June 30: Miami Commission Needs To Respect City's History

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Two different situations involving two different centers of history indicate that the Miami City Commission has recently become neglectful of that history.

In one case, there's the possible construction of a skateboard park in the Omni neighborhood. That wouldn't be such a bad idea, except for the park's two neighbors: Temple Israel of Greater Miami, founded in 1926, and the Miami City Cemetery, where the remains of Julia Tuttle, John B. Reilly - Miami's first mayor - and many other pioneers rest.

Consider skateboarders on the weekends - during hours coinciding with Temple Israel's Shabbat services - and at night, a possible threat to the sanctity of the cemetery, which has only recently begun to recover from years of vandalism and neglect.

There are other vacant lots in the Omni neighborhood that would be more appropriate for a skateboard park. City Commissioner and Omni Community Redevelopment Agency Chair Marc Sarnoff should talk to local business leaders about engineering a land swap or other deal that would keep things serene next to the temple and the cemetery.

Then there's the matter of the famed Gusman Center in Downtown Miami, which opened in 1925. Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado is threatening not to include any funding for the theater in his upcoming budget for the city. He's depending on the private sector.

Well, Mr. Mayor, the private sector is having trouble, too. Not enough money will mean the shuttering of that theater, which is in the National Register of Historic Places. Neither Gusman, which hosts the Miami Film Festival, nor the downtown area can afford that.

Architecturally and artistically, the Gusman Center is Downtown Miami's crown jewel. At the moment, there isn't another Maurice Gusman, the philanthropist who first saved the crumbling Olympia Theater in 1972, or Sylvester Stallone, the actor who paid for the theater's renovations during the 1990s.

What exists is a mayor and commission who need to remember that respecting and preserving Miami's history is part of their responsibility, too.

June 29: How Many More Sherdavias Will Court Rulings Bring?

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Yesterday, while five members of the United States Supreme Court were ignoring public safety concerns in yet another pro-gun ruling, City of Miami officials and police officers were having a press conference at Sherdavia Jenkins Peace Park.

The subject of the conference: Pleas with Miami residents not to "celebrate" the Fourth of July by firing guns.

Sherdavia Jenkins was a 9-year-old girl playing in her yard when she was killed by a stray bullet in 2006.

There are many other Sherdavias in Miami - and Chicago and Washington, whose city governments tried to pass gun control laws to make those children safer.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito haven't supported those Sherdavias - at least not yet.

The recent rulings and the cowardice of politicians to stand up for gun control are a message that those who want safer streets need to put public safety up for court rule. The debate needs to change from gun rights to public safety rights.

The Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence estimates 3,218 children die from gun violence, while 20,702 children survive gun injuries each year.

Where are their rights?

June 28: The Evolution of a Gentleman

By Sylvia Gurinsky

It is possible to change for the better. Sen. Robert Byrd, who died overnight at 92, did so many times.

First, he changed the circumstances of his background. He came from poor West Virginia and became a highly educated man, a scholar of both the Constitution and the history of the United States Senate. More than anyone else in the recent history of the United States Congress, he linked the American tradition of democracy with that of Ancient Greece.

He had the courage to go against presidents, whether it was Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, Bill Clinton on the line-item veto or George W. Bush on Iraq.

Perhaps his biggest change came on the subject of civil rights. During the 1940s, Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. During the 1960s, as a senator, he voted no on the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the court. His evolution started during the 1970s; no less a figure than President Barack Obama now calls Byrd a mentor.

Above all, Byrd intensely disliked the partisan bickering that has become the norm in American politics. He is being remembered in many ways. The one that might have given him most pride is "gentleman" - one who had the guts to evolve.

June 24: Sniglets On Hollywood and Oil Spill; Pembroke Pines and Sunshine; Marlins and Noise

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Until recently, the biggest noise from most of Hollywood concerning the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the lack of noise. The biggest news has come from the success of the cleanup machine actor-director Kevin Costner developed many years ago.

The thousands of people along the Gulf whose jobs have been lost, livelihoods upset and so forth need help with rent, groceries, medical and insurance expenses and soon, clothing and school supplies for kids.

Where are you, Mr. Clooney? Mr. Pitt? Mr. Hanks? Where are your telethon-organizing skills?

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Is "sunshine" just that yellow ball in the sky that the Pembroke Pines City Commission sees on the way into its offices at the corner of Pines Boulevard and Palm Avenue?

Evidently. Because commissioners forgot that in Florida, they have to mix "sunshine" with another word - "law."

The Sunshine Law requires open meetings. That didn't happen May 24, when commissioners conferred with City Manager Charles Dodge in a meeting away from the public and press about a plan to outsource 200 jobs. After an outcry by both public and press, and a deal with the city's unions, commissioners reversed themselves and scrapped the outsourcing plan.

Commissioner Angelo Castillo told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that commissioners "handled this in a totally legal manner from start to finish," and that they were allowed to meet behind closed doors since there was no vote taken.

