Mitzi and I went to another talk in the Florida Forum series on Monday. Same series that we saw Woz at last month. She drove, so I shot this with my iPhone from the window of our car. It's a pretty skyline in the golden hour.
We went to hear retired Admiral James Stavridis. He lives not far from here, in Ponte Vedra Beach. I've been reading or listening to Jim Stavridis for almost 50 years (48 or 49, I don't recall if he was Brigade Commander first or second set.)
Before there was blogging, there were journals. Jim was always getting published in Proceedings, the journal of the United States Naval Institute. I can recall that he was very highly regarded at the academy, which is saying something. He went on to a very long and distinguished career, including Supreme Commander of NATO. A little bit goes a long way with Jim, and you're never going to get just "a little bit" of Stavridis. He does seem to like to hear himself talk.
As I suppose I do, as I "hear myself" as I'm writing.
Anyway, it was a good talk. He threaded some very fine needles in commenting on current events in the Middle East and in domestic politics. He was on the short list for VP if Hillary was elected according to some friends who know him. Maybe it was SECDEF. I can't see a guy with no domestic political experience being a running mate. SECDEF makes more sense, so maybe I'm mis-remembering. But that gives you an idea kind of which way he leans.
Basically, he took the audience around the globe and talked about "challenges and opportunities for leadership," and it was mainly geopolitical. Nothing really about climate. Nothing about uncontrolled growth and system overshoot. Which is fine. Not exactly in his wheelhouse, so to speak.
He had some things to say to the audience about how they might help. "Read more." Well, it's an expensive talk, (a fund-raiser for Wolfson Children's Hospital) so the audience that perhaps really needs to be encouraged to read more probably wasn't in the seats that night. "Listen to each other," was the other. Yeah, I don't know about that one. People don't "listen," around here, so much as "wait to speak." So maybe the advice was good, but I don't think anyone heard it.
He had some kind things to say about Jacksonville, which was polite, I suppose. Although he called Jacksonville natives "Jacksonians," and I've never hear them referred to that way. It's either the neologism "Jaxsons" or "Jacksonvillians." His wife is a native, so that was kind of an inexplicable slip.
He said that people are "so nice" here. But it's Florida, a part of the former Confederacy and "southern" nice is a different kind of nice than, say, New York nice. New Yorkers may be abrasive, but there's seldom hostility; and if there is, it's right in your face.
This is "bless your heart" country. The myth of the genteel ways of "Old Dixie," dies hard. They'll smile to your face, but stab you in the back in a heartbeat, and do so gladly. And it won't be "personal." It'll just be one of two things: business or politics. But, "nothing personal."
Also bear in mind that Florida is really two states. One Florida is of and for the privileged, mainly white but all relatively wealthy people. The other Florida is the ignored. The people in the margins. The poor, immigrants, people who aren't cis-gendered. The people Florida's generation-long Republican rule won't expand Medicaid for.
They used to be just "the ignored." Now, under DeSantis and Republicans like Randy Fine and Dean Black, they're the openly attacked. So, yeah, if you're among the privileged, I suppose people seem nice.
All of that "southern hospitality" and "civility" was a mask for one of the most brutal cultures in history.
Which I think is why hate has found such a welcome home here. It never left. It's not Jim Crow pervasive yet.
But give it a chance, and it will be.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:02 Thursday, 29 February 2024