Good Morning Florida Keys

One of my provocateurs said the material from the American Decency Association in Shirley Mason’s email to me, all of which I included in yesterday’s “Surely Not In Key West” post, was about the most bigoted thing he had ever seen. He said those people are what Homeland Security ought to be doing something about.
 
This fellow is white and straight. He is no screaming liberal – anything but. He is a business man. He stays on top of the news and political events, in Key West, America and internationally. He is not wowed by President Obama and he didn’t care for George W. Bush.
 
A staunch Republican amigo said of yesterday’s post that I could have left off the Swastika and used a Puritan symbol instead. I replied that these people (American Decency Association) are Christian Nazis, American version. They intend to remake America in their image.
 
When I received an email invitation yesterday from Key West Business Guild, to attend next Wednesday’s monthly luncheon (I’m an individual member), I saw the topic was nude beaches. No speakers were named, so I called the Guild office and asked who was speaking, hoping it was someone who knew something about the topic. I was told Shirley Mason was listed as one of the speakers and breathed a big sigh of relief.
 
The Mother of Haulover Beach, a veteran of many battles with the American Decency Association and other religious-right groups, as is her husband, Richard, whose life has been threatened by church people, Shirley ought to be able to explain Naturist beach practices and the dazzling nude beach economics at the Business Guild luncheon. I imagine Shirley also will put the fear of God into everyone there, who has not yet considered just what a real threat the American Decency Association and their kin in Key West pose not only to a nude beach but to the entire gay community, One Human Family, FantasyFest and, yes, Duval Street. They intend to remake Key West in their image.
 
Non-Guild members can attend a first-time luncheon for the same $25 fee members pay. Any non-members interested in attending and getting to know Shirley Mason, Mother of Halover Beach and of African-descent, call the Guild office and make a reservation: (305) 294-4603. Shirley told me on the phone yesterday that she won’t be in the buff at the luncheon, unless it’s moved to a beach. 

Sloan for mayor, political advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

Yesterday in Key West, I conversed with an amiga about the American Decency Society’s pending invasion, ostensibly to defeat the nude beach referendum, as a step to taking out Fantasy Fest and One Human Family. When she said, “Surely this cannot happen in Key West,” I said that perspective will insure it does happen in Key West. When she looked puzzled, I said that’s the perspective of many people who live here: “Surely this cannot happen in Key West.” But when the election comes and the referendum fails, they will see that it surely did happen in Key West. When she asked what she could do about it?, I said she needs to get active, go to war, start talking to everyone she knows. She is gay. She has a business in Key West that serves a lot of people, gay and straight. A well-known business. She has a lot invested in Key West, and you had better believe nude beaches are not nearly as high on the American Decency Association’s totem pole to get rid of, as are the relationship this city has with gays, FantasyFest and yes, Duval Street. Surely it can happen in Key West, if you don’t get proactive, go to war, and start telling people what really is at stake.

To prod you further, consider this email I received yesterday from Shirley Mason, who, along with her husband and many people they know have been going up against the American Decency Society and their likes for decades. When you get to the part in the American Decency Society’s spiel about their website allegedly being hacked by radical gays, please do not applaud. That is not the way to do this. The way to do this is to tell everyone you know what is really at stake and to vote.

Sloan Bashinsky, mayor candidate, political advertisement approved and paid for by me

KW nude beach: RRR’s new “red meat”?

From:	Shirley Mason, “Founder and Mother of Haulover Beach” (exdirbeaches@aol.com)
Sent:	Wed 7/29/09 11:50 AM
To:
Cc:	ExDirBEACHES@aol.com

Good morning Naturist activists:In case you haven’t heard, one of the several hundred radical religious right (RRR) organizations have taken up the fight against establishing the c/o beach in Key West.  It’s the American Decency Association.  If you want to read about their efforts on this issue, go to: www.americandecency.org/?s=key+west+nude+beach

The folks that live in Key West know the attitude or their residents about outsiders coming in and telling them what to do, HOWEVER, it has been years since they had to fight the RRR in their city regarding something similar to this, and that being Fantasy Fest.  It took years to reverse their success in de-nuding the event — thus causing major losses of revenue and interest in the event.  I hope KW naturists are correct, but history doesn’t prove this out when it come to the RRR working with the RRR Conchs.  How many of you were actively involved in that fight?

