With David Rivera, it happens every spring
Al’s
Loupe
With
David Rivera, it happens every spring
By
Alvaro F. Fernandez Read Spanish Version
There’s
an old 1949 movie I loved as a kid called “It happens every spring”
which features Ray Milland as a mad scientist turned baseball player.
In his university laboratory Milland develops a formula that when
rubbed on a baseball repels wood. Realizing the potential of his
discovery, the professor heads for St. Louis to pitch for the
Cardinals and ends up becoming King Kelly for one glorious baseball
season that culminates with World Series heroics.
What
can I tell you, I was a sucker for anything baseball in those days. I
may look up the movie, in fact, and watch it — one more time.
Which
brings me to today’s subject whose actions every year remind me of
the movie’s title. I’m referring to South Florida’s number one
buffoon. A state representative who heads to Tallahassee every spring
and makes a complete fool of himself — and still gets reelected. I
am referring to Florida State Rep. David Rivera, the Miami republican
who claims to be Cuban (but is not) and who has publicly stated that
one of his ambitions is to become mayor of Cienfuegos, a city in
Cuba.
The
same David Rivera who last year sponsored and pushed a law through
the state legislature trying to impose regulations on Cuba travel
businesses; a law so outrageous and unconstitutional that, although
the governor signed it, has not seen the light of day and has been
stuck in court for almost a year. The judge handling the case
granted, almost immediately, an injunction to the affected Cuba
travel businesses after they filed a lawsuit against the state citing
innumerable reasons why this Rivera clown act would not stand up in
any U.S. court. Just recently we also learned that the U.S.
Department of Justice offered an opinion on Rivera’s folly which
among other things stated that the state was stepping outside its
boundaries and dealing with federal issues. They called the Rivera
law unconstitutional.
Rivera’s
2008 spring act will end up costing Florida taxpayers more than a
million tax dollars when all is said and done. (When the state
finally loses in court not only will they have paid their lawyers and
put-in countless hours of work time, but they will also have to pay
plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees, which I know are substantial.)
But
like the movie tells us, it happens every spring. And in the 2009
Florida legislative session currently going on, Rivera has inserted a
ban on the use of state money for research trips to Cuba by Florida
universities and community colleges into the House education budget.
(Rivera sponsored a similar ban in 2006 struck down last summer by a
federal judge.) And this in spite of the fact that the grandstanding
Rivera is aware that even before his 2006 law, most universities did
not
use state money to pay for trips to Cuba — most of the money coming
from private grants.
Year
after year after year, David Rivera uses our tax dollars as his
personal piggy bank and toys with ideas which he uses like snake oil
to sell to constituents who love hearing him promise them that his
actions will soon bring down the Castro regime in Cuba. Here is a man
who has chaired influential committees in Tallahassee and has
friendships with state political leaders who, if he worked for the
people, could truly wield power that might be useful for South
Florida. But, instead of using his power to solve our budget
problems, he prefers to waste our tax dollars on well-crafted
fantasies that only serve him. Instead of trying to solve our
education problems, which are many, Rivera pushes through illegal
bills that only do harm to our educational reputation throughout the
nation and abroad.
Rivera
has plans to run for the state senate after he is termed out of the
state house this year. Someone with some sense must run against him.
And media (like The Miami Herald who keeps endorsing him) must start
favoring the voter over corrupt politicians.
In
“It happens every spring” the movie ends in the seventh game of
the Series with two outs and King Kelly out of his magic potion for
the last pitch. He throws an old man’s fastball hit right back at
him which he catches barehanded to win the World Series. That moment
of glory has its dark side, for some. King Kelly will never pitch
again because the ball has broken his pitching hand and damaged it.
Kelly, in fact, is relieved knowing he has lived his fantasy and can
now get back his work at the university.
David
Rivera has lived a too-long and costly fantasy life, at our expense.
The next idea he tosses in any direction should be smacked right back
at him knocking him off his pedestal of power. One way or another, we
need to rid ourselves of this character.
