History Re-Written

Some call it political spin, others call it rewriting history. The WayneWho staff calls it a nagging reminder, a conscious if you will, of the mistakes governments make and then try to cover up as time passes on. Such is the case with the some of the projects that government has tried to pass no matter what objections surfaced only to later reverse themselves as public outrage swelled. Then a year or so later, the same elected officials try to act like they were the ones who were behind the stopping of the project in the first place. Such is the case with the Kissimmee Lakefront Park.

In this past week's Osceola News-Gazette the press release from the City of Kissimmee for the ground breaking ceremony was reprinted to help usher in a revised history on the historical path of the Kissimme Lakefront Park project. Missing from their article "Polishing a community jewel," was any reference to the public outcry that went on for several weeks as the City Commissioners, CRA 'Commissioners' and local self-interested developers tried to work back room deals to build a short term-rental high-rise condo unit on what is now a children's park and picnic area. Gone was the truth that public lakefront land was going to be 'given' to a developer to construct the high-rise that would be off limits to the average citizens of the City of Kissimmee. Gone was any discussion of the public's fight that ended in a packed commission chambers where attempts to pass the project were shouted down by the audience. Now the history of the "People's Park" is written as “Initially, there was no public input into the planning of the park We went to the commission and once folks got involved, things started to improve.” Wow, but that is not how Eyewitness News, Channel 13, Channel 2, or Fox News covered the political battle over public land from what we remember. We remember lakefront rallies and a political cartoon on fliers being passed out in the restaurants in the downtown area that helped to rally public support for stopping the project, the commission of that time was trying to pass, that put us on a path to the project we have today.

In a quote to the Osceola News-Gazette Mayor Swan said, “There are times that public officials make decisions to enhance the quality of life of its citizens – this is one of them.” While the WayneWho staff offers it congratulations to the Mayor and the Commissioners who have kept the project on the correct path, we would note that only one of the currently seated commissioners, Commissioner Gemskie, was on the commission at the time of the vote and he was not the one who made the motion to stop the project. A quick review of the tape shows Citizen Swan urging the public to be nice to the then seated commission who was trying to build condos on a children's park. Luckily for everyone in our community, the public did not listen because we would have ended up with a half-built bankrupt shell of a building and no place for our community's children to play.

We are deeply disappointed once again by the lack of research and reporting abilities of the staff at the Osceola News-Gazette. While we do not believe that their article needed to contain point by point attacks on the process at that time, a simple reminder that it was the public who made this project what it is today, not government, could actually go a long way in helping to get more people involved with the process. Increases in fees, taxes and tolls, that strike at the heart of the working class Americans that live in our community have left people feeling, once again, the they have no control over their government, or their destiny. An article that accurately stated history could go a long way in reminding people that the government is theirs and that elected officials, no matter how much that want to believe it, are not great wizards that can conjure up anything they wish. They are just people we choose to represent our needs and ideas. In a democracy, the people are the leaders because of the representatives they choose. When those representatives have their status falsely elevated we end up with leaders that no longer reflect the will of the public, which is exactly what almost happened during the original lakefront battle, which we remember as a great story of this community coming together and government stopping to listen. It is amazing how sometimes the truth can be a better story than the fiction some like to spread.

As we were reading the Gazette's article we could not help but to remember a famous quote from the boss character on a Dilbert cartoon. "A leader first makes himself believe the lie, thus turning deception into an inspiring form of optimism." Nothing could be more true.