I can assure you that the RRR groups can be extremely effective by working with their local constituents and allied sympathizers.  They can easily appear to be behind the scenes if that’s necessary.  They use so called “morality” banner to profile themselves for the sole purpose of increasing their supporters FOR RAISING $$$$.  The nude beach issue is tailor-made for their mission and goal and THEY see it as tied into the public sex, child abuse and the Gay Rights issues.  Naturists and nude beaches are their newly-resorected “red meat” particularily in Florida.While we’re planning and executing the referendum educational campaign for Key West’rs, we better plan how to deal with the organized RRR enemy.  If we ignore them, it will be at our peril. 20A loss in KW for Naturists will have a much greater reach on the nude beach issue than just in KW.  (Just two weeks ago, California Stat Parks formally banned all c/o beaches there.)We need all hands on board if we’re going to have any chance of winning.  That means representatives from the KW busines associations together with the sponsoring naturist organizations and key professionals.  I’ve urged the Key West activists, without success, to arrange regularly scheduled teleconferences for better communication and effective planning.   We have a number of very smart people in a number of areas whch are our best resources, but these resources has to be shared and managed.Battle-tested for 21 years and wiser for it,Shirley Mason
Founder and “Mother of Haulover Beach”
B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation Institute

When I appeared on radiofreekeywest.com two days ago, with two Naturists, one of them said the American Decency Association (Americandecency.org), headquartered in Lansing,  Michigan, had made an offer to Key West churches, to come down here and help them defeat the nude breach referendum, but they will need $15,000 to make the trip, for which they will chip in $15,000 of their own funds. The Naturist said he had surfed the Web and had seen references to linkage between the American Decency Association with the KKK, Aryan Nation, the Aryan Brotherhood and Fred Phelps. The Naturist told me this morning that he could not verify the linkage, but he had seen it suggested on the Web. 
 
After show host Doug Mellen had recovered from shock, he asked why would those people want to get involved in Key West’s affairs? I said it’s a first step. Defeat the referendum for a nude beach. Then get rid of Fantasy Fest and the One Human Family creed, both of which the City of Key West City Commission once upon a time adopted for the whole city without going to referendum on it. I think Doug saw in my eyes and heard in my voice that I was not kidding; I meant it.
 
The TODAY Show, as far as I know, did not touch the nude beach question in Key West yesterday. A friend up north, who saw the whole show, wrote this:
 
“Good Morning, I was very disappointed in the Today’s presentation of Key West. Al and Matt talked a lot about shopping and the stores. The Mayor was there and some other official….presented them with certificates of some sort. Had on the winner of the Hemmingway look-a-like contest. Mel Fisher’s son and grandson was on and told about sunken treasure. Dolphin and turtle rescue included. A ride on the conch train and bike too. They even reran part of it…..couldn’t they find something new to fill those minutes? People gathered around looked like tourists…..they didn’t interview any locals. Oh, they did mention Harry Truman spending time there. They did go to some restaurant known for it’s HOT sauce to try it. They should have sent the women from the show down to the eys. No mention of the beaches. Have a cool day. Rose”
 
I was at the Show for the early going in front of the Westin, and for most of the last hour. I, too, was disappointed. And not just because there was no mention of the nude beach issue. It seemed totally whitewashed, almost flakey. The part of Key West that draws so many people to it, and causes so many of us to like this place, the quirky people, the seediness, the night life, the One Human Family creed, was lacking in what I observed. The crowd was about 99.8 percent white people. There was as many people of African descent with the TODAY Show, as there were in the entire local crowd. Made me wonder just how important the Show was to our local African-descent community. And I wondered how thrilled they will be to have the American Decency Association down here telling us how to live.
 
After the TODAY Show yesterday, I called Shirley Mason in Miami, who is of African descent and is known as the mother of Haulover Beach, which is clothes optional. She told me that after 911, when other areas in Florida and even in Dade County experienced a fall in visitors, Haulover Beach did not see a decline in visitors. She said that during the decline in visitors experienced throughout Florida the past couple of years, Haulover did not experience a decline.
 
I’ve told a few people that I bet there are Key West people who are telling their families, friends, church relations and pastors that they oppose a nude beach, but who will pull a lever in favor of it on election day, because they want the local economy to turn around more than they want to keep naked people off a designated segment of one of our beaches.
 
Maybe if secret nude beach lovers know the the American Decency Association is going to bat for the nude beach opponents down here, they will have even more incentive to pull the lever in favor of a nude beach on election day. You can bet the conch farm the decency people will not stop there. They will take victory at the polls as a sign for a religious revival. They will go after everything they weren’t given any say-so in when it was put in place by the city commissions in the past. Duval Street, included.
 
While he may say he isn’t in favor of that logical extension of his opposition to a nude beach, incumbent Mayor Morgan McPherson will come under intense pressure to go along with the religious right. His own family members are religious right. I know this for a fact, because in the summer of 2003 I spent quite a few Sundays in their church, which Morgan had started. I listened and watched closely. Some years later I read what Morgan’s brother, Michael, who now pastors that church, Revelation House, posted to battleaxe.org, after former Mayor Jimmy Weekley told me to check it out. Grim. They believe all who do not go about it their way are going to hell and burn forever. I know this, because I heard them say it at Revelation House.
 
