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St Lucie Locks Martin County
rebeccca fatzinger 9/21/2015
st lucie locks 9_21_2015
rebeccca fatzinger
St Lucie Locks Martin County
Rebeccca Fatzinger
Good News Monday: Some Relief for Florida’s Bear Hunt
A judge agreed Friday morning to hear arguments Oct. 1 that could stop Florida’s bear hunt.
Speak Up Wekiva Inc. and Chuck O’Neal of Longwood, opponents of the state’s first bear hunt in more than two decades, want Circuit Judge George S. Reynolds III to impose a temporary injunction to prevent the hunt from taking place Oct. 24.
The lawsuit alleges the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has crafted rules that could unwittingly lead to the killing of more than 320 bears, the kill quota established by the wildlife agency.
More than 2,100 hunters have gotten a permit.
“The FWC is not above the law or common sense,” O’Neal said.
Next month’s black bear hunt is a quintessential Florida event, blending our state’s love of guns with its disdain for reason and science.
Shoot first, get the data later.
“You should have all your science in place before you hold your first hunt in 21 years, especially when you’re dealing with an icon animal,” a hunt opponent told me Friday.
That quote didn’t come from some Sierra Club tree-hugger or PETA paint-thrower, but a Broward businessman, hunter and outdoorsman who answers his phone by saying, “Alligator Ron.” That would be Ron Bergeron, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner who voted against the hunt.
Alligator Ron was on the losing end of a 3-2 vote earlier this month. That’s bad news for bears.
Not long ago, Florida’s black bears were considered a threatened species, numbering only a few hundred. They have rebounded to an estimated population of 3,100.
Starting Oct. 24, roughly 10 percent could get wiped out in a week.
It’s refreshing to read about a hunter who actually believes this bear hunt is wrong. I guess I will have to take back my “the only good hunter is a dead hunter” viewpoint. The problem is not too many bears; it’s too many humans moving to Florida. Too many lazy humans who…
The commission decided to allow an unlimited number of hunters off up to 320 bears, a curious decision because Bergeron said they haven’t even gotten updated bear information in all the hunting zones.
“The state is divided into seven bear regions, with four allowing hunting [next month],” Bergeron said. “Two of those four regions’ stock assessments have not been finalized. We’re making assumptions based on the 2002 assessments…We don’t have all the data.”
Bergeron still hunts one deer, one turkey and one hog a year, but he won’t be taking aim at any bears next month.
“Until all of the science and stock assessments are in and show that we have a sustainable bear population and we have a population greater than the balance of the food chain, this seems premature,” Bergeron told me.
State Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, has no qualms. He’s among the 2,100 (and counting) who’ve paid for bear-hunt permits.
“This is to sustain a population, not to eviscerate it,” Artiles said Friday.
Artiles said thinning some older aggressive male bears will allow younger bears to stay in their natural habitat.
Part of hunt supporters’ rationale: Bears have become a nuisance in some populated areas in central Florida, foraging through trash for food.
“One thing I hope this hunt will do is train bears to be afraid of humans again instead of there being no repercussions,” Artiles told my colleague Dan Sweeney last week.
Say what? How are we going to train bears since the ones who learn the lesson will be dead? And how does killing a bear in Collier County translate to reforming nuisance bears near Orlando? Will the bears who dodge bullets in the western Everglades go on Bear Facebook to alert their friends: “Those crazy humans are shooting at us! Stay away from trash cans and houses!”
“It’s not teaching like a circus animal, but I believe the hunting will pressure them,” Artiles, an avid hunter, told me. “It’s proven and documented that deer know to avoid humans during hunting season.”
“I don’t really believe this will change behavior,” Bergeron said. “Bears really want to avoid people. What brings them to town is garbage. It’s an easy meal.”
A better solution than a widespread hunt, Bergeron said, would be bringing bear-proof trash cans to the 14 counties where nuisance bears have been reported. And Bergeron led an effort to halt the harvesting of palmetto berries from state land, giving bears a better chance of finding meals in the wild. “We were taking away their natural food,” he said.
Next month, hunters will try to take away much more.
Come Oct. 24, I’ll be rooting for the bears.
mmayo@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4508.
Here is MY letter to the editor at our Stuart News.
Cyndi Lenz, Jensen Beach
Letter: Those opposed to the bear hunt are not ‘animal-rights extremists’
What is going on now in reaction to the Florida bear hunt is not a circus. It’s the reaction of most Floridians. Most of us are fine with hunting. We have many things in Florida you can hunt. In Florida, if it moves you can shoot it. Unless it is protected.
At last week’s hearing in Ft. Lauderdale I heard the hunters say they are for conservation and they know what they are doing. Well, they don’t. The hunters are being used to promote a bigger agenda, and that is deregulating everything so developers can develop and builders can build. Florida has the most protected species in the world — “developers.”
There will not be any land to hunt on because it going to be full of shopping centers and no-lot-line houses. There will be no hunting because there will be no place to hunt. When I spoke to a representative from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission last year the plan was education. The issue was humans feeding the bears. There was no doubt about this. People needed to be educated.
There was a bill approved by the Senate that made it a third-degree felony to feed the bears. So instead of educating people we’re going to charge them with something that is as serious as possession of cocaine. Makes sense only because we live in Florida. We don’t fix things in Florida like normal people. Logic has no home here. The downlisting came after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was petitioned by Pacific Legal Foundation, a private property advocacy group in Sacramento, California. So let’s all settle down and do what needs to be done for our black bears. Stop the hunt. Educate.
So all good!
If you can please take a moment and vote on our poll. We just have a few days left.
So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa
I can almost hear them cringe. The crazy woman wants us to read a book! Don’t laugh. It’s happened before.
You can read about here.
http://www.petconnection.com/2008/01/28/you-can-lead-a-florida-county-commissioner-to-water/
“Seems Florida’s Palm Beach County is considering a mandatory spay/neuter law, and some kind constituent sent each of the county commissioners, the ones who’ll be voting on the issue, a copy of Nathan Winograd’s “Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America” to assist them in making this decision that will impact the lives of dogs, cats, and people in their county.
Now it seems that one of the commissioners, Burt Aaronson, has no plans to read the book, saying, “If people want me to read something, they could have enclosed a letter: ‘We’d like you to read this, we are giving it to you as a gift.’”
Wow, commissioner, you’re a tough guy to do a favor for. It wasn’t enough that this constituent purchased the book and sent it to you, you wanted them to schmooze you up, too?”
True Story. That person was me.
At the time and still today there are many pets that die at Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. We were trying to do a few things. We were trying to create a village of knowledgeable people in all aspects dog and cat to cut down the death of the animals which is atrocious. We had a big, diverse circle of friends.
