There is or should be respect accorded to the phrase “Freedom Summer” in America due to the voter registration struggle in 1964 Mississippi. It claimed the lives of heroes and exposed troglodyte local officials as the KKK scum they were.
Florida’s current excruciating dullard of a governor, a man so devoid of talent and imagination and humanity that he patterns himself on whiny lowlife convicted felon Donald Trump and even fails at that, co-opted “Freedom Summer” for a sales tax holiday.
Then the leaden lump made it a paean to the “freedom” his culture war bullshit supposedly bestowed on the state, including a FLDOT order that bridges can only display red, white and blue lights:
WaPo 5/23/2024 – DeSantis’s ‘Freedom Summer’ means no rainbow lights for Florida bridges
As part of what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is calling “Freedom Summer,” his Transportation Department has told cities across the state that if they want to light up their bridges at night, they can only use the colors red, white and blue…
“As Floridians prepare for Freedom Summer, Florida’s bridges will follow suit, illuminating in red, white, and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day!” [FLDOT Sec. Jared] Perdue wrote on X. “Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation.”
A number of bridges across the state prominently display rainbow colors in honor of Pride Month in June, among other celebrations throughout the year. Many see the order to display only red, white and blue as another move against the LGBTQ+ community, which has been targeted by a number of DeSantis-backed laws in recent years.
For half of the population, bodily autonomy and access to modern reproductive healthcare were recently swept away in the shit-tsunami of “freedom” gushing out of Tallahassee. And of course this dumb goddamn lighting rule is yet another middle finger to the state’s embattled queer community.
In response, a set of heroes in Jacksonville banded together to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness. More accurately, they lit flashlights:
Action News Jax: Community members display their own version of pride, light up Main Street Bridge in San Marco
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On Friday night, community members gathered to display their own version of pride — by lighting up the Main Street Bridge in San Marco with rainbow colors.
This comes after the Florida Department of Transportation said all state bridges must be lit red, white, and blue all summer long for Governor Ron DeSantis’s Freedom Summer.
Saturday kicks off Pride Month. And for years, the Acosta Bridge was lit with rainbow colors during June. But since that won’t happen this year, people found another way to show their pride.
Seventy people held flashlights of the six different colors of pride to illuminate the rainbow on the Main Street Bridge.
“This is an awesome experience,” participant Rebecca Thacker-Sanchez said.
“It feels really fun actually, I feel like we’re writing history today,” participant Andres Santandreu said.
Light display organizer, Matthew McAllister, says tonight’s event was about showing how freedom and diversity can coexist together.
“Celebrating freedom is great, exercising it is better,” McAllister said.
Amen, Mr. McAllister.
Thanks to TaMara for alerting me to this good news Florida story, and also to the ever-fabulous Sister Golden Bear, who mentioned it in the morning thread. Happy Pride, y’all!
Open thread!
Lazy Sunday Afternoon Open Thread
Baud
To repeat what I said earlier today, I ♥️ this.
ETA: Positive yet a powerful way to stand up symbolically to DeSantis’s attempt at oppression.
Andrew Abshier
A lot of us in downstate Florida pick on Jacksonville. I won’t do that any more. Well done to all those who participated!
J. Arthur Crank
Christ, the “freest state” in the nation because of the limited choice in potential colors in which to illuminate bridges? I guess less is more, or something like that.
Baud
@J. Arthur Crank:
Red, white, and blue are also the colors of the Russian flag. Just sayin’.
raven
Athens had a pretty decent parade yesterday !
Ken
@J. Arthur Crank: Hopefully voters will note the the resemblance to a homeowner’s association, because we all know how popular those are.
TaMara
As I said on FB: We, the people.
Baud
@raven: Awesome.
@Ken:
Haha. That could work.
BSR
My family and I lasted only 18 months in Jacksonville before escaping FL back in the late 90s. I used to criticize it a lot and don’t really miss it, but this is a nice story. Clearly there are some good people there who can creatively raise a rainbow-colored middle finger to DeSantis. Bravo!
