Getting it Right 2/12/09

By Sid Riley
This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
We have all seen the historical scene where President Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, Take Down This Wall!!" When you read the following phrase, do so with the same tone and emphasis:

"Governor Crist, Take Down This Plaque!!"
It would appear that Governor Crist decided the claims of the four former Dozier residents who have decided to attempt to make millions by entering a claim of abuse against Dozier officials after over fifty years of silence are true and justified. He seems to have made that decision without the benefit of a trial, presentation of evidence and arguments, and without the necessity of a decision by a jury.
His decision to construct and erect a plaque on the campus of Dozier which was done in memory of "all of those children who were ABUSED here", constitutes a unilateral admission of guilt from the head of our state, and certainly encouraged the four alleged victims to proceed with their suit. This action by the Governor was premature, unjustified, inappropriate, and undoubtedly politically motivated. It has engendered outrage from numerous state employees who worked professionally for many, many years at the Dozier facility.
Our liberal herd of politicians who currently dominate Washington recently ruled that "water-boarding" of terrorists who are caught attempting to destroy our nation and kill us and our families constitutes "torture and abuse". Instead they want to send them to a plush federal penitentiary where they can spend their sentences on chaise lounges around a pool wearing sun glasses.
Well, now it appears our illustrious Governor has similarly decided the then common and legal practice of "butt-boarding" in the venue of the 1950’s was also a form of "torture and abuse", and those poor victims who endured such treatment deserve millions of our tax dollars in appeasement. What is most ridiculous about this form of political logic is the hypocrisy of it all.
It should be remembered that during this era the State was sending cruel, physically mature, budding criminals to Dozier, and at the same time was sending little, innocent nine and ten year olds to the same facility to be housed and mixed with the almost hardened criminal group. Many of these youngest residents had committed no crimes, and were in reality orphans with no other place to go. In truth, these poor children were the real victims of the State, and if anyone deserves reparations, it is them.
With this State engineered mix of the cruel, vicious and dangerous young adult thugs mixed with the innocent and defenseless very young boys, they created an underground social structure on the campus based on bullying, fear, and intimidation ruled by the dominant, older residents. The potential for violence in this dominant group is well represented by several documented incidents which occurred.
Among these incidents were the cruel, inhuman beatings of the Jackson family in Marianna at the hands of three escaped Dozier residents who were trying to steal their car. Also Jackson County Deputy Bevis was shot and killed with his own weapon by one of Dozier’s finest. On another occasion, one or more Dozier bullies beat another resident to death and left his body in a drain culvert. And what was probably the last whipping ever given at Dozier was administered by Superintendent Lenox Williams after he saw the horrible results of disfigurement from a beating given to one boy who was attacked while asleep by three bullies. Lenox took the three guilty bullies to the now infamous "white house" and punished them.
From these examples we can see that Bullying was a continuing administrative problem on the campus, which was compounded by the unfortunate, ill-advised mix of residents. In general, those who were "butt-boarded" were the worse of the lot. They were the cruel, dominant older bullies who were abusing the younger, helpless residents.
When they were caught in these acts of cruelty, the administrators punished them in order to institute discipline and control….and most importantly to protect those innocent young boys.
If these four former residents from the 1950’s received harsh punishment from the administration, it was most probably because of cruel, bullying acts they themselves had perpetuated against the younger boys. The former residents who Governor Crist is about to reward with state reparations were probably among the cruelest, most abusive, and most guilty of the resident population of their era. That is the unfortunate hypocrisy of the entire affair.
We urge Governor Crist to remove the undeserved plaque which he has placed on the Dozier campus in his "rush to judgment". If he will at least take this action until the courts have evaluated and decided on this matter…he will be "Getting It Right".
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
● The stimulus-spending bill in its current form includes benefits for Philippine WWII Veterans, benefits for American Indians which amount to $1,000 for every Indian in the U. S., and $64 million for more certificates for buying conversion boxes for the digital conversion of the US television system. I am not sure how many jobs these measures will create.
● The Washington legislators do not want the word "earmarks" used for describing any of the costly "special interest" items which have been attached to this stimulus bill….however, a rose if known by another name is still as stinky.
● In our Washingtonian wisdom we are ignoring our continuing dependency on the greedy Arabs for our oil and energy. I do not see any provisions for new nuclear plant construction, natural gas pipelines, additional oil exploration and other measures to reduce this dependency. High gasoline prices WILL come back.
● Also, it seems our legislators believe the illegal alien problem has gone away. The billions of additional costs our governments are realizing from providing social and health services to these lawbreakers who have violated our borders seems to not be an issue. Also, those jobs which Americans did not want…..are beginning to become more attractive as our number of unemployed grows.
● The unions are collecting for all of those millions they donated to political campaigns in 2008. Our controlling legislators have agreed to pall union favoring laws which do away with the secret ballot when union organizing votes are taken in a company. With no secret ballot, the union "thugs" will know whose arms to break and which houses to set fire. I thought the concept of a secret ballot was a cornerstone of our voting processes in order to prevent reprisals and intimidation.
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.