This was probably the last public event I ever did in rescue. Most of commissioners were corrupt. The Palm Beach Post was awful. I hold them just as responsible as the commissioners.
One day I will write more but the big issue for me was that my friends the veterinarians are the one’s that sold the licenses. I did not want this to come between them and their clients.
Really deserves a full blog post because it is an interesting story.
One person, Bob Kanjian, read the book. He totally got it. I think if I asked him today he would say this book changed his life. I am forever grateful to him for reading and understanding.
What I found out this past winter is our Supermajority Florida Legislators don’t read books apparently. They have no idea how the water works, what the Everglades need. They take their order’s from Tallahassee. Very Scary. Apparently you go there with goodness in your heart and you come back a scoundrel. Anything goes. Everything went out the window.
I have written that they need to be credentialed. I don’t think it’s too much to ask them to do what I have to do my job as a nurse.
They need to read and there needs to be a quiz.
I would really like a lot of people to vote so I can honestly say ” We had a poll and lots of people voted and we think it’s important for you to read and understand these books.
I promise I’ll write a note. I’d hate for Burt Aaronson to come back and haunt me.
Here’s the link. Please vote.
https://cyndi-lenz.com/2015/09/16/poll-florida-legislators-reading-list-yes-there-will-be-a-quiz/
September 13, 2015
First thing. Please go vote for Chuck O’ Neal. He is the person who is doing the law suit against the hunt. This ends tomorrow and the money will go towards the law suit which we desperately need since we can’t make decisions in Florida like human beings.
http://coxconservesheroes.com/orlando/finalists.aspx
Chuck O’Neal
Chuck O’Neal has advocated for Florida’s natural resources for more than 15 years. An entrepreneur and lifelong Florida resident, Chuck has volunteered hundreds of hours educating voters and lawmakers on the importance of conserving Florida’s unique ecosystem. He organized “Speak up Wekiva,” which engaged community leaders and the public at large in the need to protect the aquifer and created greater awareness about the ill effects of groundwater pollution on people and wildlife. Chuck also leads advocacy efforts for the protection of the Florida black bear and played a vital role in the passing of the Florida Land and Water Conservation Initiative in 2014. His nonprofit of choice is the League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund.
I was planning on writing a Bear update today. There was a letter to the editor in our local TC Palm that I responded to then I saw this. It’s a little fuzzy. You can see it better on the Animal Activists Network on Facebook. They are screenshots from Animal Activists Network on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/AnimalActivistsNetwork
The screen shots are from https://www.facebook.com/JB-Ranch-Outfitters-560078547369690/timeline/
They have been taken down but some smart person got these first. You can go to the Animal Activist Network and read them but essentially these guys are talking about how they are going to kill the bears with or without a permit. You can feel the foaming on their mouths.
This was the original post that I saw in the TC Palm this morning from a local hunter.
Jim Weix, Palm City
“For example, one protest features a picture of a bear and her cub that says: “Please don’t shoot my mom!” The protesters don’t bother to mention that it would be illegal to shoot any bear with one or more cubs.
You also can’t shoot cubs, but this group seems to not want facts to get in its way.
Perhaps the circus will be beneficial. We will learn that not all people who are opposed to killing animals are “bad.” However, there are also extremists who will stop at nothing to further their beliefs.”
end of section.
I also watched the video last week of the people speaking down in Ft Lauderdale.
What i heard from the Hunters was they were the people conserving and they they knew what they were doing. But they don’t and this is why.
Because if you the hunters keep this up there will be no hunting and you are being used to promote a bigger agenda. So who’s being emotional now?
It’s been the job of the Pacific Legal Foundation to deregulate all the animals that are protected. They are now in many states but Florida is an easy target. Our legislators are dumb as bricks. We have the most protected species in the world “Developers.” There will not be any land to hunt on because it going to be full of wall marts,shopping centers, no lot line houses. There will be no hunting because there will be no place to hunt.
We have plenty of hunting in Florida and I don’t think you’ve heard an outcry like this.
Why?
Because we know two things and in your heart you know it too.
Floridians cannot be trusted to hunt bears. forgetaboutit We understand the lessons of the past when they were decimated.
When we hunt the bears the panthers will be next Then the land will be free to sell and develop and we will have nothing. OUR Florida will be gone. You wanna hunt dudes save up your mileage for flights up north because there will be no hunting here.
Don’t allow your self to be used. Settle down.
When I spoke a representative from FWC last year the plan was education. Period end of story. The issue was humans feeding the bears.
Way back last April I wrote this blogpost
Sorry about the formatting my wordpress is psycho this morning.
https://cyndi-lenz.com/2015/04/28/i-am-not-a-bear-trust-me
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora, and Rep. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, comes as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission prepares to give formal approval to a black bear hunt this fall — the first such hunt in two decades.
The hunt stems from interactions between bears and humans in some parts of the state, with wildlife officials saying a major cause of the problem is residents leaving out garbage that attracts bears.”
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP BEING THE JOKE OF THE NATION?
Then later down the line I wrote this.
https://cyndi-lenz.com/2015/07/09/panthers-manatees-and-bears-oh-my/
The downlisting came after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was petitioned by Pacific Legal Foundation, a private property attorney lobbying firm in Sacramento, Calif. Oddly, both the Endangered Species List and Pacific Legal Foundation were created in 1973.”
The downlisting did not come from Florida but out of state from a group that has been working on this since 1973 and have plenty of money.
States Rights people. Don’t let fat cat out of state interests mess with our state.
So here the story continues
“Conservatives you can’t have it both ways. You either believe in state and local rights or your being a hypocrite. I’m beginning to think more and more every day its the latter. These people tell you one thing and they do another. In other words your being duped. If you want to believe something believe it but don’t be duplicitous.”
So this is the story. These peoples jobs are to deregulate everything and then the developers come in and build build build. You want to hunt? There won’t be any hunting when they are done. You’ll be taking that trip up to Maine or NH to do your Bear Hunting.
So I’m just asking you to consider this since you consider yourselves conversationalists. You also have plenty to hunt and to eat. I’m not anti hunting for food and you can hunt for hundreds of animals in Florida. You can hunt your brains out.
OK I know long. So sorry but I want to get it all in one blogpost so I can tweet.
So here are the important updates so please go to the links I am providing and follow those people.
This is the Facebook page where all the events are posted
https://www.facebook.com/stopbearhunt
This is a very important event. No matter what we need to get Bear Proof Garbage Cans out there. This is our work to be the voice of reason in the hunting season!
https://www.facebook.com/events/689353931200109/
Tuesday, October 13
at 9:30a
Seminole County Services Building – 1101 E. First Street in Sanford, FL 32771
Here’s one way you can help. The Seminole County Commission will be having a meeting with the FWC on October 13th.