Baud
@TaMara:
In order to form a more fabulous union…
Baud
Isn’t Jacksonville the city where the Dem won the mayor’s race in an upset?
mvr
Can a governor even do that?
If it were the president doing this there would have to be a process to change the code of federal regulations and that would only cover stuff the feds are involved in. (And if the president were doing something good Texas would just defy the regulation.) Similarly can the state just tell municipalities what to do without passing an actual law?
O. Felix Culpa
I love the creativity of this action. A perfect response to the dullard governor and his pathetic culture wars.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
a more fabulous union…
Yes!
John Revolta
DUUUUUU-VAAAAALLLLLLLL!!
John Revolta
@Baud: Yes! And she’s doing a great job!
scav
Good for Pride and may Juneteenth follow suit. All the lights for all the peoples and on many bridges.
satby
Got a dispatch from my mole in MitchMcTurtleland, who says most of the MAGAts in his workplace have fallen basically silent after the convicted felon’s trial. Which my son is enjoying.
Betty Cracker
@TaMara: Yep. Makes me recall a Gandhi quote:
I don’t know if that’s strictly true, but I want it to be.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Ooh, that’s good news.
satby
@scav: Yeah, hoping the other big cities follow Jacksonville’s lead and organize rainbow flashlight brigades all over Florida.
satby
@Betty Cracker: One of my favorite Gandhi quotes.
Baud
@satby:
I would read “My son the mole,” FWIW.
satby
@Baud: I suspect a few just know better than to engage him on tcfg. He’s very much a chip off his mom’s block.
karen marie
Will somebody please make this cake and bring me a piece?
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: Great quote. All tyrants do fall, eventually. It’s a question of how long it takes and how much damage is incurred before their downfall. Hopefully we can rid ourselves of our wannabe tyrants sooner, rather than later.
Rob
@karen marie: I can’t make that cake (or any cake, sorry), but the photo in your link is inspiring me to eat more ice cream
Quinerly
Since I have been on a Willie kick today honoring his 75 studio albums, I will leave this here. Posted it pretty late in an earlier thread. Somehow I missed it when it came out originally. The video is very recent, though.
“Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” with Willie Nelson….official video. Love the comments on YouTube.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BirJMnMcfBs&pp=ygVAY293Ym95cyBhcmUgc2VjcmV0bHkgZnJlcXVlbnRseSBmb25kIG9mIGVhY2ggb3RoZXIgd2lsbGllIG5lbHNvbg%3D%3D
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa: It’s the impermanence of victory over the tyrants that pisses me off! It’s a never-ending struggle. But the progress we’ve made on LGBTQ rights just in my lifetime is amazing. I hold onto that in dark times. It’s real.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: Agreed on all counts. I never imagined I’d see a resurgence of fascism in my lifetime, and yet, here we are. Hopefully we can put a stake in the heart of this particular pestilence. Who knows what our children will be called on to resist?
Quadrillipede
Fuck Rodney Sandpits! 💩🧌💩
Hooray for the bridge flashlight heroes! 🌈🏳️🌈🌈
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
AI-powered cyborgs.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
[slaps forehead]
Of course.
Geminid
@scav: I saw an ad for a Juneteenth celebration planned for Raymond James Stadium, in Tampa. A big venue.
Quadrillipede
I think it can be read as “all tyrants and murderers are mortal, just like the rest of us…” (which is true, fwiw).
Nukular Biskits
I wouldn’t be surprised if MS’s guv, Tate Reeves, tries to push that through the state leg next year.
caphilldcne
Just checking in to say thanks for all the Pride stuff. Only got to comment a bit on the earlier thread before brunch and grilling for a friends birthday so I love this follow up and the creativity of the Jacksonville folks. Hood there will be more creative disobedience down there. Happy pride you all.
