I Still Say We Should Remove Ed Burke's Name From Our Park. But It's Way Bigger Than That.

No, I know Dan Keys doesn't agree with me.  Dan was a Commissioner in the '80s, when Burke was the mayor, and Dan has endless fondness, respect, and reverence for Burke.  If there were ever any BP residents who complained about Burke, or who do now, Dan is not one of those people.  To Dan, Burke was a uniquely valued "mentor," and any tribute anyone ever gave him is at least fitting.  And besides, there are all the then Village residents who will remember Burke for the favors he did them, and the obstacles he caused to go away.  I get it.  I just don't agree.  And more than that, I don't think that in a comparatively intimate neighborhood like this one, anyone should be singled out for note like that, as if they were more, or better, than anyone else.  If they did good, good.  The fact of the good they did should be reward in itself.  And someone like Arthur Griffing, for whom a street and a park are named, did himself a lot more good than he did for us.  If you don't like the narrow streets and the small lots here, and the absence of sidewalks (which would have taken a little room, cost some money, and reduced the prices of the lots Griffing was selling), you can thank Arthur Griffing.  If you don't like front yard walls on some properties, and you wonder how some people got permission to build walls the BP Codes don't allow, you can thank Burke.  Also, if you're one of those BP residents who don't like "outsiders," including not only "cut-throughs," but also people who don't live in BP, but who feel, and are, free to use our park/recreation center/basketball courts, and you resent that we built that park/recreation center/basketball court using state money, which means the state won't let us restrict use of the park/recreation center/basketball court only to ourselves, and you're prepared to get angry at whosever bonehead idea it was to seek and accept the state grant, from which we can never liberate ourselves, you can get mad at Burke for that, too.  (Eventually, Burke moved away from BP.  I think he moved to some other state in the south.  I don't know why he left.  It could have been for any of a number of reasons.  He died in a nursing home somewhere in the past several years.)

But it's not Burke.  I'm sure he had his very good points.  Hey, he got elected a lot.  And he earned a level of respect and admiration Dan Keys doesn't give anyone else.  I just don't like the idea of things -- buildings, parks, whatever -- in BP honoring individuals.  It's not like Ed Burke paid for the park himself.  And even if he had...  The building at the recreation center has a plaque with the names of the then Commissioners, and I don't approve of that, either.  There's a similar plaque at the Public Works building.  Nobody asked my permission.  If they had, I would have told them no.  It's possible my name might some day be on a plaque either at the log cabin or the administration building.  Or both.  I object.  I protest.  I did object and protest, but I was told I couldn't evade this tribute.  To what?  The fact that I was on the Commission when these projects were agreed to and executed?  So what?  I was a small cog in a very big wheel.  It's true I voted in favor of these projects, but if there are ever plaques with names, my name will be there even if I had voted against the projects.  And voting in favor of them, or just being there, is all I did.  I didn't pay for them.  My name is no more important than is yours.  Should we have a plaque with the names of all of the then approximately 3000 Village residents?  What about the state money, which paid for most of the projects?  A plaque with the names of every resident in Florida?  We don't have state income tax.  We rely importantly on tourists, and people who buy things like the produce we...produce.  There are a lot of names that could properly go on a plaque at the log cabin and the administration building.

Here's why we're having  this conversation.  (Yes, there's an actual reason.)  Roxy and Chuck Ross have just closed on a house in Gainesville.  And they're about to list for sale their house in Griffing Boulevard.  You don't need me to walk you through this math, right?

Let's say Ed Burke was a credit to the Village.  He should have been.  He lived here, he was repeatedly elected to the Commission, the Commission repeatedly elected him mayor, and no one has told me he did not accept his Commission stipend, which was not the reduced stipend it is today.  If he dominated the Commission, which Dan Keys might or might not say he did, then that was his style, and it was the style of his Commission colleagues to permit it.  And Ed Burke is not remotely the only Village resident, or elected representative, who served the Village, and served it (presumably) well.  Richard Ederr was mayor for about 10 years, and people loved him for that.  Bob Anderson was a Commissioner for a total of 20 years.  There have been very many electeds apart from those few I just named.  And even more Village residents who were never elected, but served either on boards, other groups, or simply volunteered.  If I believed in honoring people, by attaching their names to things, (which I don't), there would be plenty of people to honor.  Heck, I gave you a short list of some of them several posts ago, when I told you who donated their own money to buy sculptures to beautify your Village.  No one's name is on any of the sculptures.

But if I would even think of making an exception, here's where I'd make it.  And it's in two places.  One is the Foundation's project from a few years ago to sell bricks that would compose a walkway to the log cabin.  The idea was that Village residents, or anyone, would buy bricks, on which their names, or whatever they want, would be inscribed, and the money they paid, which was vastly more than the cost of a brick paver, would be the Foundation's "profit," which it would use for some other initiative.  

The other exception I would make would be for the Rosses.  It's not easy to understand, much less explain, the extent to which Roxy and Chuck Ross have served, and upheld, this Village.  They have given endless time and energy, and a not trivial amount of money, to us.  They have been steadfast, under sometimes unspeakable conditions.  As much as many of us appreciate them, and are grateful to them, some others are unashamedly critical, disrespectful, and even insulting or accusatory.  "Backwards and in high heels," indeed.  The Rosses are exceptionally intelligent, unbelievably well organized and prepared, perspicacious, broad-thinking, and unflappable (well, Chuck's not always unflappable, especially when someone is giving Rox a hard time).  They have never, for an instant, taken their eyes off the ball.  Except that one time, when the hypnotic Steve Bernard temporarily had Chuck questioning reality.  But Chuck righted himself.  And even at that, Chuck didn't go along with Steve for a little while because he knew Steve wasn't telling the truth, or was disruptive.  It's because he thought Steve had the Village's interests at heart.  Chuck and Rox do.

I met Chuck, and Rox, in a very funny way.  I had seen them at Commission meetings, and had heard Chuck make public comments (then mayor John Hornbuckle once joked to Chuck that if being an accountant didn't work out any more at some point, Chuck should think of a career in radio: Chuck has a great baritone voice), but I didn't know them.  We had never been introduced.  But one day, Chuck reached out to me to ask if we could get together for coffee, which we did at what was the Starbucks (now Cafe Creme) on 125th St.  Chuck told me Steve had said such terrible things about me that he -- Chuck -- had to see for himself.  We quickly became very fast friends, and we have been ever since.  I trust Chuck, and Rox, implicitly, and I have every confidence they trust me the same.  We're on the same page about most things, and we have complete respect for each other when we don't agree.

I entertained the thought, when I was imagining freeing myself from my stricture about these things, that once Roxy was no longer on the Commission, I would "lobby" to have the main and larger function area of the administration building called the "Roxanna S. and Charles A. Ross Conference Room."  I didn't allow myself even to think of something like the "Roxanna S. and Charles A. Ross Administration Building," or the "Roxanna S. and Charles A. Ross Log Cabin."  I just imagined something more modest, and as a tribute to their unwavering and entirely selfless hard work.

But I'm not free from my strictures about such things, and I don't think that's what we should do, and I think we should remove Ed Burke's name from the park, no matter how much anyone liked him, or how much he might have helped the Village, in whatever ways he did.

I do, though, want to say goodbye and thank you to the Rosses.  It's the very least I can do.  And nothing anyone could do would be gratitude, or compensation, enough.