Lately we’ve been bombarded with the barbarian tactics of the Texas legislature (state troopers are confiscating tampons? WHAT?), but make no mistake, Florida is just as decadent in the ways they serve up their incompetence and ignorance. It is, to be safe, a cesspool of backwards thinking, where prejudice is not only allowed to exist, but seemingly given exalted status.
Saturday night’s not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial is nothing less than an assault on human decency. A flaming affront to common sense citizenry and a blow to whatever ideals most of us have about democracy in this country. If a law, like the now infamous Stand Your Ground, can empower a madman to seek and destroy an innocent young male because, frankly, he simply just wanted to, then the machinery in which this law was created is a failure. The law itself is but a byproduct of an insidious cancer that has taken root in the laws and lawmakers in the state of Florida.
Since it has the status of a “swing state,” Florida’s national importance is heavily considered and its stance on topics is disproportionately weighted. Sadly for the rest of the electorate, we have had to watch over and over again as the Sunshine State has continued to drop the ball. This is a state still mired in presidential election tomfoolery. This happened as recent as last November’s election, where there were issues with counting ballots, and 12,000 voters were contacted via robocalls stating that they could go vote on the day after the actual election.
That the debacle that was the 2000 election was not enough of a motivating factor to fix the state’s myriad issues, tells you all that you need to know about Florida. You never know what to expect there. This is a state in which applications to carry a concealed weapon had a tremendous uptick starting this past January. So much so, that the state can’t even keep up with demand. The concerns go on and on.
Here are a couple of other recent decisions in the state that will give you pause:
The “Timely Justice Act” passed earlier this year. It allows that, once the Governor signs a death warrant, the convicted party must be executed in no less than six months. Whether you agree with capital punishment or not, the expedited time frame makes it almost impossible for wrongfully convicted people to gain exoneration.
House Bill 797 would have disallowed police officers the right to search a person’s cell phone or other electronic device without a warrant. The bill failed in the spring.
House Bill 87 speeds up the process in which a homeowner can lose their home due to foreclosure. The busted housing bubble hit Florida very hard, so for a law to happen here, of all places, seems especially outrageous.
Gov. Rick Scott’s refusal to fully comply with the Affordable Care Act.
Gov. Scott also vetoed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Bill, which allows for the children of illegal immigrants to apply for a Driver’s License. For Florida to continue to mistreat the very people who hold up its farming industries is, just as a basic common sense reality, pretty much unfathomable.
Florida is on the precipice of being a lost cause, a place hell-bent on sinking itself, and by connection the rest of us, into its pit of moral nothingness.