Miss Bianca
@satby: How delightful. :)
Sister Golden Bear
@J. Arthur Crank: Republicans: The HOA for your gender, your sexual orientation, your bodily autonomy…
chrisanthemama
But but but isn’t purple just red-and-blue? Isn’t pink just red-and-white?
K-Mo
@Baud: Agreed, completely.
Betty Cracker
@Nukular Biskits: Ugh, Reeves, the ambulatory canned ham. As odious as DeSantis but without the ignorant media hype.
K-Mo
Is DeSantis even capable of proposing something that isn’t cringeworthy?
GTFOH with “Freedom Summer” as a tepid celebration of jingoism / a preempting of Pride.
What’s next, putting red white and blue roses around Confederate statues in Florida parks and calling it a celebration of Rosy Parks? A law requiring you to vote for right-wing nuttery called the Voting Right Act? A “I Have a Fever Dream” speech?
mrmoshpotato
Such a fucking pathetic, sad horse’s ass – leading a fucking sad, pathetic, horse’s ass
of a political partycult.Jackie
OT, but important regarding freedoms:
Citizen Dave
@Quinerly: I saw that when it came out. I remember in the early Elvis Costello years when he had an album every six months, but that only lasted about three years. Willie has been releasing two a year for 20 or 30 years. Even with a lot covers, it’s impressive, and hard to keep up with.
TaMara
@Baud: 😁
Quinerly
@Citizen Dave: amazing to me. I just read if you count live albums and collaborations at over 100 albums.
Really loved old Elvis Costello. I guess my college and law school days…late ’70’s and ’80s. Sorta have lost track of him. Saw him in NOLA I guess either pre Katrina or after. No audience interaction. Kinda acted like he was pissed to be there. Much like sweaty and ill tempered Van Morrison in the 1990’s at NOLA Jazz and Heritage Fest. (I was so disappointed with Van. Love his music. Even the obscure stuff).
I am a huge fan of one of Johnny Cash’s ex SILs.
“Alexa, play Nick Lowe.”
“Peace, Love, and Understanding.”
“When I Write the Book.”
mvr
@Quinerly: Elvis has better and worse shows but never bad shows. Saw him open for Dylan in 2015 with just a stomp box after having played for Hilary’s birthday the previous month or so. (Which he could not stop bragging about and also making fun of Arnold S about.) Absolutely brilliant use of a tape loop to be his own backing band. Saw another show with Larkin Poe as his backing band in a small theater. Best show I have seen in my current (30+ year) town. Primed the pump by showing his old videos then played the songs a different way. Also with the Imposters at a casino that was a really good old-style show. (Having seen the hostile Armed Forces tour 40+ years ago where the songs were fast and the whole thing was over in 75 minutes I can speak to that.)
But having said all that in his defense, I recently saw him with Nick Lowe (and Los Straightjackets) opening in Omaha, and Nick was the highlight that night. Not that EC was bad, but not as good as these other times I mention above. And Nick was just wonderful!
Van Morrison is unfortunately a disappointment in his dotage. Not that I’ve seen him in 40 years, but he just seems to be more of the ass he was reputed to be when I didn’t want to believe it.
RaflW
Besides insulting LGBTQ+ Floridians (and, if any still go there, tourists) calling what he’s doing “freedom summer” is an absolute affront to the 1964 Freedom Summer project by SNCC and civil rights leaders.
He’s gay-bashing by cheapening and ripping off the 60s efforts to get Black southerners the full right to vote (which is itself under attack by so many DeSantis-type Republicans).
Quinerly
@mvr:
Great post! Thank you. My most disappointing shows were Van in the 1990’s in NOLA. (I forgave him in mid 2000’s when he released “Pay the Devil.” Such an underappreciated album. But I’m back to being pissed with him over Covid Times) and heroin addicted Clapton in the 80’s. I think it was a 30 man show, at that. He walked off stage mid song.
