Florida's Gubernatorial Election

In light of a friend of mine taking off for London on Saturday (she worked with Rick Scott this summer) lets take a look at the two main candidates for this November’s Florida Gubernatorial election.

Rick Scott (Health Care Executive, Attorney, & Navy Veteran)

Economy:

Rick will ensure that Florida has an educated workforce that will allow Florida to attract new business and good paying jobs.

Rick will create jobs by keeping taxes low and limiting job killing regulations.

Rick will believes that the government should live within its means.

Education:

Rick believes in school choice, including vouchers and charter schools.

Rick supports a constitutional amendment to modify the state’s class-size law.

Rick supports eliminating teacher tenure for new teachers.

Energy:

Rick supports expansion of nuclear power, use of alternative fuels and off-shore drilling.

Rick will fight to ensure that any future offshore drilling does not negatively impact Florida’s beaches

Rick believes that energy independence is essential to America’s economic vitality.

Immigration:

Rick opposed to amnesty and will fight amnesty for lawbreakers.

Rick supports measures like the Arizona law that allow enforcement of already existing laws.

Rick will require all Florida employers to use the free E-Verify system to ensure that their workers are legal.

Alex Sink (State CFO, and Ex-Bank President)

Economy:

Alex will put a stronger emphasis on R&D and commercialization of new products.

Alex believes in boosting partnerships between our university faculty and private industry.

Alex plans on building the best-educated, best-trained workforce in the country.

Education:

Alex plans to put a Bachelor-degreed Teacher in Every Pre-K Classroom.

Alex supports Career and Technical Academies in High Schools.

Alex favors a Common-Sense Approach to Class Size Reduction.

Energy:

Alex will work to substantially increase the money we receive from the federal government for clean energy and energy efficiency investment.

Alex will actively promote Florida’s new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.

Alex will seek to create opportunities from federal resources through the US Department of Labor.

Immigration:

Alex will impose stiff state fines on private companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Alex will require all state agencies to verify the legal status when hiring state employees.

Alex will require state agencies to verify the legal status of any applicant for taxpayer-funded public assistance programs who claims to be a legal immigrant.

9/11

“Our purpose and our goal here at Dove World Outreach Center is to get people to stand up…It is our vision to go around, to preach and to challenge, and to get the church involved and ready. We must go outside of the walls, and march for righteousness.”

This is the mission statement of the Dove World Outreach Center (I shutter to think I added to the website traffic), located within walking distance of my comfy little home in Gainesville, Florida. Unfortunately, the orange and blue pride as we beat the University of South Florida, and reverence as we attend the 9/11 memorial will be overshadowed by Dove World Outreach’s “Burn a Koran Day” celebration. As a student at UF, I often sidestep a major traffic zone on campus in an attempt to steer clear of the Dove Center’s use of our free-speech zones—and at the very least I avoid making eye contact with these Alachua county residents.

The Koran Burning is to signify the day that Islamic extremists hijacked United States airplanes and crashed them into the Twin Towers in New York City. I hope you note that it was the extremists and not any representative portion of the Islamic population that caused the deaths of 2,977 Americans.

In my opinion, after the 9/11 attacks a majority of Americans wrongly believed a religion, ethnicity, or culture was to blame. I cannot confidently say I was in that minority either. Still, is it any surprise that the New York Times compared the DWOC to al Qaeda hijacking Islam. I don’t think so. But what it does prove is that the actions of a few can wrongly be interpreted by the many.

On the flip side, Terry Jones, pastor of DWOC, has announced that he has received hundred of support letters in the past three weeks. He does have plenty of support, as evidenced by the many white tee shirts sporting the logo “Islam is of the Devil”.

So to the Dove World Outreach Center: I hope you are satisfied with the negative publicity you have garnered; not only have you smeared the name of the city I now call home, but of a country that protects your right to burn the sacred symbol of Islam. And remember, Jesus not only told us to “love the Lord…with all your heart” but also to “love your neighbor”.