By Bobby R. Henry, Sr. Publisher, Westside Gazette
We ring the bell for freedom, democracy, and majority rule. We sound the clarion call for freedom fighters as we urge Floridians to reach out to Mr. Ben Frazier and the Northside Coalition and pledge support to a campaign to make Governor Ron DeSantis accountable. We also ask lovers of freedom to call the offices of Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and demand they vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. These three public servants who have become “three blind mice” to equality for all, must be made accountable now.
This Northside Coalition challenged Gov. DeSantis and tried to hold him accountable to voters of our state. We applaud the Northside Coalition, and urge you to support them every way we can. DeSantis insulted these patriots and arrested Ben Frazier. Mr. Frazier’s only crime was letting the world know how working class people are sick and dying from DeSantis’ lack of proper protocol for pandemic policies. Governor DeSantis mocks science when he declares the “free state of Florida” which, in reality says Floridians are “free to catch and spread COVID”, thereby allowing the pandemic to continue. He discounts and trivializes the science of mask wearing, social distancing, vaccines, and testing. He has tried to take away the right to protest, and a woman’s right to abort unwanted pregnancies. The DeSantis administration has withheld 1 million COVID test kits hostage in a warehouse, we believe, because he doesn’t agree with testing unless a person shows symptoms of Covid disease. Florida has become the “free state to die”.
In the United States senate Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and 48 other Republicans suppress the right of all citizens to vote. Rubio and Scott refuse to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. These two laws will nullify the laws Florida, Georgia and 17 other states passed to make it hard for Blacks and progressives to vote. Rubio and Scott are two of many Trump sycophants who bought into his big lie that his 2020 election was stolen. DeSantis, Scott, and Rubio want a White American dictatorship, not majority rule. Scott, Rubio, and DeSantis must be confronted everywhere and held accountable to all the people. These two senators must account for holding a dagger to the throats of those who seek democracy. They propose re-segregating the country with two classes: voters and non-voters. We will not suffer any more of this new Jim Crow.
Our governor treated Mr. Frazier and the Northside Coalition like disenfranchised citizens – handcuffed, forcing them leave a public building where he planned to entertain the news media. Our governor should be held accountable and sanctioned for withholding covid tests. More than 1 million tests were stacked up for months in a warehouse while Floridians became ill and died. He has ridiculed mask wearers and the vaccines. Now Florida is a world leader in covid infections.
We call on Floridians of all races and creeds to organize and challenge DeSantis, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott. We have to build a Movement that has the power to change Washington and Tallahassee, citadels of racism. “All men and women are created equal” and should want Floridians to defeat second class citizenship and not be intimidated by arrest and death dealing politicians. We call on organizations, youths, religious bodies, social justice groups, and economic bodies to organize into one Movement/voice and let Governor DeSantis and Senators Rubio and Scott feel your pressure. Register everyone eligible to vote. Governor DeSantis, Senators Rubio are running for re-election on Tuesday November 8. Use our ballots. They are a report card. Politicians are like paid employees. We hire them for office, and if they don’t do their jobs well for all the citizens, we fire them.
Let us remember those brave souls who marched across the Edmonds Pettis Bridge and were bloodied in 1965. Let us remember John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harry T. and Harriet V. Moore, Rosa Parks, Rev. C.T. Vivian, and Congresswoman Carrie Meeks by acting out for freedom now. This is our country.
Yours in the struggle,
Bobby R. Henry, Sr. Publisher