Yes and support the right to ARM BEARS!
The national news (Newsweek) are painting us as ok with this bear hunt.
http://www.newsweek.com/florida-totally-cool-black-bear-hunting-season-347367
Asked whether bears are the biggest threat to bears, Wraithmell responds: “I don’t believe that’s supported by science right now…. In addition to habitat loss, major causes of mortality for bears in Florida are roadkill and euthanasia for nuisance bears.”
This is the video from the hearing in Ft Lauderdale.
http://thefloridachannel.org/videos/9215-florida-fish-wildlife-conservation-commission-part-4/
Here are some comments I jotted down as I listened.
“Letters after Letters and we are being ignored.” (Sound familiar?)
Vivian Handy : 28 biologists redefinition was not due to the population number but when it was delisted as threatened. This will effect the success of dening. The hunt will introduce noise and fears, pregnant mothers could be short and the cubs could be shot.
People talk about Florida’s reputation. (Just kick us in the head.)
http://www.newsweek.com/florida-totally-cool-black-bear-hunting-season-347367
Persons with masters wetlands biologists says this ignorance greed trumping science
the humane society of the united states was there.
Chuck O’Neal: Your hunt is based on cherry picked data
We don’t even know how many bears we have!
You are appointed and not elected and you don’t have to listen to the people
we’ll see you court. We’ll see you in the media
Jon Ullman the sierra club: ” Its about development. ”
Your not going to get rid of the nuisance problem by opening up the hunt
If your going to kill something you should eat not stuff it.
I can’t believe these are the people making decisions for our animals.
There’s no explanation. This is rigged.
Ronald Bergeron, one of the commissioners, said he can’t vote for any quota is against the hunt because he doesn’t see the science. He believes that bears are an icon of Florida. He think the train has moved very rapidly.
(at about 2:00) He lays out the scenario about when hunting is appropriate.
2:08 water in the WMAS blamed sfwmd
position paper on water level (Have to go look for that)
Just so people know we have plenty of hunting in Florida but here on the FWC has proudly put a hunter with a dead bear on their website.
We NEED people to go hunting the Everglades for pythons and we need divers to go after Lionfish. We have alligator hunting, hog hunting, deer hunting, dove hunting, duck/waterfoul hunting, Raccoon, opossum, skunk, nutria, beaver, coyote, bobcat, and river otter, Quail, turkey and wild hogs.
Dove hunting really?
apparently so. If you google dove recipes there are plenty. Like this one.
Docs VS Glocs. Gag me. Oh ya. you did. Welcome to loony bin coming to state near you.
I was going to write this nice blog about Jensen Beach or the Treasure Coast. Then this happened. I was looking around the twittersphere and I found this.
https://twitter.com/MarkPafford/status/628170477454753793
Only in Florida do our legislators think it ok to kill bears but want to jail you for feeding them. (You really shouldn’t feed them) and it’s ok for health care workers not to ask people if they have a gun.
That’s just for now because it could be coming to a state near you so listen up!
As I have said before this is a long list of questions that we ask as mandated by Medicare, Medicaid, JCAHO and AHCA and all those other governing bodies that tell us what we have to ask that have been rolled up in lovely computer program and I don’t care what program you have they all ask the same questions. Yes its a run on sentence.
Sue me. Because that’s whats going happen if there is a gun in the house and someone gets hurt.
How do you mitigate this? Who signed this bill. I want names.
Because clearly it wasn’t a person who even understands how medicine works and what we are REQUIRED TO DO. A firearm is more than a gun. A weapon is more than a gun. A person could have big knives. Do you care about the big knives? Nooooo Do they care about the giant bottles of medicine the person could OD on? No. All they care about it the guns. They don’t care about the people.
They took this story and they ran with it. This girl takes her kid to the pediatrician in Ocala. He asked about guns which is part of his assessment ( again thousands of questions) She goes off. No one questions the mental health of a person going off in a doctor’s office. The NRA certainly does not care about mental health. They just care about gun sales.
I know this story because I personally spoke to the the representative sponsoring this in the first place. I totally understood where he was coming from but instead of doing something about the issue like helping the poor girl that went off he created a lot of havoc for a lot of people. Especially those of us that go to people’s houses to take care of them.
Who is protecting me? No one. I have no protection. I could get shot tomorrow and it would be too bad for me.
https://cyndi-lenz.com/2015/06/18/m-the-florida-legislature-really-hates-health-care-workers/
The big issue was the doctor told her not to come back. No reason to rehash. Why? Because this is loony land. Run by loonies with loony ideas.
He told her to not come back because she could not control herself in his office. Not because she owned a gun. The office is in Ocala.
For some reason this just wreaked havoc in the brains of some Republican Lawmakers who don’t understand this goes on all the time for a variety of reasons. Doctor’s do not have time for people going off in their offices. Sometimes this is recognized as depression and many times if the person is elderly a psych home health nurse like myself is ordered to assess the situation and make recommendations.
No one likes to see anyone in anyone be in that much anguish that they have to go off in order to get relief.
Except for out Florida Legislature that doesn’t give a rat’s behind. They just want to make everyone life crazy over their guns.
There’s many different weapons and when you’ve been doing this for 25 years everything in the house is a potential weapon. In a house with a pool and no fence that pool is a death trap for a child.
I usually ask “Do you have any firearms.” and then I apologize and then I crack a joke about fire arms. It looks like this. Then I apologize for my bad acting skills and it ends with a good laugh. As it should. I can’t discuss how I would handle this because of HIPPA. The same HIPPA that would prevent lists to be made of paranoid gun owners so Obama’s secret agents can come to your house and take your guns away.
For many of our older generation asking if they have a gun is actually a conversation starter to their time in war and for many of these older veterans they really don’t get a chance to talk to anyone about this. Why would anyone want to take this away from them? This is the issue with stupid laws. They have unintended consequences.
“The gag law, nicknamed the Docs vs. Glocks law by its detractors, was passed by an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature brimming over with money from NRA lobbyists. It would seem to be an obvious First Amendment violation: For asking a patient a question that could save his child’s life, a doctor in Florida could lose her medical license or be fined $10,000. The state has no rational—let alone compelling—interest in censoring doctors from asking this basic question, much less preventing doctors from making evidence-based recommendations about public health and safety. And the law is so broad and vague that even an indirect inquiry could potentially qualify as illegal “harassment of a patient regarding firearm ownership.”
Ten thousand bucks. Do nurses get a sliding scale discount? EMTS?
