Category
st. augustine
Rage Becomes Power in Writer’s Hands
\”I still write a lot from anger,\” playwright Mark Medoff said. \”I\’ve wanted to flagellate the world.\”\n\nMedoff, 61, is the author of the smoldering plays \”When You Comin\’ Back, Red Ryder?\” \”Children of a Lesser God\” and \”Road to a Revolution,\” now at Deaf West Theatre. His intense work often rails against a world he perceives as rife with violence, racism and sexism. Several childhood memories fuel the rage, he revealed during a telephone interview from his New Mexico ranch.
Israel vs. Florida
Trying to figure out the results of the Israeli election? Here\’s something that might help: compare and contrast what happened this week in Israel with what happened last November in Florida.
Coup DeLay
The danger for Bush is that if either the Florida legislature or the DeLay formula is pursued, his presidency could be permanently tainted as illegitimate for having lost the popular vote and won the electoral vote by chicanery.
Meanwhile, Back in Florida…
While the nation watched and waited as the battle over the presidency continued to unfold, two old friends met in Florida last week to try to bring a resolution to the dispute over the ballots in West Palm Beach. Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills and his longtime colleague, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, spent the week after the election touring the state, attempting to bring together what they called the disenfranchised voters of Florida\’s Black and Jewish communities.
Butterfly Ballot Blues
Politicos and machers who had given heart and soul (and a lot of cash, in some cases) to their respective candidates saw conspiracy, fraud or betrayal in the ballot crisis in Florida this week. Feeling ran strong, but no one was willing to predict whether Bush or Gore would turn out to be president.
Tight Races
Initially, one cannot help but think that the surge of retired, elderly Jews to Florida, augmented by this year\’s Lieberman Factor, has redefined Florida politics into an Israel-style method of governance. While the rest of America was voting and deciding on Tues., Nov. 7, Florida was telling us – just as Israel runs under Barak – \”Wait 48 hours, and then we\’ll decide.\” Two days later, as the last recount came in from Seminole County with Bush a nose ahead, Florida essentially told us, \”Well, wait 48 more hours, and then we\’ll really decide.\” Even today, Nov. 17, with all the incoming mail ballots from those Floridian voters stationed out-of-state in the military and on campuses tallied, we still have the proverbial 48 hours and more. Recounts. Manual recounts. Just like Barak\’s Israel.
Sunshine Vote
In the end, the selection of the next president of the United States came down in many ways to voters in heavily Jewish South Florida.
Ghosts on the Beach
I arrived in Miami Beach one morning last week on a mission: to find the last kosher hotel in South Beach, an ultra-hip area of restaurants, clubs and shops that used to be the hub of Florida Jewish life.Today you can drive along Ocean Drive (inch along is more like it) and see scores of suburban teenagers and sophisticated European tourists sitting at Art Deco restaurants and hotels, sipping their lattes and looking to be seen, but you won\’t find many Jews. South Beach is where Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps of his mansion and where Gloria Estefan, Madonna and Sylvester Stallone all have had multimillion-dollar homes at one time or another.
Much Like a Minority
\”Jews sometimes try to be the conscience of the legislature,\” says state Rep. Elaine Bloom of Miami Beach, one of the state\’s most durable Jewish politicians. \”But we\’re losing numbers. They\’ve changed the system.\”
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