Page 4 10 December 2004 A LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER The Franklin Chronicle EDrITORAL & COMMENTARY A Sinking Ship The FWC's ship has sprung a leak and appears to be sinking faster than the Titanic. Their attorneys, staff and law enforcement person- nel have lost their cool. Most importantly, their staff have made the critical mistake of dealing with the Legislature in the same deceptive "bad faith" manner that they have dealt with citizens for the last 6 years. "Loose lips sink ships," so let me just "wet" your appetite from the waters scooped out of the FWC's sinking scowl. 'Pertaining to the FWC's "bad faith" in dealing with the Legislature ... Just a few months ago, the FWC and Ted Forsgren decided that the excessive penalties against commercial fishing violators weren't ex- cessive enough. So. the FWC managed to push a bill through the House and Senate that increased fines and penalties. Our organiza- tion, with President Crum at the helm on this issue, tirelessly fought the bills and their passage. Though we failed to stop the bills and their passage, we impressed upon the Legislators that without a "choice" to use gear that pro- tected the environment, the economy and the people, the bill was unjust. The FWC promised to "fix" the situation if the Legislators voted for the increased penalties ... The Legislature passed the bills then the FWC, true to form, ignored their promises. As evident by the FWC's Home Page, their "fix" is to create gear that violates the Constitution and laws of Florida and the United States. The FWC's proposed rules devastate the environment, harm the citi- zens, and the economy. Now, Representative Will Kendrick has stepped in to help us create a ground swell of political support that threatens to finally "wash the rats" off of the FWC's sinking ship. We owe a great deal of gratitude to Representative Kendrick for helping protect our citizens rights and the environment, of this state. As far as my one-week visit to Tallahassee, I stayed at Fishing For Freedom's President's home and gained several pounds from the Crum's hospitality. Mr. Crum and I worked very hard, and the fruits of out labor will be seen in the near future. Six dignitaries attended our protest and the hearing before the 1st DCA on Judge Sander Sauls favorable ruling for our position, which had been appealed by the State. Our protest garnered a good amount of media coverage and WFSU continued coverage through the DCA's hearing. True to form, the DCA struck down Judge Saul's 6 month long study and 27 page favorable ruling in one week by just stating "AFFIRMED." As the DCA knows, if they give no reason, the Supreme Court won't accept an appeal. We, have appealed for an answer from this court, but knowing the three men on the Tribunal as we do, we expect no reason to be given to justify their ruling. What justice!?!? The 1st DCA sided with an agency that refuses to follow:the law as mandated by the Legislature in FS 370.093(6) and the Supreme Court as stated in two cases. While visiting the FWC, I was threatened with arrest by Major Bruce Buckson in front of his superior if I used legislatively granted gear to. fish with, in a non-prohibited manner. A FWC superior officer at- tempted to convince me that the FWC didn't-arrest on policy, only law. Then Major Buckson entered the room. Buckson promptly in- formed me that he would arrest me if I used the legal gear to fish with, in the legal manner I requested to use it; I requested Major Buckson "show me the law" that would justify my arrest, he did not, and could not. The Major actually stated to his superior officer that he shouldn't have to stand for the harassment as I demanded for him to show me any law that justified hip arrest. Major Buckson twice requested that he be excused before the superior officer excused him. As Major Buckson knows, the law doesn't exist. As I was leaving the building, James Antista, Chief Counsel for the FWC informed me that he would arrest me because it was a "proposed law." The States Attorney called their stands "ludicrous." At this time I can't disclose many more de- tails about the trip other than to say that I spoke with several of the highest public officials in the state for extended periods of time. The .words "impeach," "corruption," "clean house," and "purse strings" were abundant in their voiced concerns of what to.do to, or with, the FWC. To all of our readersand'supporters?..; "Be aware that many of the:highest;public officials are finally on:our side,. and,that the FWC ship ist taking on water." o : , Sincerely, David Grix VP Fishing For Freedom SCASHW FOR STRUCTURED SETI ANNUITIES and INSURAN( (800) 794-7 J.G. Wentworth means CASH for Structured SettlementsW W Dead Porpoise Staged In Fake Photograph To Show Result Of A Gill Net Late Revelation Calls Into Question the Validity of Claims by "Save