Barrington Salmon, Florida Phoenix

“There is no place in the world today for the idea that some people are born to rule and others to be ruled.” — the late Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley

If Miami’s mayoral race is an indicator of the national mood, color that mood surly.

The ripple effect of widespread dissatisfaction felt by Americans because of the high cost of food, appliances, rent, and mortgages is reflected in political races this year during Donald Trump’s second presidential term. In almost every case, voters have delivered beatings on Republican candidates....

The white political elite in America – politicians, judges, lawyers, policymakers, businesses and corporations – has never as a whole acted in good faith towards its Black citizens. These “leaders” routinely moved electoral goalposts, added impediments to gum up the voting process, made promises they never intended to keep, lied, grudgingly made concessions and over time, always clawed them back.

Meanwhile, on the ground during the last century, mobs of white vigilantes used a campaign of terror, intimidating Black potential voters, beating, brutalizing and lynching African Americans, and burning down Black businesses and whole communities.

Americans love to push out their chests and gloat about the freedoms citizens enjoy, but a dirty little secret is that being “American” has never referred to ALL Americans....

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963

As galling as it has been to watch a Jacksonville sheriff’s deputy break a car window and punch a non-combative man in the face, the feeble justification from the sheriff and a determination from the state attorney that cops did nothing wrong is just as infuriating.

The Feb. 19 videotape of an encounter with William McNeil, Jr. and a posse of rogue officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and their brutal response, is a searing reminder of everything wrong with policing in America....

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – William Shakespeare

While the Occupant of the White House has wreaked havoc on the lives and fortunes of immigrant families in Los Angeles, New York, and other sanctuary cities, his MAGA partner in Florida has been working just as diligently to wage war on undocumented immigrants and foreign-born, brown-skinned U.S. citizens.

The DeSantis administration made it unlawful for anyone to transport undocumented immigrants, characterizing that act as human smuggling. Senate Bill 1718 also invalidated drivers licenses issued by other states to undocumented immigrants; orders that hospitals and clinics that accept Medicaid question patients about their immigration status and report these data (without personally identifiable information) to the state; and the law now requires undocumented individuals taken into custody by a law enforcement agency to submit a DNA sample when he or she is booked into a jail, correctional, or juvenile facility....

The entire state of Florida should be declared an evacuation zone for human beings under 18. Not because ferocious hurricanes are bearing down, but because of the way its conservative “leaders” continue to endanger the youngest among us.

Florida is a crucible for casual violence foisted on children by egregious public policy which makes being a child or a young person in Florida dangerous.

This malign neglect directed towards children and teenagers is evident in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ continued pretense that there are no starving school-aged children, and that the state is more than capable of providing food and sustenance to them....