Here is a sample of an self evaluation form from a psychiatry clinic.
https://com-psychiatry.sites.medinfo.ufl.edu/files/2012/09/Psych_Clinic_intake_form_2015.pdf
Out of pages of evaluation there is one question. The nono
On Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an injunction against Florida’s notorious “Docs vs. Glocks” law, aka the Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act. The case could easily wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court. It should. It’s a dangerous decision that must not stand. The groups that sued to overturn the law say they’ll dispute the ruling and are advising their physician members that the law is still on hold while they fight. If it survives, legal experts say it will represent the first time the courts allow a state to silence physicians from counseling their patients. Two of the court’s three judges suggested the state’s Docs vs. Glocks law isn’t a limit on free speech but “legitimate regulation of professional conduct.” Think about what that would mean: If it’s OK to ban doctors’ questions about guns, then every industry with an effective lobby could pass a similar gag law. What will be next? Sodas? Red meat? Electronic cigarettes? Motorcycle helmets? The goal here was to chill doctors’ speech. Gun-makers aren’t the only industry with an interest in doing that. The law would prohibit doctors from “harassing” patients about gun ownership and collecting such information in a database, if the issue is “irrelevant to or unnecessary for the provision of medical care.” The odious law had been on hold since 2011, when a lower court granted an injunction on First Amendment and due process grounds. But what, exactly, constitutes “harassment” as opposed to sound medical care? In these polarizing times, the simple question, “Is there a gun in the house?” can raise hackles. A doctor with his patient’s best interest at heart could be hauled before the Florida Board of Medicine and forced to pay costly legal fees to answer a complaint from anyone who took offense. A politicized board could impose penalties as extreme as revocation of a doctor’s license to practice medicine. The court suggests there are only limited times when it would be relevant for a doctor to ask about gun ownership, such as when a patient expressed suicidal thoughts. So now we are to presume that scholars of law and legislators know more about the practice of medicine than actual physicians and their professional societies? The problem with the court’s flawed logic is that when it comes to health, the issue of gun ownership is never irrelevant or unnecessary. Don’t take our word. Take the word of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Physicians. Research shows that an average of seven children and youths younger than 20 are killed by guns every day. For people between 13 and 34, homicide and suicide are the second and third leading causes of death in the United States. As pediatricians conduct regular school physicals, they must now decide for themselves whether to follow the advice of their professional medical societies or two judges on the subject of guns in the home. Palm Beach Gardens pediatrician Dr. Tommy Schechtman is a plaintiff in the case. It’s standard practice for him to ask parents if there’s a gun in the home, and if the answer is yes, to discuss the importance of keeping the gun locked away, with ammunition stored separately. He suggests parents consider the added protection of a combination trigger lock. He plans to keep asking. We applaud him.”
No offense to the court there are plenty of times that you want to ask if there is a gun the house. People going thru a divorce. At risk are the elderly in the case of one being a caregiver and the other person having dementia. Just a person with dementia. What happens to the lone person that lives by himself has dementia and has a gun? Because you never know. You just don’t know. It’s not like it’s never happened before.
So understand there are many situations. In the case of an elderly person with dementia I would do the same thing a pediatrician would do. I would make sure it was locked up along with any medications and anything else that could cause a person harm.
But if I can’t ask then I don’t know and you’ve just put my patient, the family and the neighbors and myself at risk. Why? Because guns trump people.
Please don’t even start to call me a gun hater. We had a rifle in our cottage in Maine over the door for my whole life. My uncle sold guns in Maine. We had guns in our house in our parents army chests complete with bullets. I even took the bullets for show and tell in grade school. I went to summer camp and became a sharpshooter as well as many archery awards when I was a kid. You wanna have a gun have a gun. You want to have dead parents or dead children don’t lock them up.
We, your healthcare workers, don’t deal in guns. We don’t care that you have a gun. We care that you are safe.
This is from 2012
“Schechtman was one of the lead plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that took aim at the Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act that was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in June 2011. The law forbid doctors from asking a patient whether she owns a firearm, unless the practitioner in good faith believed the information was relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety.
WEIGH IN: Allow doctors to talk about guns with patients?
But Schechtman and others argued that the law had a “chilling effect,” violated the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and kept them from providing potentially life-saving gun safety information.
Friday, a federal judge put a permanent injunction on the law.
Marion Hammer, with the Florida chapter of the National Rifle Association, said many members were calling, upset about Judge Marcia Cooke’s ruling.
“No doctor should tell you not to own a gun,” Hammer said.
She said the governor will appeal the ruling. A spokesman for Gov. Scott could not immediately confirm that.”
No one is telling anyone not to own a gun? How dense are these people that actually believe this. But believe me these are the first people who will start yelling and calling for justice if there was a nurse or a social worker in the house and someone got hurt. “Why didn’t they do anything?”
My new answer
“Sorry Dude. you gagged me.”
Maybe I should ask Rick Scott what to do? He’s worked in medicine before.
A moment of silence, please, for Zuri Chambers, who died in Lake Worth this spring at age 3; also for Nick Minor, who died in West Palm Beach at age 17, and for Patrick Appleton, who died in Palm City at age 13.
All three youths had been playing, unsupervised, with guns they found in their homes. The guns went off accidentally, killing them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/docs-vs-glocks-florida-appeal_n_3618432.html
MIAMI — A Florida law that restricts what doctors can ask patients about gun ownership should be reinstated because it doesn’t limit free speech as a federal judge ruled, an attorney for the state argued Thursday.
The law, which has become popularly known as “Docs vs. Glocks,” does not flatly ban physicians from having discussions about firearms with patients, Florida Solicitor General Allen Winsor told a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The wording in the law is `should refrain,'” Winsor said. “It’s not mandating anything. It’s recommending. The use of the term is critical in this case.” ( A ten thousand dollar fine and the loss of your medical license is NOT a recommendation. It’s a mandate.)
Passed by the Legislature in 2011, the Firearm Owners Privacy Act prohibited doctors from asking patients about gun ownership or recording such information in medical records unless it was medically necessary – although that term was not defined. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke declared the legislation unconstitutional last year as an impermissible restriction on free speech, and the state appealed.
In his rebuttal, the attorney representing physicians and gun-control advocates, Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, said the law was sufficiently strong to prompt doctors to censor themselves, because none would risk a potential loss of license or fines up to $10,000 for violating it.
He said most doctors ask about gun ownership as a common practice on questionnaires filled out by patients and that it’s particularly important in homes where children are present or in cases of mental illness.
“We think it’s relevant to ask every patient, every time,” Hallward-Driemeier said. “Doctors will self-censor.”
But one member of the panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat, had a different concern.
Tjoflat grilled Hallward-Driemeier about the possibility that allowing doctors to ask about gun ownership could devolve into a situation in which they are somehow used by the federal government to collect lists of gun owners.
