Hands Across the Sand II

July 1, 2010



Erika & DeeVon





Hands Across the Sand II



In February, before the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the horrific scenes that are coming to us each day from the Gulf region, there was an organized effort to protest against off-shore oil drilling called “Hands Across the Sand” that took place at various locations across the country including Key West, where about 200 some people came out, joined hands and created a No Drilling message that looked cool from the air. It was a nice event, but there wasn’t the urgency present with the second attempt at Hands Across the Sand that happened this past weekend.



FKCC's Dr. Patrick Rice

UU Fellowship of Key West



The event, organized locally by the indomitable Erika Biddle, had a much greater sense of importance with all that has happened with the horrible oil gushing calamity that continues in the Gulf of Mexico. This time there were close to 400 people who showed up on Smathers Beach in Key West dressed in Blue & Green to support protecting the ocean that is so vital to all who live on this island.



Mike Hentz & Sheelman





The crowd was a wonderful diverse cross-section of our community and was remarkably restrained, choosing the quiet powerful symbolism of clasping hands and lining the beach to an angry protest. That isn’t to say there were not angry people, crushed about the relatively apathetic response by BP and government officials to get the horrible situation under control, but the response was muted and other than a few protest signs, people were generally just showing their support and love for a clean ocean.





Lucy

Video by Haig Varjabedian

It was an interesting scene as the people arrived, lined-up, joined hands and were counted before dissolving away back to their lives, all the while the regular beach activities continued unabated around them. Kids building sand castles, kayakers, sunbathers, swimmers all seemed to add to the sense of why protecting our beaches is so vitally important.









The event coincided with one of the annual Swim Around the Island events, and we were there to witness the arrival of the overall winner of the event, a young girl who swam the 12.5 miles around Key West in just over 4 hours in windy and sort of rough conditions and who upon arriving on shore promptly picked up a sign to express her desire to keep the oceans clean.





Natalia & Ian

Hands Across the Sand

One Human Family

June 30, 2010





Candidates line up to speak

One Human Family

Key West is a unique place, full of wonderful interesting people. I’m sure many places have their fair share of unique people, but Key West seems to have a greater concentration than anyplace else that I have been. I got to experience two very different varieties of Keys characters this past week as I attended events that showcased the diversity and incredible character of our island. Two events that on their face, might seem very different, yet each exposed me to the wonderful, interesting qualities of the people here.

Todd, Tom, Alex & Sheldon



The first was the meet the candidates forum hosted by HomeTown PAC, the Key West based political action committee which I am currently serving as a board member. The event was hosted at the beautiful Key West Botanical Gardens and was held on the final day of qualifying for the local elections which will be held in August and November.



Carol

School Board Candidate John Dick was elected with no opposition.

There were close to 30 candidates on hand (all but one) for the various races that include local Monroe County Commission, the Mosquito Control Board, the School Board, various judges and more. As a board member of Hometown, I will not use this blog to promote any specific candidate. I try to avoid politics, religion and the like on my blog, but I will encourage people living in the Keys to check out the Hometown PAC website, attend one of our future forums and to participate in local elections by getting out and exercising your right to vote. We have seen locally in the past few years that local elections for seemingly minor positions have major ramifications and we all have a voice to elect our representatives.





The other big event was a fundraising event at the 801 Bourbon Street bar to raise money to help with medical care for another of Key West’s most iconic figures, J.T. Thompson. In 2000, JT started handing out simple stickers with the phrase “One Human Family”. A decade later and literally hundreds of thousands of stickers later, JT continues to hand them out and the slogan has been adopted as Key West’s official philosophy.

Ron Saunders, JT & Mike Mongo





Hundreds of people showed up to support JT and the event seemed to be a big success, and even though the event was all about him, JT couldn’t stop even for a few hours and had the stickers and “One Human Family” wristbands available to all who wanted them. There was a plethora of entertainment, food and a silent auction and everyone seemed to have a good time. You can learn more and even order a free sticker at the link below.



Finally I have been spending time hanging out at Shanna Key, always an interesting experience, which has become the World Cup headquarters, for watching soccer action. Key West is loaded with people from all around the globe and it seems as if no matter the game, there is always a large raucous crowd to watch the games. Sadly, I watched the USA drop out with their loss to Ghana 2-1, but it sure was a fun run and the spirit of the fans at Shanna Key was great.

Fiona

Go USA!!

Hometown PAC website

One Human Family