Government In The Moonlight Of A New Moon (IE: Not A Full Moon)

Hillsborough parents promise to protest cell phone towers - St. Petersburg Times

For those of you who think my previous posts that mock the issue of how the public is kept out of the public school education system are without merit, here is another story that dials, I mean presses my number. While most of you are debating the unknown about the consequences of one's proximity to the individual cell phone towers, what I think should be the focus of the outrage, outcries and overall outlandish rebellion is how do these types of actions by our local government keep happening.

I submit the following clips from the above article as evidence that we, the public, are victims of ourselves:

- "With nary a public comment, Hillsborough commissioners in the fall altered language in its county land-use code."
- While Porter and company president Stacy Frank said the amendment was never an attempt to bypass public hearings, Hillsborough zoning administrator Paula Harvey said "we understood that to be part of the intent."
- "Harvey and Porter said there was no public dissent at any of the seven public meetings on the topic, which Grimail acknowledged.

"The problem was none of us knew what was going on, because it wasn't directly affecting us," she said. "The people who live in the neighborhoods were thinking that the elected officials would protect us so, yeah, we didn't show up. But now we will."

If one reads the article, it would appear that Porter and Frank stand to make a lot of money for every tower that is erected and that they for some reason had the intuition to realize that it would be easier to make money if few people knew how they were going to do it.


Wasn't it a scant few fortnights ago that a group of people over around Alafia Elementary were up in arms and causing a big ruckus? Wasn't a big part of this hoopla created because the parents and staff that had voiced their concerns a long time before had trusted that the school officials would protect them?

Apparently I've been right on a couple of predictions about the process that will occur with the Hillsborough County Public School system. I'll go out on a limb, where I have heard that that is where the fruit is, and predict that it won't be long before this group of tower bashers will be labeled as spreading misinformation, anger and ugliness. Along with those labels of discounting, I wouldn't be surprised to hear a few comments along the fact that the public is not educated enough to know whether or not cell phones are a health hazard, so the public should just shut up and trust the educational experts on cell phone towers.

I will give credence to that group from Clearwater that held a revival to sing about a bad moon rising, 'cause there is little sunshine looking out my back door.