Snack Time Is Doomed

Thank you for all of the e-mails of support yesterday for our "VIP's for Seniors" voucher transfer program. We hope that those of you who contacted us to help the seniors in need in our community will make good on your commitments. The seniors of our city need your support.

As for all of the e-mails we received yesterday about the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce censoring its election forum, we are not sure why anyone would be shocked by this action. There are really two points on this issue.

Point 1: The web site for the Chamber of Commerce should be a professional beacon on the Internet that draws people to want to open businesses in our community. A Chamber of Commerce almost by definition is an organization that paints a rosy picture of the business community they represent. Although this information may be misleading and sometimes stretching the truth, that is what members of a Chamber pay for. If Boeing was looking to relocate a plant to Osceola County, do you think they would want to see the truth that we have a divided community with business leaders and elected officials that are completely clueless? No, they would probably move on to a community that has an All-America City logo on its phone book. In keeping with the "Professional" tenor of the Chamber's message, they should probably tone down their forum. We do find it hard to believe that so many would demand "Free Speech" from an organization who's sole purpose is to spin local problems into benefits. Our suggestion is to write letters to the editors of our local papers. They have both committed to printing just about anything, so you should have a better chance of getting your information out to the public that way.

Point 2: We have to question the level of ignorance of those who thought starting a blog on politics was going to be a nice and pleasant experience. Have you been living under a rock for the past five years? Bloggers are use to saying what they want and are not easily controlled. We even have the "Now-You-Simi, Now-You-Don't" political blogger operating in this area (or outside of it) who comments on local issues by remote while hiding from the "Black Helicopters" that are trying to scramble his brain waves. Maybe the Chamber should leave blogging to the un-news professionals who take it more seriously or at least have already been fitted for their aluminum foil deflector beanies.

As a final note we would state that we were very disturbed by the reports from Chamber President Mike Horner that one of the candidates was being paid by the Big Popcorn special interests groups. We had heard rumors of his plans to destroy the potato chip industry and we have been very concerned about the fate of snack time in Osceola County. However we do not believe that snack time is doomed. We have recently heard reports that the great brain trust known as the Osceola County Economic Development Team is on the case and is looking into ways to remove health labels from all snack food packaging. This should level the playing field for the opposing forces and open the door to other industries that just honestly care about our community.