Our Sealife" Propagandists Urging a Net Ban. An item on the web site of Fishing for Freedom by Christina Johnson now calls into serious question the validity of claims that a gill net was used to kill a porpoise as depicted in the "Save Our Sealife" pro- paganda campaign in the early 1990s. That campaign led to the im- position of a "net ban" on the use otgill nets by commercial fisher- men. Ms. Johnson interviewed a retired inarine law enforcement officer intimately familiar with the discovery of a dead porpoise on the beach at Marco Island. Johnson's narrative continued, "One example relayed to me by a retired marine law enforcement officer; a porpoise had been found dead on a publicbeach of Marco Island. Upon inspection by a Florida State Marine Biologist, it was determined by the injuries present, that the porpoise had been struck by a powerboat in the facial area causing serve damage resulting in death. The State Biologist did not remove the porpoise for autopsy because cause of death was determined at the scene. Rather they requested the Sheriffs Office Marine Unit to tow it off shore for dis- posal." "Strangely, approximately two days later the same marine law en- forcement officer received a phone call-in the early daylight hours about a Florida Marine Patrol Officer.( Now Known as the FWC) and some individuals taking photographs of a dead porpoise and a piece of gill net located at Coconut Island. This Officer responded to the call and upon arrival and inspection of the porpoise there was no net present. The officer was able to immediately determine that this was the same porpoise, due to the facial injuries, that had been inspected by the State of Florida Marine Biologist two days earlier and was towed off shore by the Sheriffs Office Marine Unit. This started a conversation with the Florida Marine Patrol Officer who was laughing while telling this officer that the group Save Our Sealife had been there taking photographs of the porpoise and a gill net. It became immediately apparent that this was a staged photograph operation by the individuals involved. Coincidentally shortly thereafter this in- cident the Florida Sportsman kicked off their notorious "SOS" cam.- paign and these staged photographs, found there way into the pages of Karl Wickstrom's Florida Sportsman Magazine with the same laugh-, ing Florida Marine Patrol Of fcer in them. The netting in these photo- graphs ,was lying draped over the facial area of the porpoise. This netting was clean and free of debris such as sea grass, crabs and other creatures that would commonly be present if ah entanglement had occurred. This began the net ban and anti-commercial fishing, propaganda set forth by Wickstrom arid the Save our Sealife Cam- paign. This information was obtained directly from the Officer,thati was involved and he is available for further comment for anyone who wishes to speak with him." Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) By Richard E. Noble I was watching "Book Notes" and this famous author was talking about the fact that as a youth he was forced, as were all grade-schoolers of his day, to read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. He hated it, the book being so "dull, pompous and laden with platitudes", he said. I've just finished reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin, and I have gotten a belly laugh out ofjust about every chapter. The man is hilarious. I really haven't decided whether the whole book is an out- right tongue-in-cheek put-on, or that old Ben is just such a practical, unemotional fellow, that his guidelines for living a virtuous life sound like .a biology. professor trying to explain to a sjOw,.suetu4nhowto rationally distinguish his left hand frpm his right. o .. The story of his courtship with Miss Read", his eventual wife, I'm sure, is not something that "Miss Read" cut out of her husband's book and hid away in a trunk of loving memorabilia in an upstairs attic, along with her first love poemand a piece of her wedding cake. She was "deserving ... pitiable and a good and faithful helpmate", says Ben. And, believe it or not, she nearly lost Ben's attentions by her inability to get her parents to cough up one hundred pounds as her dowry. In fact, she did loose Ben for a good period during the negotiations, and in the interim Ben being left hot to trot explains that; "In the meantime, that hard to be governed passion of youth had harried me frequently into intrigues with low woman that fell in my way." He goes on to explain his thankfulness at not catching "dis- temper" or something worse. His battle with being a perfect, virtuous individual he compares with a man attempting to buy a shinny ax. After a few hours and some time at the hard work of turning the wheel for the blacksmith who is trying to get the man's desired ax to shine, the customer decides that a