PAGE ONE COMMENTARY: CLINE: “TO THOSE I COULD NOT SAY GOODBYE TO, GOOD LUCK. DON’T LET A BAD ADMINISTRATION STOP YOU FROM YOUR DIVING DEGREE. IT’S A GREAT PROGRAM”

Stand Up for Animals: If a Crime Has Been Committed, It Has Been Committed by County Officials

by Rick Boettger

Today’s commentary is the first in our paper’s history to be mostly written by a dog, “Marco.” He was a “hard to place” dog that Stand Up For Animals (SUFA) kept alive in their Big Pine shelter for eight years, following their muchbeloved No Kill policy.

Last month, I asserted that the County’s destruction of SUFA was a crime designed to steal SUFA’s endowment. To recap, through eight years of careful money management and excellent service, SUFA accumulated over $100,000 in grants and donations and saved even more.

The County resented SUFA’s success and glowing reputation, and coveted the money— especially since county commissioners and staff had friends they wanted to give SUFA’s contract to, along with divvying up SUFA’s substantial and hard-earned nest egg. I would love anyone to leap to their defense against this severe charge.

FOLLOWUP: Victim of Alleged Coerced Sex at College Calls Provost a “Predator of Women”

CLINE: “TO THOSE I COULD NOT SAY GOODBYE TO, GOOD LUCK. DON’T LET A BAD ADMINISTRATION STOP YOU FROM YOUR DIVING DEGREE. IT’S A GREAT PROGRAM”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week, Key West The Newspaper’s Associate Editor Rhonda Linseman-Saunders reported here that Dawn Cline, the former dive facility manager at Florida Keys Community College (FKCC) had resigned after the FKCC Board of Trustees blew off her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation by the college’s provost, Dr. Randy Charles. Charles is now involved in a live-in relationship with Antoinette McPherson Martin, a member of the Board of Trustrees.

Cline posted the following letter on the KWTN blog:

“Thank you all very much for your kind words. Yes, I supported Dr. Boyle. I could not sit quietly while she was slaughtered for doing her job. Right before it got bad, and Randy was pretending to support President Boyle and “making friends,” is when he tricked me into believing he was my friend, someone I could trust.

BITCHIN’ PARADISE: Wine Gods are Smiling on Key West

by Kimberley Denney

I’m calling this the Bitchin’ Paradise Wine Issue, and the reasons are for better and for worse.

Sure, I have wine issues. After two glasses of Vinho Verde this rainy afternoon at Rum Bar, mixologist and local gad-about Scott McCarthy, a/k/a, the man who put the “mo” in mojito, convinced me that running home to get my computer and write my column here, with another glass of wine, was the Best. Idea. Ever.

I was in agreement simply because I’d kill two birds with one piece of stemware. So here I am with another glass of Vinho Verde, and ready to share news with you: the wine gods are smiling upon us here in Key West.

RHONDA: Key West Lit Seminar: I bet it’s great

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

The 29th annual Key West Literary Seminar has come and gone. I’ve paid embarrassingly little attention to it in the few years I’ve been here partly because I assumed it was only for extra special people and partly because I thought it was very theme focused. For example, this year the seminar was called “The Hungry Muse.” So I mistakenly thought it would be a cookbook writers’ convention.

I didn’t attend, and frankly, I probably couldn’t have gone even if the theme had been “Small Town Weekly Columnists Living on Islands.” But what I learned this year by following the tweets, reading up a little, and attending the (first session) free-to-locals final panel, was that the seminar’s theme essentially serves as a unifier. One of the seminar’s goals is to provoke discussion about literature and its contributions to culture. So you don’t have to be a food writer to write about food, or to appreciate reading about food, or to think about how food affects culture, including what and how we read, think, and write.

There were food writers there, of course, but there were also all sorts of novelists, essayists, journalists, poets, students, and a whole mess of other dweeby literary types. If you’re one of those and if you have the time and money to go next year, you absolutely should. But go in with the mindset that you’re either going to be intimidated or inspired. So you’d better consciously choose, in advance, that you’re going to be inspired. I forgot to do that and had writer’s block for a week. And that was just from the final panel where I listened to some brilliant readings.

O'BOYLE: The Success of Public Education

by Hal O’Boyle

“The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” – Adolph Hitler

The whole idea of compulsory public schooling began in the early 18th century in Prussia. Prussia is now a part of Germany. In 1806 Napoleon’s rabble thrashed the professional Prussian army at the Battle of Jena. They humiliated the Prussians, who heeded, as Germans are inclined to, a philosopher for his sage advice.