“It goes to Uncle Sam in Washington. You understand my concern,” the judge said. “You can put it in a computer and spit out everybody who owns a gun.”
Hallward-Driemeier said he knew of no state or federal provision for doctors in Florida or elsewhere to provide gun owner lists to the government, noting that medical records are already protected by strict privacy laws. He argued that the law restricting doctors’ ability to discuss guns only came into being because the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature was trying to make a political point.
“The state simply cannot stop speech it believes to be a political attack,” Hallward-Driemeier said.
The panel did not issue an immediate ruling and seemed split on what to do. Judge Charles Wilson said the law appeared to him a “classic content-related restriction on speech” that impermissible singles out doctors.
Judge L. Scott Coogler, an Alabama district judge sitting by invitation on the appeals panel, said one possible ruling could be to allow doctors to ask about guns but leave intact the law’s restrictions on record-keeping and the requirement that the information be medically necessary.
“Do you have some other reason other than medical treatment that you want to ask patients about guns?” Coogler asked.
The law has been challenged by organizations representing 11,000 Florida health providers, including the Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the American Civil Liberties Union and numerous other groups have joined them.
That time he signed a bill allowing concealed loaded firearms in national parks.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment in 2009 permitting concealed, loaded guns in national parks to a bill about credit cards, saying differences in state and federal laws inhibited gun owners from travel between state and federal lands.
And signed a bill allowing Amtrak passengers to store handguns in their checked baggage.
Advocates of the bill, also introduced in 2009, said it gave train riders rights comparable to those possessed by plane passengers. Amtrak had allowed firearms to be carried on trains before 9/11, so the bill represented a victory for gun rights activists.
After Newtown, Obama assembled a task force to address gun violence.
Obama charged Vice President Joe Biden in December 2012 with overseeing an administration-wide process to develop proposals for Congress to take up. He urged lawmakers to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, close loopholes that allow buyers to avoid background checks and restrict high-capacity ammunition clips.
Then unveiled proposals to combat gun violence…
Obama’s legislative proposals, released in January 2013, touched upon not just access to firearms and ammunition but school safety and mental health care.
This BS has got to end.
Because of all this BS it has really brought the nuttiness out of the gun lobby and because of that we really need to keep the nuttiness out of our lives. We need to look closely at the people who are lobbying for these kinds of laws. Guns like corporations are not people. Gun’s don’t vote. Nor can they get pregnant.
Here’s the thing. This whole situation is a result of bad reactions and people going off and making emotional and bad decisions. I really believe that if talked out this could have been taken care of like rational adults and not a bunch whining babies who think that everyone coming for their guns.
No one wants to come for guns. Least of all the medical profession. We just want to make sure that people are safe.
So please take your politics out of my medicine.
Someone please talk some logic here.
It seems that the gun lobbyists can’t control themselves and apparently they think everything is about them.
.
H2 Worker Documentary. Legal Slavery.
Here is your music!
To everyone running for President:
Tonight I watched this incredible documentary by Stephanie Black.
Before they had harvesting machines every year people 10,000 Caribbean men were selectivity chosen by American sugar corporations to harvest sugar cane for six months in Florida under temporary “H2” visas.
They came from Jamaica in the middle of the night and put in barracks in Belle Glade.
“If we didn’t have the Jamaicans it wouldn’t get harvested because the local people wouldn’t do it.” One of the sugar field managers said. They were essential jailed. Brought from the barrack to the bus to the field to bus to the barrack and not being allowed to leave.
They got paid one dollar and few cents pr hour.
This was released in 1990.
Even before the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Who used to hang out in Indiantown) sent workers from their Islands in the Bahamas.
“H-2 Worker is a controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee—a situation which, until the film’s release, has been one of America’s best-kept secrets. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 men from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands perform the brutal task of cutting sugar cane by hand-a job so dangerous and low-paying that Americans refuse to do it.
H-2 Worker is the first documentary to tell the story of these men—named for their special temporary guestwork “H-2” visas. They live and work in conditions reminiscent of the days of slavery on sugar plantations: housed in overcrowded barracks, poorly fed, denied adequate treatment for their frequent on-the-job injuries, paid less than minimum wage, and deported if they do not do exactly as they are told.
The sugar plantations who employ the H-2 workers sustain this exploitation—and their own profits—with the help of the U.S. government, which authorizes the importation of Third World workers while it blocks the importation of cheaper Third World sugar through a system of quotas and price supports, citing “national security” as the reason for its costly subsidizing of a domestic sugar industry. The scandal of the H-2 program has existed for over 45 years. It began in 1942, when the U.S. Sugar Cane Corporation was indicted for conspiracy to enslave black American workers. In 1943 the first West Indian cane cutters were brought in. This scandal has largely been kept out of the public eye, and the sugar companies and their government supporters have escaped accountability. On the contrary, a new immigration law has paved the way for a rapid expansion of the H-2 program.
Directed by: Stephanie Black
Produced by: Stephanie Black
Released: 1990
Running Time: 70 min
For more information about this film and other films in the Collective Eyes Catalog, please visit: collectiveeye.org/products/h2-worker
AWARDS:
Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary – Sundance Film Festival (1990)
Best Cinematography, Sundance Film Festival (1990)
Quotes
“‘H-2 Worker’ is that rare hybrid that succeeds as both film and advocacy. The documentary’s look and form is smooth and sophisticated … [and] it solidly frames issues about the economy, employment and the treatment of workers who seem just steps away from slavery.” —The New York Times
With admirable fluency, Black combines straightforward information and analysis with more evocative glimpses of the workers’ lives …. Black and her collaborators have an unsentimental conviction that these workers are fully human, that they experience not just anger and suffering but also love and pleasure – and even hope.”—The Nation”
Today when you go to Belle Glade you drive past the same buildings that were in this film.
Slave Barracks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-2_Worker
“H-2 Worker is a 1990 documentary film about the exploitation of Jamaican guest workers in Florida‘s sugar cane industry. It was directed by Stephanie Black, and won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for documentaries in the 1990 festival.[1] It was shot in Belle Glade, Clewiston, and Okeelanta, Florida as well as Jamaica and includes cane fields and worker camps (Ritta Village, Prewitt Village) owned by US Sugar Corporation and the Okeelanta Corporation.
The cane harvesters were brought in to perform the autumn harvest of sugar cane under the H-2A Visa program. The Jamaicans replaced earlier generations of Bahamian seasonal workers who in turn replaced migrant labor recruited from the Cotton Belt (region) in the first half of the 20th century. A documentary short that accompanies the DVD version of the film states that human labor was abandoned for mechanical harvesters in 1992.
