in September 2002, the angels let Kali have at me.
You can read a bit about Kali and spirit realm-human realm interfacing in yesterday and today’s posts at www.goodmorningkeywest. com. Here are links, yesterday’s on top:
I now am hearing, “Be careful what you ask for.” The angels’ sense of humor often leaves much to be desired from a human standpoint.
Sloan
P.S.
correction to “that only God can street people” in my previous email - help should be inserted between can and street, so that it reads, “that only God can help street people.”
John wrote:
Hi Sloan,
Thanks for your replies! I have to run out soon to catch the bus to do my weekly visit to the psychologist which is part of my DWI sentence. I am currently at the local library on my lap top. I will send you a more complete email either tomorrow or by the end of the week, answering your questions.
In general, I am looking for a place to survive the fall/winter and with a chance of finding any kind of work as I do not at all want to extend my homelessness to the extent I can help it. Santa Fe has been a really tough place for me regarding the job search for various reasons. So, I look forward to trying somewhere else; especially with nice weather.
How does it work to publish my email in the goodmorningkeywest site? i really haven’t given much of my “resume” information yet.
I will contact you soon.
Thanks again,
John wrote:
Sloan, Thanks for the note and for your insight. Actually, I am a born again Christian since about 2006 (although I did get a DWI this year because I have not perfected myself from sin [I guess that only happens after we die] and I misjudged myself that night) and I do try to consult God on everything through prayer. And if He wants assign angels to help me I am sure He will. But I pray for His intervention and guidance to steer me where He wants me and how He want to and this situation is no exception.
Again, I do hope to not be homeless for much longer, but in the meantime I do want to find a warmer place in case I have to spend time on the streets (I have mostly been in my car or at the shelter) until I get back on my feet. I really am interested in having something good come out of this experience as it is all pretty new to me (i.e., homeless only since march 2014 and for the first time) and I would like to use it to help others (at least the ones that want to be helped - as you know, some people just accept it a a life style and others as an unfortunate transition).
My housing and material needs are pretty basic anymore after having had a pretty “successful” career as an engineer and project manager for 25 or so years. Key West would be a wonderful spot if I could make something work there. The first and only time I was there was in February 2012 for a week on vacation. It was my first vacation in 5 years and I was coming off a 3-month $100/hour consulting assignment, so I stayed at the Ocean Key at the end of Duval. (What can I say now, but acknowledge the waste and wish I had just some of what I spent that week.)
I have a lot of so called transferable skills and a lot of real life experience ready to be used for some good I hope. So, I continue to look, and hope, and pray. And it seems that soon after I pray to God, “use me Lord” some interesting, but usually difficult things happen in my life.
Again,
Thanks so much! I have not given up on Key West yet. Please keep me in mind as a formulate my plan to where ever over the next month or so. My current idea is to leave Santa Fe around the first week of November. Brrr!
John
PS When I read the statement ” that only God can street people” I didn’t fully understand, but I thought, well, yeah God is in control of everything so, yeah, “only God can street people.” But thanks for the clarification. 
I replied today:
Good morning, John -
Possibly, what you are doing now is what God wants you to be doing now. I was homeless off and on for several years, and I knew it was something I was supposed to be experiencing. It caused me to be well-versed in homelessness, and, since I had practiced law in the past, before I moved to Santa Fe in early 1986, and would practice a little more in the latter 1990s, that came in handy when I was put into the political arena down here and spoke about homeless issues.
So far, my views on all of that do not seem to completely jive with anyone else’s views down here, or anywhere else. I have yet to be asked to sit on any forum panels convened to “solve” our homeless problems down here. Maybe because they know I will say the homeless problems cannot be solved, homeless people are endemic to society, they are society’s shadow and follow it every where it goes, reflecting back to society what it does not wish to see about itself, and all that can be done, other than society changing itself, LOL, is to try to manage homelessness, and how much money do they wish to spend managing something they can never fix? And, I tell, them, Jesus was homeless, and what would they do to him if he showed up in Key West today, behaving kinda like he did back in his day?
I had a born-again discussion with a Christian friend down here. After a while of that, I was moved to tell him that Peter was an example of a follower of Jesus who was born again. Was he, my friend, born again in that sense? For that was the product of enduring and surviving the baptism in fire and in spirit, which John the Baptist said one greater than he would administer. Jesus himself spoke of setting the world on fire and having a baptism to live, which he was anxious to get on with, and perhaps get it over with, since he had to know how much fun it was going to be. From what you have described of your life since the D.U.I., it looks to me like you might be in that baptism, which is very different from being baptized in water, which Jesus didn’t do to people.