If the referendum for a nude beach fails, those of you who see the beauty and value in Fantasy Fest and the One Human Family creed might come to wish you had fought harder to get Key West a nude beach. You might wish you had fought harder because you might come to see that not getting a nude beach was the beginning of the end for the Key West you loved. The beginning of the end.
 
Sloan for mayor, political advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

When I appeared on radiofreekeywest.com two days ago, with two Naturists, one of them said the The American Decency Association (Americandecency.org), headquartered in Lansing,  Michigan, had made an offer to Key West churches, to come down here and help them defeat the nude breach referendum, but they will need $15,000 to make the trip, for which they will chip in $15,000 of their own funds. The Naturist said he had surfed the Web and had seen references to linkage between the American Decency Association with the KKK, Aryan Nation, the Aryan Brotherhood and Fred Phelps. The Naturist told me this morning that he could not verify the linkage, but he had seen it suggested on the Web. 
 
After show host Doug Mellen had recovered from shock, he asked why would those people want to get involved in Key West’s affairs? I said it’s a first step. Defeat the referendum for a nude beach. Then get rid of Fantasy Fest and the One Human Family creed, both of which the City of Key West City Commission once upon a time adopted for the whole city without going to referendum on it. I think Doug saw in my eyes and heard in my voice that I was not kidding; I meant it.
 
The TODAY Show, as far as I know, did not touch the nude beach question in Key West yesterday. A friend up north, who saw the whole show, wrote this:
 
“Good Morning, I was very disappointed in the Today’s presentation of Key West. Al and Matt talked a lot about shopping and the stores. The Mayor was there and some other official….presented them with certificates of some sort. Had on the winner of the Hemmingway look-a-like contest. Mel Fisher’s son and grandson was on and told about sunken treasure. Dolphin and turtle rescue included. A ride on the conch train and bike too. They even reran part of it…..couldn’t they find something new to fill those minutes? People gathered around looked like tourists…..they didn’t interview any locals. Oh, they did mention Harry Truman spending time there. They did go to some restaurant known for it’s HOT sauce to try it. They should have sent the women from the show down to the eys. No mention of the beaches. Have a cool day. Rose”
 
I was at the Show for the early going in front of the Westin, and for most of the last hour. I, too, was disappointed. And not just because there was no mention of the nude beach issue. It seemed totally whitewashed, almost flakey. The part of Key West that draws so many people to it, and causes so many of us to like this place, the quirky people, the seediness, the night life, the One Human Family creed, was lacking in what I observed. The crowd was about 99.8 percent white people. There was as many people of African descent with the TODAY Show, as there were in the entire local crowd. Made me wonder just how important the Show was to our local African-descent community. And I wondered how thrilled they will be to have Aryans come down here to help local sympathizers fight the nude beach referendum.
 
After the Show, I called Shirley Mason in Miami, who is of African descent and is known as the mother of Haulover Beach, which is clothes optional. She told me that after 911, when other areas in Florida and even in Dade County experienced a fall in visitors, Haulover Beach did not see a decline in visitors. She said that during the decline in visitors experienced throughout Florida the past couple of years, Haulover did not experience a decline.
 
I’ve told a few people that I bet there are Key West people who are telling their families, friends, church relations and pastors that they oppose a nude beach, but who will pull a lever in favor of it on election day, because they want the local economy to turn around more than they want to keep naked people off a designated segment of one of our beaches.
 
Maybe now that those secret nude beach lovers know the Aryan Brotherhood, KKK and Fred Phelps are going to bat for the nude beach opponents down here, they will have even more incentive to pull the lever in favor of a nude beach on election day. You can bet the conch farm they will not stop there. The religious right will take victory at the polls as a sign for a religious revival. They will go after everything they weren’t given any say-so in when it was put in place by the city commissions in the past.
 
While he may say he isn’t in favor of that logical extension of his opposition to a nude beach, incumbent Mayor Morgan McPherson will come under intense pressure to go along with the religious right. His own family members are religious right. I know this for a fact, because in the summer of 2003 I spent quite a few Sundays in their church, which Morgan had started. I listened and watched closely. Some years later I read what Morgan’s brother, Michael, who now pastors that church, Revelation House, posted to battleaxe.org, after former Mayor Jimmy Weekley told me to check it out. Grim. They believe all who do not go about it their way are going to hell and burn forever. I know this, because I heard them say it at Revelation House.
 
If the referendum for a nude beach fails, those of you who see the beauty and value in Fantasy Fest and the One Human Family creed might come to wish you had fought harder to get Key West a nude beach. You might wish you had fought harder because you might come to see that not getting a nude beach was the beginning of the end for the Key West you loved. The beginning of the end.
 
