Guest Commentary | City has utmost respect for veterans, Jaycee Park controversy was self-made
Last week, I received a personally upsetting email accusing Cape Coral City Council and the city of dishonoring veterans by taking down over 200 yellow ribbons, flags and veterans’ names that were attached to trees at Jaycee Park. The person who wrote the email called me and the rest of council “a disgrace to this city.”
To someone who holds veterans and first responders in the highest esteem for their actions in protecting our freedoms and our safety, this was a blatant assault on my character and integrity as well as the rest of council’s.
In no way would myself, other members of council or city staff ever disrespect who veterans are, what they stand for and the sacrifices they have made. What this inappropriate email illustrated was the disrespect this person and others involved in the Save Jaycee Park and “Honoring the Trees” campaigns clearly have for our veterans. This act of placing ribbons, pictures and flags on the trees wasn’t about veterans at all. It was a shameful example of using veterans as pawns and as leverage to lash out at the city for wanting to remove environmentally harmful and invasive Australian pines on the shoreline of the park and to renovate the park.
Let’s put the facts in place:
One, this group that placed the ribbons, flags and names around the Australian pines did not have permission to do so. City maintenance workers did remove the items. They are instructed to do so when groups do not have permission in any of our parks. Unpermitted items are removed to help keep our parks clean. The Jaycee Park items were not discarded but placed in a bin for the organizers to pick up.
Two, and as our city manager Mike Ilczyszyn, who is a veteran, has stated in a previous article, the city, county and state, as well as our municipalities, have rules in place pertaining to memorials, flags, ribbons, advertising and other items to keep our parks clean and free of debris.
Three, Cape Coral honors its veterans in many ways. We are a designated Purple Heart City. We have a downtown parade for Veterans Day. We have three parking spaces in the city reserved for veterans, including one Purple Heart space at City Hall. We worked with Lee County to open an office in Cape Coral for veterans services. Last year, for the first time, we honored our country and military with a Flag Day. When people pass over the Veterans Memorial Bridge into Cape Coral, they see several monuments honoring veterans from many wars in our memorial area at Eco Park. We also have a Veterans Park in the city.
The real dishonesty by those who placed the ribbons, flags and names was using those who have sacrificed for our country as a ruse to advance their cause to save the trees. I believe it was purposely done to draw attention to their cause of saving the park, not to honor veterans. My guess is they knew the park rules, knew they didn’t have permission to put these up and knew they would be taken down so they could mislead the public into believing this was another attempt by the city to punish residents.
Australian pines are listed as invasive by many reputable and respected organizations who have the scientific research to support these trees erode coastlines and choke out other native vegetation that provide critical wildlife habitat. Its wind-driven seeds will only cause more invasive trees to grow and provide continued environmental damage.
We are always looking for new and respectful ways to honor our veterans. In the future, we can look at allowing groups to put up veterans tributes or memorials at our parks for a short time during designated times of the year when we honor our veterans.
But for now, the Save Jaycee Park organizers owe our veterans and this city an apology.
Tom Hayden is a Cape Coral City Council member, representing District 3.
To reach TOM HAYDEN , please email news@breezenewspapers.com