The film features interviews with a United States Department of Labor official, a Florida Sugar Cane League official, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, local merchants, and a dozen or so field workers. It also includes footage of César Chávez, US Representative Thomas Downey, and US Senator Bill Bradley.”
I think it’s important for “us” ( and you know who I’m referring to) to watch this so we never get soft against the people who created these human rights abuses for corporate profit. Not only do they treat people like slaves they collect corporate welfare.
( Are we calling them corporate entitlements yet?)
It’s also important for those of you that think all these people are coming and taking your jobs away. The reason they have, yes I said have this program is to to the work no one else would do. Interesting enough when I worked in Boca in the hospital we got nurses from England and from the Philippines and there were plenty of nurses around to do the job. It’s been here since the 40’s. So even at your work you may have H2 workers or even the hospital you go to when your ill.
They may even be hiding your bed.
http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-agricultural-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers
H-2A Temporary Agricultural WorkersThe H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. A U.S. employer,a U.S. agent as described in the regulations,or an association of U.S. agricultural producers named as a joint employer must file Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, on a prospective worker’s behalf.
To qualify for H-2A nonimmigrant classification, the petitioner must:
You can order it thru amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B003PLC5PY?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
I got mine from Netflix.
Here is another review.
http://www.reggaeplanet.com/p/h2-worker/
“H-2 Worker is the first documentary to tell the story of these men – named for their special temporary guestwork “H-2” visas. They live and work in conditions reminiscent of the days of slavery on sugar plantations: housed in overcrowded barracks, poorly fed, denied adequate treatment for their frequent on-the-job injuries, paid less than minimum wage, and deported if they do not do exactly as they are told.
The sugar plantations who employ the H-2 workers sustain this exploitation – and their own profits – with the help of the U.S. government, which authorizes the importation of Third World workers while it blocks the importation of cheaper Third World sugar through a system of quotas and price supports, citing “national security” as the reason for its costly subsidizing of a domestic sugar industry.
The scandal of the H-2 program has existed for over 45 years. It began in 1942, when the U.S. Sugar Cane Corporation was indicted for conspiracy to enslave black American workers. In 1943 the first West Indian cane cutters were brought in. This scandal has largely been kept out of the public eye, and the sugar companies and their government supporters have escaped accountability. On the contrary, a new immigration law has paved the way for a rapid expansion of the H-2 program to other agricultural industries.
H-2 Worker was shot clandestinely in the cane fields and workers’ barracks around Belle Glade, Florida. It contains footage shot in places where no media has been successful in filming before, and where the filmmakers were denied permission to enter by the sugar corporations and the local police.
H-2 Worker focuses on the lives of the workers themselves – travelling with them to the fields, where they endure long hours of monotonous labor; to their isolated barracks; to the town where they shop for American goods to bring home to their families. Following them through one six-month season, it tell their stories: Like migrant workers worldwide, these men are driven by soaring unemployment in their home countries and promises of high wages abroad. Dreaming of American opportunities to build better lives for their families, they arrive in the U.S. with high hopes – only to confront the harsh realities of the Florida cane fields.
Providing an in-depth analysis, H-2 Worker includes voices from all sides of the issue: representatives of the sugar companies and the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as U.S.l congressmen and Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley. An historical analysis combine archival footage with the testimony of 80-year-old Samuel Manston, who escaped the cane fields at the time of the peonage indictments in 1942.
But the voices of the workers themselves are foremost: They are heard through extensive interviews, and through their recordings of actual letters to and from their families in Jamaica. These voices tell an eloquent story which rings with painful truth, and will not easily be forgotten. H-2 Worker is both a compelling expose of institutionalized injustice, and a moving record of human endurance.
H-2 Worker, a 70-minute, 16 mm, color documentary made over the course of 3 1/2 years, combines the talents of director/producer Stephanie Black, award-winning editor John Mullen and cinematographer Maryse Alberti. It is a film with powerful impact and resonance, certain to be both compelling and controversial.
“‘H-2 Worker’ is that rare hybrid that succeeds as both film and advocacy. The documentary’s look and form is smooth and sophisticated … [and] it solidly frames issues about the economy, employment, and the treatment of workers who seem just steps away from slavery.” -The New York Times
“‘H-2 Worker’ is a revealing look at these men and the treatment they receive on our shores … [Stephanie Black] manages to capture the scope as well as the intensity of the problem. -New York Newsday
“With admirable fluency, Black combines straightforward information and analysis with more evocative glimpses of the workers’ lives …. Black and her collaborators have an unsentimental conviction that these workers are fully human, that they experience not just anger and suffering but also love and pleasure – and even hope.” -The Nation”
According to the update 1992, a class action suit found five sugar cane companies guilty of cheating more than 10,000 cane cutters of their contractually guaranteed minimum wage during the two seasons documented in the film.
51,000.000 in back pay was awarded.
Then the decision was revered by the Florida Appellate court finding that the H-2 contract was “ambiguous.”
Sugar cane is being harvested mechanically however the number of H-2 workers has substantially increased.
North Carolina: 10,000 workers
Colorado 2,000 workers
Maryland 9,622 (crab houses, fire work, hotel work)
Most of the workers come from Mexico.
In March 2008, over 100 guest workers from India, walked off their H-2B jobs at Signal, an oil rig construction company in Louisiana, protesting the company’s unacceptable living and working conditions.
These are not illegals. These are people that come here legally.
In the country where the people are coming from there are labor brokers that sell assess to the people from all these countries. In India that access was sold for 20,000 dollars.
People come here and they are not paid what they are told plus they had to pay the recruiters.
Over 2,100 H-2 shepherds from Peru, Chile, Mexico and Nepal work for American Ranchers. They are expected to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a minim monthly wage of less that 1,000.
If you think it’s just farm workers you’re wrong.
http://allnurses.com/international-nursing/h2b-visa-338815.html
“That visa is also not valid for nurses and is grounds to get one deported from the US. We see it being advertised in the Philippines but it makes one subject to immigration fraud. It is for untrained workers for a very specific length of time, and nurses do not meet those requirements from the start. We see this being used for the LPN, and there are no legal visas for them to enter the US and work here.
Please forward a copy of any of the garbage that you see offering this, and that is exactly what it is, to the US Embassy there in Manila. You would be sold as a slave to the highest bidder
They would also have you giving false information to the US Embassy officials and this is grounds for deportation for up to ten years after a stay in immigration detention before you are deported. You would be placed in a nursing home to work and they are undergoing frequent raids exactly for this.
Save yourself from having nightmares about being picked up by ICE.”
http://allnurses.com/international-nursing/h2b-visa-338815.html
Businesses continue to lobby for an expanded guest worker program with reduced wages and less government oversight. The violations are rampart.