I worship at the Altar of Dylan (and Leonard Cohen, for that matter). Only have seen Dylan once, though. NOLA Jazz and Heritage Fest years ago when it was a fun festival and not so commercial. I was right on the “fence,” dancing and singing…as close as you could get to him on stage. He winked at me, in his black, vintage pearl snap button shirt and cowboy boots. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Quinerly
@mvr:
Nick Lowe is awesome. Great show several years back at the accoustically perfect Sheldon in St. Louis. I think it was around the time of “The Old Magic” album (great cover pic). I just played “Stop Light Roses.” So wonderful.
mvr
@Quinerly: There are several of his albums that I love. Besides the ones everyone thinks of Party of One is a favorite from my younger days.
mvr
@Quinerly: Thanks! Nice for you to get the Dylan recognition. Jazz fest is something I need to get back to. Last time I tried my now spouse’s mom died and I had to leave NOLA before having a chance to go to the festival. Back when I did go it was to the first weekend of Jazzfest, which was for the locals, and got me a chance to see historic performances in smaller venues. Allan Toussaint giving a history of New Orleans piano was a treat. As were a number of Zydeco folks and blues performers, now long gone. Food wasn’t bad either.
E.
That co-opting of Freedom Summer is chilling. Like a literal chill went down my spine. These are frightening times.
Quinerly
@mvr:
I was really impressed with his show at The Sheldon. So gracious. Kept looking around and complimenting the venue. (Leon Russell did the same thing years prior. Next time I saw him was playing in a bar situation in St. Louis. I don’t think he knew where he was. I read later that at that point he was deaf.)
Music related…I have been following Ms Dunaway’s ex for years with his solo stuff . If you haven’t ever checked it out, take a listen to the albums “Sleepless” and “Midnight Souvenirs.” Mr. Wolf is in his late 70’s now. Plays around his beloved Boston. And a great Book of Faces page. I get a kick out of his Thanksgiving gatherings. I have to think he posts his own stuff (no handler, no media person). I know for a fact Al Kooper was doing his own thing on FB years ago. Another underappreciated musician…..
“Alexa, play Al Kooper’s Black Coffee.”
Quinerly
@mvr:
I had a 21 year Jazz Fest run. Living in St. Louis for almost 40 years, lots of NOLA runs, King Biscuit in the Fall, and Memphis in May.
Jazz Fest was a festival like no other back before the onslaught of commercialization and amateur attendees.
Cherish Toussaint and Dr. John’s last shows. The fest after the grand stand burned on NYE. Springsteen there after Katrina, walking and chatting with Buffett and Ed Bradley on the way to chow down on Crawfish Monica. Dancing in the mud in 1993 to Maria Muldaur. Rain pouring down.
Hugging Irma and her hubby at their club. Being mistaken for Emmylou by drunk 22 year old boys….Boycotting Ike Turner…..Wondering about the sexual chemistry between Bonnie Raitt and Roy G. Rogers. Bailing on the Allman Brothers because of distortion with the sound. And smoking a blunt with that hot Adam Duritz literally under the bleachers at the old House of Blues Stage.
Those were the days…..
Gloria DryGarden
@mvr: excellent questions
Gloria DryGarden
@O. Felix Culpa: the ghandi quote from Betty cracker, above, makes me relax and take a deep breath, in an oasis of no-tyrant life. The moment passes.
I read your comment about how much harm, and thought of how many people in Europe and Asia have the Ghengis khan’s dna on their Y chromosome. Yup. And all the medical treatises and science work flowering in the Muslim worlds, before they were overrun. And I think of the library in Alexandria, about which one hears hints of yet another depth of knowledge that was lost. I forget what, herbal medicine, was it, or lost religious books, besides sapphos poetry..
harm, indeed. So many examples.
auticorrect turned ghandi into grandiose. You would have thought I was attacking, had I not spotted it. Caramba !
mvr
@Quinerly: Yes, Peter Wolf is cool as well. There are a bunch of things I played during covid isolation that I somewhat run together; Peter Wolf’s record was one of them. Really varied musical styles-wise. Saw J Geils quasi-open (Greg Kihn actually was the first act) for the Stones in 1981 in Seattle. Had slept out on the sidewalk for good standing room the night before. Wolf has that sad soulful vocal thing that really makes you feel it.
