COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

At one time, or probably for most of Vero Beach’s existence, it was known as a small, friendly town, where neighbors knew each other, where people congregated downtown on Saturday morning and everyone said hello, stopped to chat, and a honking horn was unusual enough to draw people’s attention.

But our recent history seems to demonstrate at times a lost sense of community that once characterized our great little town. Honking horns are commonplace and are often accompanied by nasty words and fingers.

Visitors and new arrivals I meet often characterize Vero Beach as “mean,” presumably short for mean-spirited. It is certainly worthwhile to try and understand why that perception exists.

For starters, at a recent County Commission meeting, after Reverend Scott Alexander gave an invocation that called for the right tone and tenor at the proceedings, that all speakers show courtesy, dignity and respect, and always remember that how we do democracy is as important as what we do with democracy. Amen.

The first order of business was to recognize the retirement of a 30-year county employee. A good start.  Then the employee thanked the county, but ended saying his last two years on the job were the most miserable years of his life because of some unnamed people. Not so good.

Then two representatives from the local Audubon Society spoke in opposition to the proposed changes planned for the Oslo Road boat ramp. Before they spoke, the County Attorney warned Commissioners not to engage in any conversation with these two speakers because of the pending legal battle. Each of the two Audubon representatives then stood to make their case in opposition, which is certainly acceptable, but in so doing, specifically criticized (more like lambasted) Chairman Peter O’Bryan, which, in my opinion, is unacceptable. What followed was a fiery rebuke by Deputy County Attorney Bill DeBraal, which is even more unacceptable (he later apologized).

As I say, that was just the latest example. Imagine people attending or tuning in to their first Commission meeting – what would they think?

The same is true at Vero Beach City Council meetings when several regular “gadflies” get up to tell the Council everything they are doing wrong, often in provocative and angry terms. In a recent case, one of them was denigrating a citizen not in attendance. He was watching it at home on television, becoming so angry at the false allegations, that he felt he had to defend himself. So he drove down to city hall and had a confrontation with the speaker, all on live TV.

Could it be that our mean-spirited reputation is being earned in the halls of government? Who can forget when last year, City Councilman Craig Fletcher refused to sign a proclamation for a humanist group because they did not accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. Then Councilman Tracy Carroll also refused to sign it because she looked it up on the internet and said humanist was the same as atheist. Apparently, neither of them ever read the Constitution. That little sequence went viral on the internet. By the way, Reverend Scott Alexander who gave the invocation mentioned above, is minister of the Unitarian Church, which includes Christians, Jews, Humanists and Atheists, you know, just like our Constitution.

The mean-spirited label comes from more than government meetings. To some, the Indian River Lagoon is like a Berlin Wall, separating “we” and “them” citizens, the haves and the have nots. That kind of pollution is a lot worse than the pollution we are creating in the lagoon.

It’s great that we all have differences of opinion on just about any subject. We’re not citizens of Stepford, Connecticut. Differences of opinion are as American as Archie Bunker. But lately, it seems that everyone thinks their opinions are the only correct ones. And then scare tactics are used to unify and motivate one side or the other.

Take the Seven50 plan for instance. Without taking sides, it is an attempt to consider what changes may occur to Florida’s east coast over the next 50 years and how we might prepare for them. It has devolved into a HUD and UN takeover of our country for some, who crowd our halls of government shouting and demanding their point of view to scare everyone because they have become scared themselves. But what are they scared about? When I was ten years old, I saw the movie Invaders From Mars, that featured a machine that would implant zombie-ness into people with a needle in the nape of the neck. I was scared for weeks, but then you know what happened? I grew up.

All this mean-ness, fear-mongering and finger-shaking does not portray us very well to the grown-ups who move here thinking Vero is a friendly community. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is not limited to Vero Beach either. Watched Congress lately? Rush Limbaugh? Jerry Springer? The latter two are popular because they get your dander up. Congress is unpopular because it gets your dander up.

We can’t be responsible for what happens in Washington or on national television, but we can take responsibility for what happens in our community. After the Fletcher-Carroll controversy last year, a group of religious leaders representing all faiths got together looking for a way to bring civility into our local dialogue. Their group has expanded to include non-profits and businesses. They will announce a community-wide effort in the coming months.

In the meantime, enough of the mean time. Let’s take it down a notch or two, especially at government meetings and demonstrate to the world that we can show courtesy, dignity and respect.