Sloan for mayor, political advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

Received this yesterday from a practical joker in my hometown, Birmingham, Alabama. I later wondered if this is why our fearless male city commissioners are are afraid to buff it at a beach.
 
My private part died!An old man, Mr Wallace, was living in a nursing home. One day he appeared to be very sad and depressed. 

Nurse Tracy asked him if there was anything wrong,m’Yes, Nurse Tracy ,’ said Mr. Wallace. ‘My Private Part died today, and I am very sad.’

Knowing her patients were a little forgetful and sometimes a little crazy, she replied, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Wallace. Please accept my condolences. ‘

The following day, Mr. Wallace was walking down the hall with his
 
Private Part hanging out of his pajamas. He met Nurse Tracy. ‘Mr. Wallace,’ she said, ‘You shouldn’t be walking down the hall like t hat. Please put your Private Part back inside your pajamas.’‘But, Nurse Tracy I can’t,’ replied Mr. Wallace. ‘I told you yesterday that my Private Part died.

‘Yes,’ said Nurse Tracy, ‘you did tell me that, but why is it hanging out of your pajamas?’

‘Well,’ he replied, ‘Today is the viewing.’

 
Night of the Iguana

There’s been a great deal of commotion over the night of the iguana in these parts, and this below that came in yesterday seems to offer a culinary solution. Down Latin America way, these critters are considered quite a delicacy.
 
Iguana hunter: We might as well eat them
By Jeff Klinkenberg, Times Staff Writer
St. Peterburg Times
In Print: Sunday, July 26, 2009
 
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1021412.ece
 
Thirty feet away, the spiny-tailed black iguana, about 2 feet long, drops in a heap – shot through its leathery head. Florida’s great iguana hunter sprints to  his prize and swings it by the tail into an ice chest.No need to stop at Subway for lunch.

“Save Florida, eat an iguana” is his credo. It also happens to be the name of his new cookbook, on sale at, well, a few places so far.

TODAY’S SPECIALS 

Key lime iguana
Mango iguana
Iguana in coconut curry
Iguana in Brazilian pepper sauce
Iguana and tourist
Iguana and politician
Iguana and Puritan
 
Use your imagination. Then watch or go to the TODAY Show in front of the Westin Hotel, in Key West. Maybe I’ll see you there, maybe not. It’s still too early in the day to know what I’m going to do today. Still too early. 2:16 a.m.
 
Sloan for mayor, political advertisement, approved and paid for by me

Been at this long?

Lifted from Mark Howell’s “From The Hill” column in the July 26 (yesterday) issue of Solares Hill: Mayor Morgan McPherson’s thoroughly wasked out comments on a nude beach at last week’s city commission meeting:
 
“We are elected to represent the individals who put us into this position. It is not a moral question but a cultural one. For me personally, my favorite sight would be to see my wife naked” — an impulsive laugh at this time from [Commissioner] Lopez, McPherson continuing on with a light smile –”but I wouldn’t want you to see her naked, not for any other reason than you’d covet what I have in matrimony.

“This is not Eden and unfortunately the change of that particular evdeavor into knowledge created the capacity for our bodies to burn, so we have a capacity I con’t believe existed at that particular point, but that’s a theological question. So the idea of wearing clothes fof me is because the idea of being burned is not” — pause — “engaging.”
 
People have approached him, he said, saying they were not prepared to make a cultural change. If we are “going through a paradign shift,” concluded McPherson, then it was incumbent up its supporters to educate us. The paradign shift now goes to referendum on the Oct. 6 ballot (Johnston and Pais voting against).
 
Sloan note: Commissioner Pais (Fred Phelps disciple) voted against a nude beach, period; he didn’t even want to give the voters a chance to decide it. Commissioner Teri Johnston (Joan d’ Arc reincarnated) urged the commissoners and mayor to decide the issue themselves, which they had the legal power to do, and to give the east end of Smathers beach a one-year trial as a nude beach.
 