Going to see the Stones again later this month. A bit of a sucker for them (given the prices) at least so long as Keith is still around.
I’ll keep checking out EC shows, Dylan shows and Stones shows as long as they keep going. Also a fan of Drive by Truckers, Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash , Bruce, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle when they pass through the area. But I realize as I get older the must see list for me has shortened.
I’m sure there are bands as good, but there’s a thing about those that one resonates with in one’s youth. Unfortunately the PDX bands of the early 80s are gone and the Clash didn’t survive my 40s.
Thanks for engaging on music.
mvr
@Quinerly: OK, these are memories that beat mine. But I’ll detail a few of mine, nonetheless. Going into club I’m forgetting the name of (Benny’s?) and seeing a Johnny Winter impersonator playing one of those headless guitars he played in the 80s from 6 feet away, only to realize it was Johnny Winter years later. Seeing Aaron Neville at a bar the night before the first weekend. Zachary Richard on one of the main stages when only the locals knew of him. Al green at the Gospel tent. Dr John, Irma Thomas, Sun Ra and Snooks Eaglin on various stages, back in the day.
Being told by a bookseller that the 9.5% sales tax I was paying was because “Down hear we tolerate corruption, and don’t like paying taxes, so someone’s got to pay the bill.”
ArchTeryx
@Betty Cracker: I think it is true. What Ghandi failed to mention was how very many people – millions upon millions – they can take with them on the way down, and the most hideous ways imaginable. Tyrants always fall. It doesn’t mean you’ll live to see it. That’s why it takes such faith to topple one – you won’t live to see it, but maybe the next generation will.
katzdip
I just can’t get over the Orwellian nature of the whole MAGA shtick – “freedom is government restrictions” (on lights, bodily autonomy, local government control, etc.). And to do it with such unabashed hypocrisy – it’s Ok for government to restrict lighting choices or medical gender treatment or access to contraception, but it NOT OK for government to lightly regulate working in killer heat…..The lack of consistency and the ever changing nature of the “threats” they scream about indicates that it is all performative to keep their devoted followers in frothing anger and fear (like, who else cares about lights on a bridge?) They certainly don’t believe in any of it, given how they have no problem supporting a loser and convicted felon like Tr*mp.
Quinerly
@mvr: these are great. I love Zachary Richard. He is a distant cousin of an old St. Louis friend who was in charge of our local community radio station (KDHX). Al was originally from NOLA. He eventually moved back to be closer to his mother, Doris, who lived on Lake Pontchartrain. Al and Doris would give these huge parties the Wed before second weekend. Honestly, I never saw anything like them before nor since. They went on all day and night. A lot of us would camp in tents in their yard. Zachary would always come, eat, hang out. All pre Katrina. Late 1990’s.
For years in late “80’s and thru the ’90’s, our group from St. Louis and Cleveland area (great music town) would camp in one of those campgrounds on Chef. Usually, my boyfriend and I would leave after first weekend and go down to that state park in Gulf Shores. Lay on the beach and dry out. Camp Mon and Tues nights and go back on Wed for that party. Then get set up Thurs AM in our previous spot from first weekend on Chef. All those campgrounds on Chef were getting pretty rough by the time Katrina washed them away in 2005..
Speaking of rain. Were you there in 1993? The year it rained almost every day. I think that was the year Santana played second weekend.
Quinerly
@mvr:
Some of us need to suggest to Cole, Watergirl to bring back those all music threads. These were years ago. Late Saturday night, if I recall correctly. Raven and Ozark were really active on them. In fact, from one of those threads with an Ozark posting, I figured out he and I had a lot of St. Louis peeps in common. Might even knew each other. We knew a lot of the same music folks. Had traveled in the same circles. Turned out one of my best friends was one of his good friends.
Those music threads were great.