Earlier this year, as the chair of Brevard Democrats, I attended a public meeting with the Brevard legislative delegation to the Florida Legislature. I had petitioned for a time slot and my only stated ask was to be heard.
I was given my three minutes and attempted to make the statement included here.
That didn’t happen. At least not all of it.
So I’m sharing my statement, in its entirety, now, because of disastrous decisions being made during the current legislative session.
And because I can.
I am here today, not just as the proud chair of Brevard Democrats, but as a mother of a Brevard public school teacher, and the grandmother of Brevard public school students. I come as a successful small business for 26 years in Brevard County. I come as the wife of a defense contractor, and as a Melbourne taxpayer. I am the product of lifelong Republican voters who taught me that Republicans stood for small, local government, and the value of the free market.
On Halloween night while my grandkids were distractedly sorting their candy I casually asked if they ever think about active shooters on their campuses. They all immediately answered ‘every day’ and went on to describe the plans they had individually made regarding the same.
Our kids don’t think about who is reading story books to them, I wanted to tell them. They don’t think about whether that person is a man, a woman, a man dressed as a woman, or a woman dressed as a man. They think about someone, a crazy one-off, or even one of their classmates, coming to school with a gun. They think about that every day.
In 2002, Floridians enthusiastically passed an amendment to our state constitution to require the legislature to restrict the number of students in a classroom and for the legislature to provide the funds to do so.
In 2011, the state legislature, with yay votes from every single Brevard lawmaker, including Thad Altman, Mike Haridopolos, John Tobia, Tom Goodson, Ritch Workman and Steve Crisafulli, twisted the amendment to lower the number of ‘core’ classes from 849 to 304, exempting even AP classes, thus perverting the original language and goal.
The state legislature overruled citizens yet again with Amendment 4 in 2018, and again in 2021 when every one of them voted to overrule the free and fair election of Key West voters, whose result you didn’t like with Senate Bill 1194.
This is not the Republican Party I was told of when growing up. Where local matters were left to local elected officials, and their voters decided if they approved or not -- in an election. Where consumers voiced their pleasure or displeasure with their commerce, rather than government intervention as we continue to see with more and more pre-emptive bills from Tallahassee.
Locally we all witnessed as Rep. Randy Fine threatened two of his city council minions, demanding they ‘disinvite’ an equally elected official from participating in a fundraiser (where said elected official subsequently raised more for Special Olympics than every other participant), and stated that their city’s funding bill for flood mitigation would be vetoed if they didn’t. For some reason, some of you were slightly offended by his referencing said official as a ‘whore,’ but not the actual abuse of power he wielded, and not enough to speak up. When asked by a fellow state legislator why Fine was creating obstacles for our public schools to access federal funding and making it harder for them to do the job of educating our kids in the middle of a global pandemic, he famously said, “Because we can.
I’m asking you to return to Tallahassee for this legislative session and stop fighting culture wars ‘because you can’ and instead do work that actually benefits Brevard County residents. Continue work on the lagoon with even greater urgency. Address the housing crisis by not pandering to the special interests of investors. Meet the homeowners insurance crisis head on. Listen to people advocating for harder accessibility to weapons. Not "because you can" but because it’s the right thing to do.
That was my presentation for the legislators.
At least, that’s what I planned to say.
But when I got to the part about reminding the members of Mr. Fine’s abuse of power regarding that Special Olympics debacle, Mr. Altman cut me off at the behest of Mr. Fine: because he could. Although many speakers before me had addressed individuals by name, my address was not complimentary. I was told I wouldn’t be allowed to address Mr. Fine by name.
And that was the end of that. They cut me off — because they claim they could.
So here we are. Our legislators are in session, making it harder for Floridians to get homeowners insurance relief through so-called tort reform. They have a bill banning local governments from making health decisions and shielding themselves from public records requests. Another bans tenure in our public universities, ensuring our children less than the best educators. They have a bill with a six-week abortion ban. Nothing at all addressing our housing crisis, the homeowners insurance crisis or the economic crisis. Because they can.
Once again, they prove that you and I mean nothing to them. The everyday lives of Floridians are secondary to their personal political ambitions.
This isn’t free market. This isn’t democracy.
This is autocracy and we deserve better.
Pamela Castellana