Vote for change
To the editor:
One wonders why incumbent, “appointed” Mayor Jim Burch, who traveled around the country, reportedly on city business, has received such significant campaign fund donations from special interests to support his election bid. Analysis shows 80 – 85 percent of those funds coming from as far as Chicago, Washington, DC, Miami and Orlando and includes construction firms, Realtors, developers, and PACs pursuing, perhaps, ever more profits and influence over the processes of government. Beware of the corporate-government complex!
The old adage of “He who has the gold calls the tune!” is a mainstay of our politics -the modus operandi and as American as apple pie. While it may not necessarily be sinister to take campaign donations from these “usual suspects,” history shows ingrained habits of “influence buying and peddling,” sometimes called quid pro quos, nearly always conspire to favor those with deeper pockets. This is especially true when there is an inattentive, uninformed and apathetic citizenry abused, as the cash cows, to shoulder the heavy financial burdens of high taxes, over-priced utility assessments and fees, bloated personnel and benefits costs, crushing debt, excessive and wasteful spending that have spun out of control such that the city and many residents are at the brink of or have fallen into financial ruin. Should we remain silent as sacrificial lambs? Or do we act in our own interests to have impact beyond too often ignored citizen input?
When a concerned group of citizens – joined as “We the People”- had reached the point of having had enough, we began to -yes, Mr. Ralph LePera (Cape Coral Civic Association)- organize to take legitimate actions, i.e., using freedoms of assembly, speech and the election process to save ourselves and take back our city. Some, (e.g., Gary King, “architect of The Road Ahead Gang of 18” and mayoral candidate John Sullivan, “sole proprietor of the Cape Coral Minutemen” or “minnymen”), as you derisively described, were accused of being “anarchists,” “revolutionaries,” “conveyors of lies, hate and mistrust,” as Mr. LePera opined (Sept. 5 Letter to the Editor). Mayor Burch had earlier labeled them and others as “obstructionists.” I ask, to what?
Mr. LePera’s accusation is that a group of concerned citizens have gathered in a conspiracy of “18 people” to “take absolute control” and “divert the governmental process.” One can visualize Mr. LePera seething with anger and disgust, even frothing at the mouth, like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the thought of red meat, that some “newcomers,” without meeting his self-defined and ridiculous qualifying period of Cape residency, would dare challenge the entrenched status quo that took years to establish. So, is it 10, 15, 20 years to qualify? How about being a “founding father of the city?” Just who are the legitimate actors on this stage, really? Clearly, in the all-seeing, biased eyes of Mr. LePera, “the more recent arrivals” do not qualify.
The disdain shown for the “Contract with Cape Coral” and those who brought it into being reflects a narrow mind set bent on ridicule and disparagement against new ideas, perhaps, too expansive and off the well-trodden path and, therefore, threatening and frightening. “The Contract” is a voluntary and symbolic commitment to give one’s word -as a bond – and has validity and standing in the arena of public opinion and bears on public trust. We are well aware that the contract has no legal standing nor is binding of obligations, but since when have the many who took an oath of office been more committed and proven more worthy of the public trust?
We can drink the Kool-Aid of fear-mongering rhetoric presented by the likes of Mr. LePera, and vote for forces for a conspiracy to hold the status quo; or we can begin, in earnest, to set in place a new arrangement on a road to financial recovery, restoration of the public trust, promotion of “public and private” interests, control of spending, reduction of taxes, fiscal responsibility and accountability. Vote Nov. 3 for John Sullivan (Mayor), Jim Martin (District 1), Chris Chulakes-Leetz (District 4) and John Cataldi (District 6). Let’s continue to conspire for positive changes and new path forward!
Larry Barton
Cape Coral