‘So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.’ This is a line from the 2005 movie, “Star Wars, Revenge Of The Sith.” This is the scene where during the Special Session Of Congress, Chancellor Palpatine, Leader of the Galatic Senate was elaborating on a false plot by the Jedi to take over the Senate. The attendees roared with thunderous applause several times during his speech, which was full of lies and deception.
In the end, the other leaders were all deceived by a lie. The Chancellor perpetrated the deception that all will be good and peace would come to the galaxies if they would only trust him.
Wow, what a great fantasy movie. This kind of deception could never happen in real life.
Really?
Not long ago, Friday, November 16, I attended an equally great deception, the ground breaking for the Walmart Neighborhood Market. There was a great turn out of leaders giving speeches and patting each other on the back saying what a great job they had done.
As I stood near the back of the crowd, outside, on the site of the coming deception, I could see the hand writing on the wall. They will build this 40,000 square foot store so that the residents will have a place to buy GMO fruit and vegetables and work a dangerous job for slave wages.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, City Commissioners Sam Ings and Daisy Lynum, Orange County Commissioner Tiffany Moore-Russell, are only part of the local elected leadership who freely gave their support to make sure that the blanket is pulled over everyone’s eyes.
They even brought in leaders from Walmart who admitted that they were surprised at the welcoming they received, when most communities try to keep them out. The deception in our community is so refined, we believe that working for slave wages and eating poisoned food is the best that we can expect to receive. This deception is so fine tuned, that when Walmart introduced the management team what will manage the store, few people noticed that not even one manager was Black or from the area. The deception is complete.
The leader of the deception is Developer Bishop Allen Wiggins. The Wiggins group also controlled the property where the Walmart is to be built. Another principal in this deception is Dr. David Uth, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Orlando. Dr. Uth supported Developer Wiggins with over one million dollars in loans. The two church congregations worshiped together on Easter Sunday this year. Praying and worshiping together this one time gave tremendous credibility to the deception.
If Developer Bishop Allen Wiggins is the face of this deception, then Allie Braswell of the Central Florida Urban League and Dr. Robert Spooney of the African American Chamber of Commerce, together ‘make up the ass.’ Braswell and Spooney both fully support this community deception, claiming Walmart will bring much-needed jobs to the community.
The African American Chamber of Commerce and the Central Florida Urban League are charged with building the communities’ economic infrastructure. If bringing Walmart to the community is their best idea, then we need new leaders and different organizations to speak for us.
As I stood at the back of the crowd watching speaker after speaker walk up and give praise to the Walmart deception, and watched the crowd burst into applause, I could only think of that line from the Star Wars movie, ‘So this is how the community dies, with thunderous applause.’