speckled ax will do, just fine. This becomes even funnier when you remember that Ben is talking about his own moral character here. So when put next to the hard work of becoming moral and virtuous, Ben's decision is that he would Just as soon have a speckled soul to carry to his Maker. Oh, my goodness! And this has got to be the best one of all. Ben is going into his shop on Craven Street one morning where upon he finds a "poor ... very pale and feeble" sickly woman, sweeping the walk in front of his door. He asks her who hired her to sweep his walk and she replies; "Nobody; but I am poor and in distress, and I sweeps before gentle folks' doors and hopes they will give me something." Oh, my, doesn't that nearly break your heart? So what does old com- passionate Ben do? Why he offers the feeble, poor, pale, very sickly woman a shilling to sweep the whole darn street. When she comes for her shilling he presumes that a woman in her obviously poor condi- tion couldn't have done a very good job, so he sends his servant, Jeeves, out to check her work. Jeeves reports that the poor, dying, old lady has really done an excellent job-so what does Ben con- clude?-that she deserves, possibly, a permanent, full-time job back at the Franklin plantation or something of the like? Not quite: "I then judged that if that feeble woman could sweep such a street in three hours, a strong, active man might have done it in half the time." Ben Franklin, the father of compassionate conservatism-and possi- bly several illegitimate children-so, what's new. Library Happenings By Judi Rundel The Franklin County Public Library will be closed December 23rd through the 27th for the Christmas Holiday. Both branches will re- open on Tuesday, December 28th. Santa will be at the Carrabelle Branch of the Library on Tuesday, December 21st from 10:00 a.m. 12:00 Noon. The WITH-IT! program students will see the full production of Nut- cracker-the ballet on Saturday, December 18th, in Tallahassee. The students have been learning all aspects of dance and this field trip has been planned to coordinate with the current cultural project block. The Franklin County Public Library's programs-FROG, WITH-ITI, and TIGERS-are offered at no cost to participants. Registration how- ever is required. For information about the WITH-ITI and TIGERS programs call 653-2784 in Apalachicola, 670-5250 in Eastpoint, or 697-9216 in Carrabelle. The FROG Family program can be reached by calling 697-2091 in Carrabelle or 670-4423 in Eastpoint. For in- formation about upcoming events, becoming a volunteer tutor, or becoming a, library volunteer, please call 670-8151, 697-2366, or 697-2091, or view the Library's website located at www.fcpl.lib.fl.us. .Eileen Annie from Page 1 Ms. ,Ball has been the director ot the Franklin County Public Library since January'1994. During her, tenure, the library has received sev- eral state and national awards including: the American Library Asso- ciation Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults Award both in 1997 and 2004-ranking in the top five library young adult programs in the nation; the 2003 Florida Library Association Betty Davis Miller Award; 1996 Friends of Libraries USA Award; 1995 Public Library Association Excellence in Small and/or Rural Public Library Service Award. "We are very happy to have the opportunity to celebrate public librar- ians from across the country, whose enormous contributions some- times go unrecognized," said Alyse Myers, vice president, marketing services, The New York Times. 'This program demonstrates, year af- ter year, how crucial libraries and librarians are to people in every part of the nation. From big cities to small towns, people look to their local libraries for information, education, entertainment, culture and community, and the librarians are there to help them find it all. The Times is proud to honor the work of these librarians who bring people together over books around the common belief that access to infor- mation is part of the bedrock of our society." A selection committee was composed of representatives from The Times and leading library professionals from Arizona, California, Connecti- cut, Michigan, New Jersey and New York. The Times will honor the winners on December 15 with a commemorative plaque and a $2,500.00 award. A separate plaque featuring Ms. Ball will be sent to the Franklin County Public Library. D ..I.ABETI CS S No Cost FastTake Meter by Lcan Supplies are Medicare & Insurance Covered No Up-Front Costs No Paperwork FREE DELIVERY to )rour House TINY Blood Sample TEST ON FINGER ORARM RESULTS IN SECONDS Medicare also covers impotence devices. Call for info. Call the O ginal Diabetic Hotline S1-800-785-3636 ing redued t chi-sN jo toosmal o lage CalCarneDeaei The6 - FrankILI 'HlIinu Chroicl S M MARINE lIi! SUPPLY, INC. 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