As the needs of the Orlando community go unmet, elected officials continue to turn a deaf ear to the yearnings and suffering of the local community. They prefer instead, to cozy up to the big boys at the Orlando Chamber and the thugs on International Drive who insist on paying garbage wages and reminding local families that they deserve nothing. And how dare you ask for sick time?
How is it that a woman like Teresa Jacobs can run for reelection on a platform that pits out-of-state companies against local small businesses and its workers? Why isn’t she required to champion the needs of local families and the necessity of a living wage?
Even more devastating are the continuing lies and cunning of Orlando’s Mayor Buddy Dyer. For years, his vision of a world-class city has devoured the historically black community – Parramore, earned the city a reputation as one of the meanest in America and ignored the abject, third world poverty that lies only blocks from his office on Orange Avenue.
There are gaping holes in the spirit of this community. Wounds too old to heal and insults too fresh to be forgotten, fester just below the surface. And it’s everywhere.
But nowhere is it more apparent than in the pocketbooks of the residents and the stress being put upon local and volunteer social services.
It’s apparent in the half filled shopping carts at the discount grocery stores. It’s apparent with the emptying of the West Oaks Mall and the still- abandoned Super Target on West Colonial Drive.
It’s in your face with the ranking of Orlando as dead last nationally, in terms of median income; yet no comment from local officials.
Instead, they grovel at the feet of robber barons who exploit local families, paying minimal wages while reaping record profits.
Elected officials are supposed to work for their constituents, not out-of-state financiers who have no interests in this community.
Can we honestly say to ourselves that Dyer, Jacobs or the other proxies for corporate interests pay any attention to the suffering in their districts?
Where are the community initiatives? Where are the programs for small business? Why are we not seeing reinvestment in our neighborhoods?
These are the questions local residents must ask themselves.
These are the pink elephants in the room.
Until locals realize that they really do have the power to make this community one that works for families, as well as small business, they will remain hostages to the whims of the indifferent and calloused.
But, unlike the damsel in distress, we can save ourselves.
But we’re getting a brand new soccer stadium……………isn’t that what it’s all about?
Elect that guy that does the back charity event at the amway center. He is a hero, does t as a volunteer and helps 10,000 poor kids each year. Radka something is his name, Michael maybe. He does not sit and wait for someone else to take action
Bread and circuses for the masses