When I prayed to God for help in early January, 1986, I offered my life to human service. Looks in what you last wrote to me like you are asking to be used by God. I had no clue what I was asking for, when I made that prayer. It seemed like the thing to do in the moment. I felt I had failed in every way a man could fail, I knew I was out of bright ideas and that there was nothing I myself could do to help me. And in that state, I made the prayer: “Dear God, please help me; I do not want to die like this, failed.” I paused, added, perhaps egotistically, perhaps sincerely, “I offer my life to human service.”
Tears came to my eyes, I seemed to feel a sense of calm. I then went on about my day.
About ten days later, in the wee hours, as I slept next to my new girlfriend in her home in Los Alamos, I awoke and saw two spirit beings hovering above me in the darkness. I assumed they were angels. They were etheric, white with perhaps a little blue. No wings. I heard spoken into my mind, “This will push you to your limits, but you asked for it (I remembered the prayer I had made), and we are going to give it to you.” There was a bright flash and I was stuck by what felt like lightning. My body was jolted, but not painfully. It clearly was electrical. I reminded me of when I had been jolted by a near lightning strike on a golf course many years before. Then it happened again. Then it happened again. Three lightning strikes. Then, the two beings faded out. I lay shaking, sweating.
That was the beginning. The changes started slowly, I was relocated geographically, I met new people, and a new woman companion was provided. It went from there. I would not wish the ensuing experiences on anyone. Christians were not able to take it in. New Agers were not able to take it in. Only a very few people I met along the way were able to take it in. Today, I have one person who can take some of it in, perhaps she is being trained to replace me when I leave this life. The others fell away. A few were friends, a few were women companions who were provided. The woman who still is around, who is like an adopted daughter, lives in north Georgia. We talk on the phone most days. She has lots of dreams about me, which are for me.
Dreams steer me ongoing, and correct me ongoing. Without dreams, I would be lost in the morass I am given to engage on this world. I also am sometimes told things in plain English in my sleep. I also have waking visions, and sometimes I receive information telepathically when I’m awake - I hear it spoken into my mind, and often I suddenly just know something I did not previously know about a situation I am engaging. The angels have cute ways of prodding me physically and electrically when they don’t like a direction I’m headed. Cute sometimes is terrifying. I am in spiritual warfare ongoing, when I am awake and when I am asleep.
Perhaps you are headed in a similar direction. I don’t wish that on you. But if you are headed similarly, your views about pretty much everything most likely will change. I was raised in a Christian family. That terrain is very familiar to me. What I’m describing here is beyond any religion, but some of the main characters are revered in today’s religions, even though their human experiences with God and/or angels of the Lord were direct and not part of a religion. There is only one God, on which no religion has a lock. God is in every religion humanity has produced, and this planet is but a tiny speck in a boundless Creation, in which, by human measure, there are uncountable sentient species.
ETs are a fact, I have had encounters with them; they are different from angels. I tend to steer clear of ETs, angels are plenty to try to keep happy with me.
Cetaceans are far smarter and more advanced than human beings on this planet, but their ways and wants and needs are very different, so there is no “competition” between the two species.
Well, that’s probably gotten off the tracks a bit, but maybe not.
I often publish what other people write to me and my replies back to them, and any further emails between us. That’s how that works. In that way people who read my daily posts at goodmorningkewyest.com get to see something different than they otherwise would see reported in various news outlets down here, and probably anywhere. In your case, I would omit your last name. This is one way the angels running me provide lots of stuff for me to publish.
Many years after the experience in Los Alamos, I came to understand the two angels were Jesus and Archangel Michael. Sometime later, Magdalene-Melchizedek showed up. I have written and published a great deal about her, as of the Melchizedek Angel Order, and incarnated as Mary Magdalene. In the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus is said to be High Priest in Melchizedek.
Vaya con Dios, John.
Sloan
Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, a life-long ecologist, continued our ecological discussions reported in yesterday’s giant sucking sounds in Key West – Kali makes her debut post at www.goodmorningkeywest.com:
Sloan: Interesting The citizen’s voice first comment
if we let the commercial industry run fishing we would have NO fish;
absolutely, entirely, totally, true. The Marine Sanctuaries plan to have “reserves ”
that are PROTECTED “no take zones” is the ONLY way to go —-very important to recognize this !!!
this realization is spreading all over this world in all the oceans.—researched this thoroughly.
Sincerely, Jerry
The Citizen’s Voice comment referenced by Jerry:
“What The Florida Keys Commercial Fishing Association doesn’t understand is that our fisheries would be completely depleted if left to the charters and commercial boats. They have already shown an inability to police themselves and protect fish populations. I support the new restrictions. It is the only way to keep our fisheries healthy and productive for all.”