No one talks about this. They talk about fences. The very people who push the hatred of the illegal people that come here use the H-2 workers as slave labor.
We’re being duped. Our attention is being diverted.
Pay attention.
We still have slaves in America. We call them H-2 workers.
Summer Book Club: Paving Paradise Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and Failure of no Net Loss by Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite.
What is no Net Loss? Is it even on our radar?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_net_loss_wetlands_policy
“No net loss” is the United States government’s overall policy goal regarding wetlands preservation. The goal of the policy is to balance wetland loss due to economic development with wetlands reclamation, mitigation, and restorations efforts, so that the total acreage of wetlands in the country does not decrease, but remains constant or increases. To achieve the objective of no net loss, the federal government utilizes several different environmental policy tools which legally protect wetlands, provide rules and regulations for citizens and corporations interacting with wetlands, and incentives for the preservation and conservation of wetlands. Given the public benefits provided by wetland ecosystem services, such as flood control, nutrient farming, habitat, water filtration, and recreational area, the estimations that over half the acreage of wetlands in the United States has been lost within the last three centuries is of great concern to local, state, and federal agencies as well as the public interest they serve.”
So while all these political people are running around having debates etc. I’m concerned with the BS that goes on. How people say one thing and do another? I’ll bet not one of these people running understand this including the two from Florida because it’s so far off their radar.
I think we need to start making a reading list for anyone running for office. This would be on the top of my list.
You guys know I hate to read books my self. Books are meant to be talked about, discussed, educate people.
This is what I’m reading this summer.
Bulldozed and buried wetlands underlie the foundations of thousands of mines, highways, golf courses and shopping malls all over our state, despite clear federal and state policy calling for no net loss of wetlands. It was President George H.W. Bush who first articulated this policy in 1988. “We are going to stand wetlands protection on its ear,” declared the marsh- and duck-loving president.
Pittman and Waite explain why that hasn’t happened, and their probing, well-crafted narrative will keep you turning every page of their book. The prize-winning pair of St. Petersburg Times reporters spent four years researching the state of wetlands protection in Florida. They interviewed hundreds of people, ferreting out political pressure points, cynical numbers games and all the inventive ways we are lied to. (You don’t really believe in mitigation, do you?)
http://gothere.com/Florida/paving-paradise-book-review.htm
Florida has lost over 84,000 acres of wetlands since 1990, this despite “no net loss” mandates. For 4 years Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite investigated how Federal, state and local legislators failed to protect Florida’s wetlands from developers and their developments.
In this book Pittman and Waite explain how “wetland protection” often just gives the illusion of protecting the environment while it allows Florida’s native habitat to be paved over.
Pittman and Waite are both reporters at the St. Petersburg Times and have twice earned the top investigative reporting prize in the nation from the Society of Environmental Journalists as well as the Waldo Proffit Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4251875-paving-paradise
Florida possesses more wetlands than any other state except Alaska, yet since 1990 more than 84,000 acres have been lost to development despite presidential pledges to protect them. How and why the state’s wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of “Paving Paradise”. Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots. Exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction. What is happening to Florida’s ‘protected’ wetlands?
Here is Craig’s Twitter which is very funny and informative. You can see for yourself.
https://twitter.com/craigtimes
Here is the book’s website. This is one person that Elliot or the RC could invite invite to talk to us.
n an award-winning newspaper series, two investigative reporters from the St. Petersburg Times chronicled how federal rules meant to protect the nation’s wetlands were more illusion than law. Now, that series has been expanded into a book, delving into how we got to this point, starting with land speculators making waterfront property out of sand dredged from the bottom of the ocean. Now, read how the nation’s wetlands protections were formed in clashes between developers, bureaucrats, judges, activists and con artists over Florida swamps.
“This is an exhaustive, timely and devastating account of the destruction of Florida’s wetlands, and the disgraceful collusion of government at all levels. It’s an important book that should be read by every voter, every taxpayer, every parent, every Floridian who cares about saving what’s left of this precious place.” — Carl Hiaasen”
“I am amazed, horrified and delighted that you wrote Paving Paradise! You have uncovered the perfidy that we always knew existed … You have named the key figures that led to the loss of thousands of acres of Florida wetlands.” –Nathaniel Reed”
and don’t tell me the ending!
When will our medical community step and do something about people getting sick and dying in the Indian River Lagoon?
I just want to say THANK YOU to our TC Palm reporters and also to Eye on Miami for actually paying attention to this issue and being a supportive voice and advocate for our Indian River Lagoon.
Three years ago we were talking about this. Before I even got involved in the water but doing research for a potential documentary I read reports about people going into the water and getting sick and dying. Then when we got organized and starting talking to each even more information came forward. One of our local citizens has been collecting data but there is really nothing that is out there and a part of our hospital system and health department.
Here is Robert Lord from Martin Memorial talking about our unhealthy water at our rally last year.
Our friend, Cliff Barnes suggested we called it Lagoon water born flesh rot disease after Gov. Scott. I said “Rick Rot.” Some people said “Rick Scott Rot.”
Some one even invented this.
(Here is the website https://www.facebook.com/PrepConsultantsPC/app_410312912374011?hc_location=ufi)
Last year this happened.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/indian-river-lagoon-bacteria-killed-fort-pierce-man-in-2014_97423759
Bill Benton went swimming in the Indian River Lagoon on a Saturday afternoon. He was dead by Tuesday, a rare fatality from Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.
The bacteria occurs naturally throughout the lagoon year-round, but infections increase in summer, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce.
Benton was among seven people who died from Vibrio vulnificus in Florida in 2014. It’s unknown whether Vibrio vulnificus is to blame in the July 20 death of Port St. Lucie resident David Trudell, two days after a fin fish punctured him while fishing in the lagoon. Doctors attributed his death to the incident, but did not determine what type of bacteria it was.
Then this happened.
We all knew what it was.
“A 65-year-old Port St. Lucie man died Monday, two days after being stuck by a fish fin while fishing in the Indian River Lagoon.
David John Trudell died from a blood infection as a result of a bacteria that entered his body because of the fin prick, said Treasure Coast medical examiner Dr. Roger Mittleman.
The type of bacteria could not be determined, Mittleman said.”
Why were there no blood cultures drawn at the time?
Then it happened to one of our own River Warriors. Because our friend Gayle posted the above article our friend Barb took her husband Bruce to the ER.
She wrote this
Took Bruce to the ER yesterday for an infected left leg. He had a sore on his knee on Monday, went in the IRL on Wednesday. We took several church families out on our new catamaran and anchored off Sailfish point (near the Walgreen house). Of course they all jumped into the IRL from the deck of the boat.
