May Day! May Day! Week ending May 1 in Miami
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.
Table of Contents
Finite
Disappointment
"A republic, if you can keep it," Benjamin Franklin to Elizabeth Willing Powel on September 18, 1797.
Deep in the debates over what would become the US Constitution, Benjamin Franklin recounted the day's events in mid September in sweltering, humid Philadelphia, 1797, to a pal and a confidant, Elizabeth Willing Powel. He told the extremely well connected Powel, who apparently "asked Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it,” according to the journal of a man named James McHenry, himself a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
Over the 237 years since our Constitution was ratified we have had many threats to the republic, as often from within, as from attacks from beyond our borders.
As an aside, America's real birthday, by the way–a declaration of war and independence that led to the ratification of the ill conceived and fated Articles of Confederation is not the birth of this iteration of the United States, the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 is–though scholars have argued this iteration functionally is traced to the "Second Founding" with the ratification of the "Reconstruction Amendments" after the Civil War.
Ushering in of what some are calling "John Crow Era" after the disastrous for our republican democracy Louisiana vs. Callais decision, "The court’s decision is a major upheaval in US civil rights law and gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of Black and other minority voters. Some states may even rush ahead to try to redraw districts ahead of this year’s midterm elections," wrote Sam Levine in The Guardian.
Indeed, the next day Louisiana stopped an election that was already underway to redo its districts to redraw seats held by Black members of congress to benefit white candidates.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis immediately used the decision to justify nullification of the voter approved Fair Districts Amendment to the Florida Constitution, thus enabling him to use racial Gerrymanders to redistrict Florida as he sees fit. This strips the power of the people and places it in the hands of the few, or even the one.
It is also extremely race based and benefits white people at the expense of people of color, especially Black people.
This is more consistent with the sort of monarchy that the American colonists (including Jewish, Muslim, Black and other people of color in the Continental Army) violently rejected and rebelled against in 1776 (yes, that was in 1776, though if you really want to be specific it was 1775).
"A republic, if you can keep it," indeed.
And now for something not different enough:
Taylor Mills
, Tallahassee Democrat
Florida
Gonna Florida
This national story about women being forced to have c-sections centers on, you guessed it, Florida.
shoshana.gordonpropublica.org
Alex DeLuca
Historic
Interlude
40 years ago on 26 April 1986, reactor number 4 in the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union, exploded. If you page through the newspapers from 40 years ago this understandably dominated the news for a week, even in Miami.
Closer to South Florida, on 25 April 1986 the Miami Herald splashed a debate in Bogota, Colombia about the best thing that ever happened to Miami: Miami Vice.
The hit TV show that in many ways put Miami on the map (sorry folks, Ft. Lauderdale was, for decades, the bigger destination before the show) was all about the Miami-Dade Police Department's ongoing battle with, well, vice crimes.
Often, the crimes depicted in the show involved drugs from Colombia, hence the debate in Bogota about whether or not the then ascending show should be aired there.
Ironically, a lot of people, particularly in Miami Beach, where much of the show was filmed, also hated the show because of its depiction of Miami as a decadent, crime-ridden paradise smashed into a hellscape. It was right around 1986 that the locals started realizing the surge in tourism in the area was due in no small part to people wanting to see where the show was shot–and it was shot mostly on location in what was then Dade County.
It wasn't just Miami that benefited from the show in the long run, however.
Ever watch a show and hear a popular song playing in key moments, particularly towards the end of the show? You can thank the pilot episode of Miami Vice for that. As the pilot episode the then iconic Ferrari Spyder rolled along the streets of Miami near the climax, Phil Collin's haunting "In the air tonight" played over the scene. That is credited as the starting point of the now nearly ubiquitous trend in television.
By the way, that Ferrari Daytona Spyder (look back, it was a Spyder the first two seasons, not the Testarossa) was actually a rebuilt Chevy Corvette (C3), which was later replaced with the truly iconic star of the show, the Ferrari Testarossa. Do you remember when the Spyder was blown up in the show? They did that because Ferrari sued them for using a knock of car with their name on it. But after the reaction to the car's demise Ferrari felt bad and gave the show not one, but two Ferrari Testarossas for the show. Why two? You know all of those times they managed to jump the car over–I don't know what, Miami is really, really flat–well, you can't do that in a Ferrari you plan to have look all glitzy next to the stars of the show. So you have a car for posing and a car for working.
Infinite
Hope
While I certainly do not believe all protests are created equal nor do I agree with many, if any of the points the people at the Trump Save USAgain protest on Bird Road, which started right after the Signs of Fascism protest wrapped up, I put these protests together in the Infinite Hope section for a couple of reasons.
One, I always believe the First Amendment is overall a good thing, almost every expression of it is a good thing and the fact that it exists a very good thing. The fact that two, seemingly opposed protests could be happening on the same street, on the edge of the same park, more or less back to back is what America is all about.
We have the right to gather. We have the right to say what we want. We have the right to protest.
These are the very first rights the Founders enshrined in the very first Amendment to the Constitution.
I am working on a longer version of what I saw and heard at these protests, but for now, check out some interviews, some photos and a little bit of video here.
Philip Cardella
More protests! More freedom of speech! Bad houseplants?
On May Day the only protest in the county I was aware of was where Grand Ave (Coconut Grove's main drag) and Highway 1 meet in Coral Gables called Planting Justice. The Miami Herald did a good piece on it, and I shot some video you can see here.
Per We Count's Planting Justice website, "Planting Justice (Sembrando Justica) brings together plant nursery workers, consumers, and allies to ensure respect for human rights in the plant industry."
Why? From a report on their website:
The U.S. plant nursery industry, a $50 billion sector driven by surging demand for houseplants, relies heavily on a workforce that is largely invisible to consumers: women, immigrants, and workers of color who labor under dangerous, low-wage conditions. Florida—producing nearly 70 percent of the nation’s indoor foliage—illustrates the stark contradictions at the heart of this booming industry. Despite the plant nursery industry’s economic success, workers face systemic exploitation rooted in decades of policy exclusions and racial inequities. WeCount!, a worker center in South Florida with a large membership of plant nursery workers, conducted a survey of more than 300 plant nursery workers in Miami-Dade County in 2024. Their findings shed new light on the predicament of plant nursery workers.
May Day Alligator Alcatraz!
Somehow there was a protest at the so-called Alligator Alcatraz that I missed on May Day. Fortunately, the Herald was there.
Guns N' Roses affirms life in South Florida show. Not my words!
I only realized this was happening a few days before the event and the few tickets that were left were well out of my price range. Fortunately, the Miami New Times was there and had a blast.
Shawn Macomber
Bear
The History Hound Finds
Tamar Eisen
G. Elliott Morris
Hugh Dougherty
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