I replied:
Hi, Jerry - I don’t need to research it, I know what the commercial fishing industry has done to fish, crab, lobster, shrimp, turtle, sponge, etc. populations worldwide.
However, and sadly, the Marine Sanctuary has poorly impressed me (understatement), I have little respect for its regional directory, Billy Causey.
Furthermore, I heard a commercial fisherman at a city commission meeting maybe three months ago, say the Sanctuary had claimed banning the taking of protected ocean species in some Sanctuary areas would increase the endangered species populations in those protected areas, but after some years of no fishing in those areas, Sanctuary surveys showed the protected species had not increased their population in those protected areas. I understood who said it and where he was coming from, but I didn’t hear anyone speak against him, and I think I recall there were Marine Sanctuary people there.
Sloan
Jerry wrote:
The only thing or the main thing that sustains charter fishing
is the RESERVE area at the Tortuga—-without that curtains!
fish populations -factually explode in most properly placed reserve
areas-I could come up with a thousand references in NO time.
may be more than a thousand —scientifically based ..
Jerry.
I replied:
They allow charter fishing in the RESERVE area at the Tortuga?
Jerry wrote:
only in one area not the entire large reserve.
they :: charters fish the edges-I have been there.
more sincerely —Jerry
Jerry also sent yesterday, relating back to the recent various feminine environmental considerations – Key West, Alaska, humanity post at www.goodmorningkeywest.com:
Subject: There’s still time to save Bristol Bay
this is critical to support the EPA and stop this
planet wrecker and degradation for humanity.!!!!!!!
we have done much and contributed and wrote and wrote and wrote !!!!!!!!!!!!
we have done almost everything possible to stop this obscenity;
this planet wrecker and humanity degrader.
we have done just about everything possible to stop
this obscenity!!!!!!!!!
On Monday, September 8, 2014 7:29 PM, KeepAmericaFishing <info@keepamericafishing.org> wrote:
| Trouble reading this email? View it in your browser |
 |
|
Dear jerry and donna,
Your help is still needed.
The deadline is nearing to speak out against the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska. There’s still time to support the EPA’s opposition to its construction. To those who have already taken action, our sincerest thanks go out to you! For those who haven’t, we implore you to act now. Bristol Bay may not be in your backyard, but the EPA ruling on the copper mine affects us all.
Sincerely,
Liz Ogilvie,
Director, KeepAmericaFishing™ A mine pit almost as deep as the Grand Canyon
 Mine waste that would fill 3,900 major football stadiums
A mining operation that is larger than Manhattan
All of which would occur on the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery
KeepAmericaFishing would like to thank the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for taking the next step to protect Bristol Bay from the potential Pebble Mine. If developed, Pebble Mine would be devastating for the region’s recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing industries, which are collectively worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Fortunately, the EPA recently released a proposal that would limit the ability for mining activities to take place within the Bristol Bay area of Alaska.
This EPA proposal is just that - a proposal, but you can help move it along by submitting comments supporting the Bristol Bay salmon fishery and the recreational anglers who call it paradise. This is the final comment period and it is vital that you submit comments now. If you already have, we thank you for your commitment to protecting our resources.
Take action now and support the proposal to protect these world-renowned waters and fishery of Bristol Bay.
|
    This email was sent to weinstock@_________ by KeepAmericaFishing.
KeepAmericaFishing™ and KeepAmericaFishing.org™ are registered trademarks of the American Sportfishing Association 1001 North Fairfax Street, Suite 501 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: 703.519.9691 Fax: 703.519.1872 Click here to Unsubscribe
|
I replied to Jerry:
I will publish yours and my reply, probably tomorrow, along with your email about commercial fisherman destroying ocean species, and my reply.
I think in both grave situations, Bristol Bay and over-fishing, more is needed than human effort, which is essential, of course, but often insufficient. I suppose the angels will be throwing me even deeper into those fun places.
Do you know an English-speaking American Indian shaman up there around Bristol Bay, who is involved in that situation? If so, I keep getting that he/she and I might ought to talk, if she/he has telephone access. Here’s my cell phone number - 305-407-4285.
Sloan
Jerry wrote:
Thanks, Sloan
Just my redneck mystic thinking, they need an adept indigenous Alaskan shaman working on the Bristol Bay situation. Or a heap of such shamans. More of my redneck thinking, it might take more than shamans to deal with the overfishing in the Keys, and planet-wide. It might take a human-beings-near-extinction event. That also would take care of the Bristol Bay threat, and other human threats to this planet.
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com