Yesterday Bruce’s knee and leg was black and swollen, hot to the touch and oozing. He had a fever. He NEVER complains of pain but I forced him to the ER. GOOD thing. The doctor thinks it is a blood infection from the bacteria from the IRL water on Wednesday. We will get the culture back on Monday to see what the bacteria actually is.
Gayle Ryan’s link to the TC Palm article regarding the local man who died within two days of a fish fin puncture bringing in bacteria from the IRL into his system, probably saved Bruce’s life. I wouldn’t have taken a closer second look at Bruce’s knee had I not read her article link. The doctor lanced and drained the “volcano” the size of a grapefruit on his knee. His whole leg was swollen and hot to the touch.
Today Bruce’s leg ‘s swelling is down and it is not throbbing anymore. He is on Bactrim and Keflex. Doctor said he was so correct to come into the ER when he did, could have become so dangerous to Bruce. Thank you Gayle Ryan.”
It looked like this.
Here’s is a great piece from our friend at Eye on Miami.
http://www.eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2015/07/floridas-water-crisis-impacts-compound.html
“This post on Face Book should remind Miami that the current water crisis is not just one in a series of crises: it is a cumulative event where impacts are compounded. The mismanagement of fresh water resources in South Florida is mainly to benefit the big campaign contributors to state legislators and to Gov. Rick Scott. Big Sugar.
In a just world, state legislators would be made to swim in the Indian River Lagoon, then see how much they like gambling with people’s water to benefit their patrons.”
You got that right Mista Gimleteye!
A friend of mine asked me if I would go on the news. I said no. This is not about me. What I will say is our local Health Department and People running the hospital need to read the newspaper. Then they need to come up with a plan to alert the physicians in the area and come up with some sort of tracking system and people need to be warned before they go in the water. I know that everyone has a lot on their plates but this is something we have to do. What if I didn’t know any of this and my grandson had a cut and I took him in the lagoon and he died?
You can check the salinity level
http://www.tcpalm.com/franchise/indian-river-lagoon/health/worried-about-vibrio-check-salinity-levels
“Water quality sensors in the lagoon and its tributaries can’t detect the deadly bacteria’s presence, but the salinity level is a good indicator of whether there’s Vibrio. The bacteria can’t live in saltwater, but thrives in stagnant, nearshore, freshwater — particularly near rainfall runoff discharges.”
Really so the millions of gallons of freshwater discharges have nothing to do with that? Really?
SFWMD and ACOE you need to be aware. After all we have begged you to fix the issue with the discharges. It comes down to one thing: Salinity of the water. So besides all the other damage that you do we can add killing people to the list.
So we know this
“Healthy people who boat, fish and swim in the Indian River Lagoon are not likely to get a potentially deadly bacterial infection, especially if they take certain precautions, according to a researcher conducting a premier study of Vibrio vulnificus.
It’s people with cuts and weak immune systems like the elderly, infants, alcoholics, diabetics and those with other long-term illnesses who are at most risk and need to take the threat most seriously.”
HEALTHY PEOPLE ARE NOT LIKELY TO GET AN INFECTION! NOT LIKELY.
But
“The people most likely to get it — in this order — are: lagoon fishermen, seafood processors and waders or swimmers.”
And the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
“The bacteria, which is also found in estuaries like the St. Lucie and St. Sebastian rivers, occurs naturally and is not linked to pollution, Barbarite said. Quantities vary depending on climatic conditions.”
But it is connected to the Salinity of the water which also is what kills everything else like our oysters. So by forcing millions of gallons of fresh water down the river into the lagoon the salinity is changed.
“Most likely in spots near freshwater discharges.”
“29.5 percent of cases resulted in deaths (2004-13)”
People affected: Those with Alcohol Abuse, Liver Disease, Diabetes, Heart Disease
I can’t wait to see the spin. Because just two years ago we were assured there was nothing wrong with the water.
“and the longer this vacuum persists, the greater the threat to Treasure Coast residents who swim, boat, wade, paddleboard and fish in the waterway.
Two recent incidents — one fatal — have ratcheted up the importance of identifying the microbial culprits, case by case, and establishing cause-and-effect relationships between exposure to tainted lagoon water and bacterial infections.”
“Health officials and health care providers need to get ahead of the issue. Given the fact doctors don’t have a protocol for testing or reporting waterborne illnesses, it’s easy to see why so many questions remain unanswered.”
It should be standard procedure for doctors to report all suspected cases of waterborne illnesses to the Florida Department of Health.
Moreover, this information needs to be collected in a database. Over time, this knowledge may reveal trends that prove beneficial in protecting lagoon aficionados and treating those who contract waterborne infections.”
http://www.floridahealth.gov/about-the-department-of-health/about-us/mission-and-vision.html
MISSION :
To protect, promote & improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, & community efforts.
VISION :
To be the Healthiest State in the Nation
VALUES (ICARE) :
I nnovation: We search for creative solutions and manage resources wisely.
C ollaboration: We use teamwork to achieve common goals & solve problems.
A ccountability: We perform with integrity & respect.
R esponsiveness: We achieve our mission by serving our customers & engaging our partners.
E xcellence: We promote quality outcomes through learning & continuous performance improvement.
” Salt is the key to safe water.” by Tyler Treadway
I’ll post the link when I can find the article. According to Gabrille Barbarite death are rare but how do we even know this if no one is reporting or logging water born illnesses? So I would refraise that to ” We have no earthly idea how many people have gotten sick from the Indian River Lagoon.”
“Some areas of the lagoon are safer than others.”
You can check the LOBO and Kilroy water sensors.
http://sea-birdcoastal.com/lobo
http://www.oceanrecon.org/cfiles/kilroy_manateepocket.cfm
But keep in mind salinity can change with rain or out going tide.
What do we need now?
Our local lawmakers need to all talk to our health departments and our hospitals and doctors and urgent cares and come up with some kind of reporting system.
Warnings need to be posted for people with immune system disorders, alcoholics, people with liver diseases, diabetes, heart disease , the elderly and infants etc. We have this information now. We have a duty to warn people.
Our wonderful Dr Edie Widder from Orca said in this piece that she suspects these cases have gone unreported for years. She also said she does not think that clinics and doctors are not taking the time to culture the bacteria. How hard is that? One Agar plate zoom zoom zoom done! Or a blood culture. 2 second blood draw.
The world has gone a little wild and we have seen it up close and personal this past year with our legislators. Lets not let this happen with the people are suppose to be taking care of us. I’m sure there is a grant out there that someone can get to do what needs to be done and there are plenty of volunteers in the medical field that would be willing to help.
If we don’t speak up nothing will be done.
Where do we start? Please add your suggestions to this blog post!
Let’s make this happen.
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