Sloan drivel: Gosh, I had actually thought the mayor and city commissioners were elected to represent the entire city, and actually were supposed to do what is best for the entire city and not just the people who voted for them. Gosh, guess that actually was a really stupid thing for me to think. Really stupid. Gosh, it had never dawned on me to think anyone actually was asking Morgan to make his wife go to a nude beach and actually strip down, or to wish I actually was there when she did it, so I could write about it and maybe get sued by Morgan for not writing it the way he wanted me to write it. Gosh, I can’t say as I’ve ever even seen Morgan himself on a beach, but maybe I wasn’t there when he went, but that would be something to write about, if it happened. Him and all his buddies out their draining Coronas. That, I covet, since I can’t do booze no more. Gosh, I had actually thought we wuz supposed to have separation of church and state, but apparently Morgan never actually heard of that — well, he is a minister and did actually start a church once. Gosh, I actually had thought we bill this place out as paradise, but now it has been officially decreed that this ain’t paradise; it’s a place where people actually burn — I don’t think Morgan had in mind sunburn. Bet the Europeans can’t wait to come here and burn. Bet they can’t wait. Gosh, I actually had thought Morgan and the six commissioners were swamped with a tsunami of stories and statistics about the economic stimulus a nude beach actually would be for Key West’s groping economy. Gosh, I actually had thought the Naturists had clearly and abundantly explained to Morgan and the commissioners what Naturists and naturist beaches are like, and that they actually are the best-run, cleanest and most well-behaved beaches around. Gosh, I actually had thought Morgan was talking all along about a paradigm shift when he kept calling for Key West to be a world-class destination, but stupid me, he wasn’t calling for that at all. Gosh, I guess he was just politicking, not realizing someone or someones actually would take him up on it. Gosh, what must it be like to be taken up by God on your call for Key West to be a world class destination, and then when God actually answers your prayer, you start preaching to God about what God can and can’t do. Gosh, is this an insane asylum, or what? Oh, right, it’s a church. Stupid me. Stupid me, for actually thinking this was paradise. Stupid me.
 
I wonder if the TODAY Show is going to get into the thick of this Stone Age theolgical skirmish tomorrow, or is it actually going to let Morgan and the other neanderthals determine the show’s theme? I wonder.

Meanwhile, it’s Totally NUDE on radiofreekeywest.com this morning, 8-10 a.m, with host Douglass Mellen. The Naturists and nude beach advocates invade, and I’m tagging along. Live audio and video at the Southernmost News Bureau. 

Sloan for mayor, political advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

The Pope On Nudity, Key West

In a dream a few days ago, I was shown the Key West Catholic Latin/Cuban community is not comfortable with the idea of a nude beach. This resistance is sincere, not mean-spirited. In a second dream, I was told to write about this today, Sunday. On waking that day, I called Richard Mason, President of South Florida Free Beaches Association and Naturists, and asked him to FAX me something he had given to me which I had misplaced. It had been read into the record by a local Naturist at the recent City Commission meeting:
 

On Nudity

Because God created it, the human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendor and its beauty…
 
Sexual modesty cannot in any simple way be identified with the use of clothing, nor shamelessness with absence of clothing and total or partial nakedness. There are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest…
 
Nakedness, as such, is not to be equated with physical shamelessness…
 
Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regards to the values of  the person…
 
The human body is not in itself shameful, nor for the same reason are sensual reactions, and human sensuality in general…
 
Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior person…
 
Pope John Paul, II
official statement from
“Love and Responsibility”
 
While speaking with Richard, I learned of the evolution of the Latin/Cuban segment of Miami Beach and nearby areas with respect to nude beaches. I asked him to write it up for me, and here’s what he sent:
 
Sloan,
 
When Haulover Beach’s naturist beach was initiated, we were told by a few public officials that the beach would never see any Hispanics because they were Catholic and thus were opposed to nude sunbathing.

We were told that they would be the objecting party to the naturist beach.

I found this interesting, because I was raised Catholic and never was told that skinnydipping was wrong.

A few of the founding members of So. Fl. Free Beaches were Hispanic and many of the people that showed up at Virginia Key’s nude beach in the 70s and 80s were Hispanic.

As Haulover beach developed, we started seeing more and more Hispanics visiting the beach.

A few years after the beach was in operation as a clothing-optional beach, a television crew from Brazil appeared on the beach.  They were sent to do an interview type show on the beach, because of the acceptance of nudity.

They uploaded the show by satellite to Brazil where it was shown on television.  Miami Beach has a Brazilian population and a Brazilian television cable channel. The Haulover show was then downloaded to the Miami Beach Brazilian channel.  The next weekend, we notice a large number of Brazilians on the beach. It was estimated that about 400 Brazilians were on the beach. They are distinguished from Hispanics because they speak Portuguese and it was the Hispanics that identified them.

Today, it is estimated that over 30% of the visitors to Haulover’s naturist beach are Hispanic .There  are Hispanics raised here and those that migrated to South Florida.

In discussions I have had with many, Hispanics that are raised or born here see themselves as Americans, so statistically, they same percentage of Hispanics to non-Hispanic Americans are on the beach.

Hispanics that were raised in their native countries, many inform me that they did not own bathing suits in their native countries and skinnydipped away from other people. When in mixed company they wore street or surfer shorts at the beach.

Bathing suits are not a natural garment but a cultural cover-up. Most people that I have met on the beach have developed or naturally had the capacity to compartmentalize their nudity, knowing where it is appropriate and where it is not.