The respected thinker Johann Gottlieb Fichte told them they needed to teach their children how to take orders if they wanted to win battles. The Prussians very much wanted to win battles. Fichte’s advice made perfect sense. What better way to train soldiers than to march them off to school at gunpoint?

Compulsory public schooling was born.

LETTERS: The SPCA is Asking for Help to Alleviate Over-Crowding at Shelter

Dear Editor:

The continuing economic downturn has severely impacted animal shelters throughout this country as many people are no longer able to afford to keep their pets surrender them to their local animal shelter.

The Florida Keys SPCA on Stock Island is no exception and our situation is aggravated by the crumbling shelter buildings which leak and flood in heavy rain, and rat infestations.

As animals arrive daily, the shelter is hard pressed to accommodate them all and volunteer foster parents are taking animals into their homes until space permits their return to the shelter and placement for adoption.

County Commissioners Hard at Work

by Rick Boettger

The Monroe County Commission acted, in our opinion, quite rightly on behalf of We The People at their meeting in Key West last Wednesday. They took strong action on waste water in Cudjoe Key, improved Higgs Beach, and held the line on short-term rental abuse. And all before lunch.

In brief, Commissioner Wigington proposed a real number, $5,700, as each homeowner’s contribution to whatever legal sewer they have, either central or their own. This assessment would be guaranteed only until 2015, encouraging homeowners to lock in that rate. After considerable reasoned discussion, the Commissioners all approved.

They also unanimously approved of the Higgs Beach plans, which have actually been in the works since 1990, as was pointed out by Richard Klitenick, who said he was sad to see his name on a Higgs Beach study dating back that far.

Finally they all refused to reduce the fine on a former realtor who rented short term, got caught, and whose only defense was that everyone else was doing it, and he is broke.

Way to go, County Commissioners!

We are truly in the post Gang of Three era.

What’s on at the Tropic

by Phil Mann

Stick with a good thing. That seems to be the motto at the Tropic this week. All five films from last week are being held over: THE KINGS’S SPEECH, BLACK SWAN, THE FIGHTER, BURLESQUE and ALL GOOD THINGS.

The first three are bona fide hits, winner of Golden Globe awards and almost sure bets for Academy Award nominations when they’re announced next Tuesday, and the last two are sleeper hits. This may be your last chance to catch them before the new crop of movies begins to roll in.

Meanwhile, have you never seen THE KEY WEST PICTURE SHOW? Drift down to the Tropic on Saturday for a treat. B.J. Martin’s evergreen pseudo-travelogue will unspool once again in its full forty-minute glory. This is Key West back in the day, 1977 that is. It was a time before cruise ships crowded Mallory dock, and the Pier House was just beginning to restore town as a prime tourist venue. Truman Annex was barely decommissioned as a Navy base, and its deserted buildings were a haven for artists seeking cheap working space.

THEATRE: Glengarry Glen Ross Opens Next Week at the Waterfront Playhouse

The Waterfront Playhouse presents David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” considered to be one of the theater’s masterworks of the late 20th Century. The New York Times calls the play “ferocious comedy and drama, crackling with tension.” Directed by George Gugleotti and featuring an ensemble of powerhouse actors, “Glengarry” runs January 27 to February 12.

The production is sponsored by AT&T, The Real Yellow Pages, with the opening night party sponsored by Sandra and Lee McMannis. The production carries an audience advisory of “adult language.”

“Glengarry” is the story of four salesmen working out of a Chicago real estate office, selling dodgy parcels of land in Florida. The developments have posh-sounding names like “Glengarry Highlands” and “Glen Ross Farms,”but the parcels are nothing more than swampland.

ART: Three Artists Open Shows at Wyland

In a creative “double feature,” Wyland Galleries of Key West will host master artists Jim Warren and Stephen Harlan Friday through Sunday, January 21-23.

Warren will appear at Wyland’s 623 Duval St. gallery, and Harlan at the 102 Duval St. gallery.

Both will be on hand daily and by appointment to display their latest artistry and discuss their inspirations.

Master of imagination Jim Warren is known for his surrealistic visions of people, animals, and the world around him. Contemporary artist Stephen Harlan creates digital works alive with vibrant color.