Try again, Commissioner. State law says you're supposed to meet in the open when "official acts are to be taken." That doesn't have to mean there's a vote.

It does mean the city I live in needs to improve its conduct of business in the open - by actually doing so in the open.

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The outcry over the firing of Florida Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez has managed to top the noise of those ridiculous vuvuzelas that helped cost the team last Saturday's game.

I was one of those who thought that it was only a matter of time before the trigger got pulled on Gonzalez, even though he's not to blame for a shoddy bullpen, not entirely to blame for sporadic hitting (though hitting coach Jim Presley was also sacked), and certainly not to blame for ownership that's too cheap to truly invest in this team.

Jeffrey Loria, the guy responsible for firing Gonzalez, Presley and bench coach Carlos Tosca (and presumably the guy who signed off on the vuvuzelas), may now be looking to Bobby Valentine. Yikes.

If it was only about won-loss record, Valentine, whose New York Mets went to the World Series in 2000 and who won a championship in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines, wouldn't be a bad choice. Unfortunately, Valentine has showboat tendencies; it's hard to forget his pseudo-Groucho disguise after an ejection from a game in 1999. And he didn't always have smooth relationships with his players in New York. One wonders if he would discipline Hanley Ramirez in the same way Gonzalez did a few weeks ago when Ramirez loafed on a play.

Another manager, Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves, criticized Loria for the revolving door he has had in the manager's office. It's not expected to stop anytime soon, sadly.

One wonders whether, despite the skillful work of Larry Beinfest, Dan Jennings and Mike Hill in getting impressive young talent for the team, the Marlins can ever again shine as they did in 1997 and 2003 (a team mostly put together by previous GM Dave Dombrowski) as long as penny-pinching Loria owns the team.

Team President David Samson keeps talking about the team ending up "in a pile." They're there, all right.

June 23: Commander In Chief Shows Grace Under Fire

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Gen. Stanley McChrystal had not shown grace under fire.

In firing him today, President Barack Obama did.

McChrystal, a graduate of West Point and the leader of United States military efforts in Afghanistan, likely had enough schooling about military insubordination to know that you don't diss your commander in chief and other top decision makers in Rolling Stone magazine. That didn't stop him from doing so.

After that, there was only one recourse left for both McChrystal and Obama.

Afghanistan was one of the headaches Obama inherited from President George W. Bush - a war that should have been put to bed long ago but wasn't, because of Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Obama has set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, but things have not been going well recently. McChrystal had to answer to that, as well as to what he said in the Rolling Stone interview.

Other than a reference to the article, Obama had nothing but praise for McChrystal in making the decision. He is also actively discouraging anyone in his administration from gloating about McChrystal's departure.

Obama has never served in the military. But today, he acted the way a commander in chief should act.

June 22: Why Was Judge Feldman Ruling On Oil Case?

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Forget for a moment that U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman made a lousy ruling this morning in overturning the Obama Administration's six-month moratorium on offshore oil drilling - a ruling the administration will appeal.

He may have bigger problems. The Associated Press reports that in 2008, Feldman's financial disclosure report showed investments in eight companies that either produce or are in some way connected to oil. One of them was Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

If that's the case, why was he allowed to rule on this case? And why didn't the Obama Administration balk at the judicial selection before?

They're certainly balking now, and Feldman should have recused himself from the beginning. His ruling should be overturned on several grounds - including possible conflict of interest.

June 21: Obama Can Learn From Another President's Mistake

By Sylvia Gurinsky

We've all heard about the young president of the United States who listened to what he thought was the best advice, went forward with his decision and wound up with a disaster.

No, not President Barack Obama with his now-abandoned decision to expand offshore oil drilling and his response during the first weeks after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

This reference is to President John F. Kennedy and his decision in 1961 to go ahead with the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Kennedy gave the green light to a Central Intelligence Agency plan to invade Cuba that was developed while his predecessor, President Dwight Eisenhower, was still in office. But there was plenty wrong with the plan. More than 100 members of Brigade 2506 were killed; more than 1,000 were captured and held as political prisoners for a year and a half. In a speech to the nation, Kennedy took full responsibility; he showed how much he'd learned his lesson a year and a half later, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Obama's bad advice in crafting the expansion of oil drilling came both from his own Department of the Interior and from Big Oil. It also came from his attempts to appease Republicans. During the first month after the Deepwater Horizon spill, Obama relied too closely on the idea that BP executives were showing good sense - despite persistent evidence to the contrary.

But Obama needed to learn the same lesson here that he learned during the health care battle: Give 'em hell, Barry. He needed to show leadership and forget about bipartisanship. Sometimes they don't go together.

He seems to be starting to get it, given his Oval Office speech last week.

Presidents don't often get either learning curves or credit for learning lessons - except from historians. But they're not perfect; they do make mistakes - and the country ultimately benefits when they do learn their lessons. Hopefully, Obama has learned his.