Many first experienced communal nudity when they were in the boy or girl scouts, summer camp or in the military. A few admit to growing up in a household where nudity was accepted as a normal routine when appropriate.

Back in the 1960s, when there was a large Cuban migration to Miami, I had many Cubans tell me that when they lived in Cuba, and due to the hot weather and the fact that no one had air conditioning, it was not uncommon for people to walk around there home nude with the windows open.

That was acceptable and even made sense.  It was when they came to America that they found the nudity issue to be a hang-up.
 
Richard
 
Sloan Bashinsky, mayor candidate, political advertisement approved and paid for by me

click to enlarge

Deep Throat said yesterday that he recently was told by a prominent local gay man that he was thinking he might vote for me. When I asked if the fellow was looking at it as a choice between the lesser of evils, Deep Throat said probably; the fellow didn’t see any difference between Morgan McPherson and Craig Cates, so it was either me or one of them. Deep Throat said I might get the gay vote, if I don’t do something to screw it up. Why he likes to go by Deep Throat in Key West, when he’s not gay, is beyond my ken. But that’s what he likes to go by.
 
Last night BottleCap Lounge hosted a packed-house benefit for Florida Keys Outreach Coalition, which ministers to and provides shelter to people who want to come off the street and move back to mainstream living. In 2003, FKOC saved my life when it took me in while I was near death from a MRSA infection. I stayed there for several months, recovering from surgery at Lower Keys Medical Center. That was when I ran for mayor the first time, egged on by Father Stephen Braddock, who heads up FKOC, and Bill Verge, now City Commissioner Verge.
 
When I saw City Commissioner Terri Johnston last night at BottlCap, I gave her a big hug and said I would give her $100,000 if ehe entered the mayor’s race. I meant it in my heart, even though she couldn’t accept it because of campaign contribution limits of $500 a person. She laughed, said she probably would need it; maybe she said she might need even more, if she was going to do it.
 
Looks to me that Teri is the only visionary on the Dais. I’m tempted to say it’s because she’s gay and gays tend to be more creative than straights. Gays brought the One Human Family creed to Key West, and Fantasy Fest. And a great deal of artistic expression in other ways. Gays tend to be avante guard, visionary, in my experience.
 
Gays don’t have a lock on it, though, and that’s why I’m only tempted to say Teri is visionary because she’s gay. I think she’s visionary because she just doesn’t want to live in confinement. I think she wants to be as big as she can be, and she wants Key West to be as big as it can be, and that’s why I think she’d make a great mayor for Key West.
 
Meanwhile, for now, you’re all stuck with choosing between me and Morgan or Craig, I admit, the lesser of evils.
 
I keep putting up ideas for turning Key West into a true renaissance city, a serious world-class destination. I will keep doing that if you put me into the mayor’s seat. It’s what I do best. And, fortunately, fortunately for you, for me, for the city, it will only be for two years.  
 
I will do everything I can, on a super low budget, like pennies, to lead Key West to being a world-class destination; a place people will feel they have to see at least once in this life, else they will have to come back here in their next life to do it. What better more fun way could there be to rev up Key West’s sinking economy? What better more fun way could there be?
 
Meanwhile, a couple of poems from what I believe are straight men, hatched in reply to yesterday’s “Women Sunning Topless, Key West” post:
 
If there’s an arrest
for not wearing a top
You’re the boob, 
’cause the case will flop
 
Jim Hendrick

“Tanned Tits”

Greetings from the Hill.

Not a politician,Eh!

Well done, Sloan.

You have alienated your gay base.

Key West, the five star dike destination.

All beaches filled with mammoth boobs
turning coconut brown.

Hey, even straight broads.

But no wewe’s in public,

no bouncing balls.

Scare ‘ them’ with lawsuits,
gay rights will follow next.

Of course are lawyers not but devious.

Hohofuckingho.

MJ

Well, I once wuz a lawyer. I leared all about scaring with lawsuits, but right now, I’m aiming to scare their clothes off. Hohofuckingo.

Sloan for mayor, the lesser of evils, political advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

Sunning Topless, Key West

An email today to Key West Police Chief Donnie Lee (the original had two rather embarassing typos):

women sunning topless

From:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Fri 7/24/09 8:40 AM
To:	dlee@keywestcity.com
Cc:	morgan mcpherson (mayor@keywestcity.com); Mark Rossi (mrossi@keywestcity.com); jim scholl (jscholl@keywestcity.com); Dennis Ward (dennisward@aol.com); clayton lopez (clopez@keywestcity.com); Bill Verge (bverge@keywestcity.com); Teri Johnston (johnston@keywestcity.com); jpais@keywestcity.com; thebluepaper@kwtn.com

Dear Chief Lee,
 
Late yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from Dennis Ward. He said he called to let me know he had discovered the last arrest for nudity on a beach up Miami way was 1992. He again told me that his office will not prosecute women for sunning topless on our beaches. He made a point to distinguish sunning topless from all-nude sunning, which he said will have to be in an area legally designated for nude attire. He said he had told you about six weeks ago, in his Key West Office, that he will not prosecute women for sunning topless on our beaches. Also present, he said, were some of his staff and one of your officers, last name Smith. Captain Scott Smith I told Dennis it might have been. Dennis said this was part of a broader conversation he had with you, which he did not explain further to me.

