The politics of equality shows obvious political deception

The politics of equality shows obvious political deception

By Derek Joy

    Check this out in those lazy, hazy dog days of summer.

     America is breezing along at the top of the medal count at the “2012 Olympics in London, England. Football practice has started from Pop Warner to the NFL. And Major League Baseball is winding down the second half of its season.

    And wouldn’t you just know it . . . Election Day 2012 is right around the corner – Aug 14.

    Yeah! It’s a frenetic pace for incumbents and candidates for public office.  The pace quickens even more, now that early voting began on Aug. 4.  It continues until Aug. 11.

    People in the general public, as well as elected officials among the Democratic Party, are still crying foul.  They yell because of the way the redistricting boundaries were drawn by the Republican controlled Florida State Legislature.

    There is good reason.  Results in the various lawsuits and subsequent judicial decisions.  Yet, there are some rather obvious deceptions when equality is considered in State Senate District 39.  Same is true for State House Districts 100, 102, and 108.

    You see, State House District 109 is as close to equality as it can get with the heart of its boundaries ranging from parts of Opa Locka, Liberty City. Overtown and Liberty City and Brownsville.

    There is a tense battle for the District 109 seat between incumbent Cynthia Stafford and educator Bernadine Bush, whose husband, Rev. Dr. James Bush III, who previously held the seat and is currently campaigning Senate District 39.

     Compacted Districts, they say.  Drawn to supposedly give neither political party – Democrats or Republicans – a clear cut advantage; or without denying ethnic minorities distinct opportunities in the process.

    There is obvious deception in the end results.

     Former Miami Gardens Council-woman Sharon Pritchett, a candidate for newly created House District 100, which spans northern Miami Dade County to southern Broward County, noted how the District was redrawn in such a way as cause the two Hispanic candidates drop out and enter the race for a District favoring Hispanics.

     Pritchett faces opposition from former Miami Gardens Councilman Melvin Bratton, Sr., and a write-in candidate. Representative Barbara Watson, also a former Miami Gardens Councilwoman, was the incumbent in this District.

    Watson shifted to the redrawn District 107, where she faces        John Paul Julien. Here is where people of color are lumped together in such a way that spawns attention between Native America Blacks and immigrant people of color – Haitian Americans.

    However, District 108 finds incumbent Daphne Campbell being challenged by the hard charging Alix Desulme. Both Campbell and Desulme are Haitian Americans, in a District where they form the majority. Campbell is being criticized in the media regarding an ongoing investigation into alleged criminal charges.

    But look at what those Republican scoundrels did in creating the supposedly compact Senate District 39.  This District covers the Florida Keys, the Overtown, Liberty City, Brownsville, Opa- Locka in Miami Dade County, parts of Hendry and Collier Counties.

    Here is where the political really rears its ugly head.

    Rev. Dr. James Bush III and Dwight Bullard are Black Americans in the Senate District 39 race that finds an Anglo, Ron Saunders, in the mix.  All three are former State Representatives.

    Geographically, Anglos are favored by population, which, in effect, would deny people of color of representation by one their own. 

    It is scandalous and scurrilous if Black Americans sit back and let such a travesty occur and further cement political deception.