Let me put on my lawyer hat for the benefit of the City of Key West, which in the past sometimes has blundered into costly litigation it probably ought to have stayed away from. If KWPD arrests and jails a woman for sunning topless on a Key West beach, it will not be able to make out a case because the State Attorney’s Office will not prosecute. What that will result in is the case being dismissed by the court. The woman then will have a cause of action for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, which tend to carry punitive as well as compensatory damages. The woman also will have a cause of action for violation of her civil rights generally, and sex discrimination specifically, which ”color of law” of cases allow for civil as well as criminal prosecution. Knowing lawyers like I do, I imagine there will be plenty, male and female alike, chomping at the bit to represent damsels in topless distress. Besides the City of Key West, I imagine other defendants will be you, the city manager, under whom you work, and the city commissioners and mayor, under whom the city manager works.

Because of what I have personally experienced, and based on reliable KWPD reports I have heard from other people, it won’t surprise me if you, Chief Lee, are told from higher up, or perhaps you simply take it upon yourself to instruct your troops (under “color of law”) to tell women sunning topless on beaches to put their tops back on, or leave the beach, or be arrested and jailed. If that is how it goes, some ladies might be meek and go along with this ploy, but some women might not want to turn the other cheek. They might ask to be arrested and taken to jail, so they can get their case dismissed and sue the City, you, the city manager, the mayor and the city commissioners.

I can envision women paying for their vacations in Key West, and more, after they are arrested for sunning topless on a beach here. I can see ”Hey, gals, lets sue Key West!” becoming international news. I can see feminists coming to Key West from all over everywhere to try to get arrested on a beach.
 
Please advise me, Chief Lee, of your and KWPD’s position on women sunning topless on our beaches.
 
Thank you,
 
Sloan Bashinsky

Political advertisement, approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

Some email mash over recent posts and happenings:

From: Clayton Lopez [mailto:clopez@keywestcity.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:37 AM
To: sloan bashinsky
Subject: RE: Pink Surprise, Key West

Sloan,

I am disappointed at best with your assessment of our lunch yesterday.  It was amicable.  On much of what we discussed, we did express similar sentiment.  However, I never said or expressed any concern with my reelection.  I am extremely confident that the folks who elected me want a responsive yet proactive commissioner representing them.  That’s exactly what it’s about for me, Sloan… REPRESENTING the people who elected me.  I also never said that the referendum would take me (or anyone) off of the proverbial hotseat.  I’ve sat there MANY times in the last four years.  It’s never comfortable, but I have demonstrated that I CAN handle it!  That’s what being accountable is about! 

I told you when asked by you, that while the nude beach idea seems to be a desirable one, it is not a necessary one.  There fore that should be something that people should be allowed to vote on.  I tried to explain that there are policy decisions that are the responsibility of those elected and then there are others in which those who are elected needed to go back to the people.  I felt that this is one of them.  I told you (when asked) that making a decision on this if the majority did not want it, would be something a sitting representative on any level would have hindering his or her efforts for the rest of their term in office.  This would be true with any decision made by an elected official who dictated to the people rather than represented them.  YOU said that YOU would do it regardless of WHAT the people wanted, because they would have elected YOU to make the decisions.  I did not respond to your having made that statement because it frightened me.  I was disturbed that you cannot see the line you cross from representation to dictatorial when such is an elected official’s mindset.Finally, I did say that I believe the referendum would pass… at that point YOU seemed uncomfortable.  You then asked me how would I feel if it didn’t.  My recollection is that I said that I would have the same concerns regardless of the outcome.  I didn’t SAY this part yesterday, but I do want you to know that I would also be accepting of whatever that outcome might be.  Because the people will have spoken.  I also told you that I am NOT getting much LOCAL feedback on wanting the nude beach.  Most of it is coming from out of town or out of state. 

Clayton

RE: Pink Surprise, Key West?

From:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Tue 7/21/09 3:29 PM
To:	clayton lopez (clopez@keywestcity.com)

Clayton, you did mention your reelection concern, if the commissioners made the decision instead of letting the voters decide it. I told you Barry Gibson had stated the same concern to me. Someone with a pretty good reputation in Key West told me this morning that he is very upset with how this is going down, that it’s already a done deal tonight. If you are now taking the position that a nude beach coming online in Key West is a form of prostitution of the city (chasing the almighty dollar), which it seems that’s what you are doing in your email today, maybe I need to revamp my thinking. Maybe I should urge you and the other commissioners and our mayor to give the voters an opportunity, via referendum, to vote on the continuation of Fantasy Fest, PrideFest, lap dance parlors, strip joints, whorehouses, orgy dens, etc. on Duval Street. Maybe toss in the One Human Family creed, too, as maybe a majority of the people here don’t agree with it. That aside, you came to me in a nap dream yesterday afternoon, encouraging me to take this on. My dreams last night also pushed me forward. I do truly detest politics, and I have to wonder what I ever did to piss God off so much that I was put there. I have to wonder. Maybe more later. Sloan

RE: Pink Surprise, Key West?

From:	Clayton Lopez (clopez@keywestcity.com)
Sent:	Tue 7/21/09 4:19 PM
To:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)

C’mon Sloan,

That’s a considerably different statement that I may have made.  I will concede that.  But even then, only as a footnote to the actual statement… that I believe that this is one of those issues where we NEED to ask the people… and NO! I DON’T  see having a nude beach as prostituting Key West.  But you have defended it based on it’s economic impact… THAT warrants concern over the prostituting of Key West as I made reference to… that’s what begs the question… nothing more or less is what I said or meant. 

Clayton

Re: To ALL who may have read Sloan Bashinsky’s email [Pink Surprise] of this morning?

Clayton Lopez wrote:

I don’t know if Sloan will print this and send it out.  But to those who read his morning mash, please read the enclosed and know that this is the true side of the story concerning my lunch with him.

OK, Sweetie –

Here comes some local input. I support a nude beach in Key West, although I am 99.9% sure I’m too much a victim of our society’s unhealthy attitude toward the bodies God gave us to ever go there myself. (”God don’t make no junk.”) I am not a naturist, but I believe they have a right to practice their beliefs. Anyone who is offended can just stay away. (The woman in Citizen’s Voice who said she was recently shocked by the nude beach at Boca Chica and now can’t take her grandchildren there — how old are those grandchildren? 25? That’s been a nude beach since before I moved to Big Coppitt in 1994, and she’s the first I’ve heard to complain.)

The referendum (which is in the end nonbinding) is an unnecessary expense at a time we can ill afford to waste even a dollar. But the financial cost is small compared to the ill-will it will engender, and I predict that the sexually conservative minority will be thoroughly vilified and humiliated by the well-financed forces of tourism (remember how much money Haulover Beach brings into Miami Beach?) combined with those of us who believe that human bodies are not, in fact, sexual objects to be slobbered over but are, in truth, sacred.

Like Sloan, I also feel a strong and realistic commission decision is needed, not a bloody campaign; such a decision could save us both money and grief.

Love,
Connie

Re: “Dodge Ball” Lopez?

From:	sloan bashinsky (sloanbashinsky@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Wed 7/22/09 9:19 AM
To:	Connie

Morning, Connie. I include follow up email exchanges between Clayton and me over yesterday’s “Pink Surprise” post. I don’t know yet if I’m to post the exchanges, or not. I have no problem doing it, but perhaps what I posted today, “Dais Delinquents and One Woman,” is all I’m to say publicly about it. I’ll know after I’ve slept on it. I agree with what you wrote to me in your separate email: Clayton’s trying to do “damage control.” I say he needs to grow up, quit playing dodge ball and talking peace when a war is going on, and take up a man’s sport, football or rugby. Or get out of the game altogether. I also agree with your assessment of our need for a nude beach. Not just for the money it should bring to Key West, do I want to see it. Not for me, either, because I probably won’t ever use it. But because it’s sooooo Key West that it’s like the city being an amputee, not having a nude beach. A necessary and crucial first step for what may turn out to be some really lovely renaissance shifts for Key West. Shifts we won’t see without a nude beach. Au contraire, I dread the alternative. Sloan

P.S. I’ve gotten some bad reports from women about their experiences at Boca Chica Beach.

Last today, an email from the well-respected Key West man (he likes to be called “Deep Throat”) mentioned in my email to Clayton:

As I think about it, what the Commission is doing could certainly backfire on those opposed to the nude beach.  I believe that if they had simply passed a resolution as Terri [Johnston] had suggested, the Naturists would have had their space and the issue would have faded into the mix of all the other Key West attractions.  However since the Commission decided to take the referenda approach, this issue will now get far more press and attention than it ever would have otherwise.  I also feel your prediction of this becoming a war with religious and moral overtones will probably now become reality.

I told Deep Throat that I will be really disappointed if the TODAY Show doesn’t jump on this next week when it’s in Key West. Really disappointed.

Sloan Bashinsky, political advertisement, approved and paid for by me