Pride, Prayer and the Everglades Week ending June 7, 2026

Introduction

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.

Reality is starting to sink in for me as I've decided to embark on this documentary of the prayer vigils, now called "Freedom Vigils" by one of the key organizers. It's consuming most of my time and resources. As such, I'm needing to re-evaluate This Week in Florida's weekly posts as they take hours to put together. We'll see what happens!

This past week was another wild one here in South Florida as "Pride Month" kicked off in the "Don't Say Gay Or Else" state.

Still, some stories just jumped out, so let's dive in.

Table of Contents

Finite Disappointment

Florida Gonna Florida

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Historic Interlude

Infinite Hope

Bear the History Hound Finds

Finite

Disappointment

The racist nicknamed Florida Soft-Sided Facility South, aka the South Florida Detention Facility, aka "Alligator Alcatraz" remains open, a black hole for human rights and tax payer money.

The Alligator Alcatraz Boondoggle

The immigrant-detention facility, which may soon be shut down, has been a cruel and costly publicity stunt.

The AtlanticEric Schlosser

You can see a few of my photos from the event here. The page has recently been updated to include photos from several vigils I hadn't put on there yet, including this banger of a photo.

Florida

Gonna Florida

Someone told me this week that Florida ranks dead last in education. I have no idea where this person came up with that number because it is, surprisingly, not remotely true. Particularly striking is Florida's outstanding higher education system.

That doesn't mean Florida isn't trying to tear apart its excellent education system and that's attracting national attention.

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After years of searching, I finally found the pizza place I've been looking for in South Florida. It was in the most obvious of places, The Big Cheese, the iconic pizza place (apparently heavily influenced by California pizza parlors in the 1980s, FWIW). I'm going to do a proper endorsement of the place soon but let's say it has the perfect pizza parlor vibe, the right style of pizza (modified New York style crust with bounteous toppings) and an extraordinary value. While this pizza was $30, which is a lot, it also could easily feed four or even five hungry people.

Was it perfect? Were the toppings all fresh and high quality? Did they have great beers on tap? No. No. And not even close.

Still, it's what I've been looking for and it made me very happy to finally have tried it.

Historic

Interlude

Many of you know historian Heather Cox Richardson. She's actually the person who convinced me to pursue a graduate degree in history! I love her work. One of her current projects, 250 to 250 is "A series of one-minute stories of the many people, places, and events that have built our country and remind us of the power of each person to make history. #WeAreAmerica250"

This week, the Everglades National Park was featured in one of these brief but poignant videos.

Everglades, Narrated by Jack E. Davis

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack E.

250 to 250250 to 250

Infinite

Hope

I personally continue to find hope in the sanctuary of my church. The Texas Observer ran an important piece on the difference between many mainline denominations and white Christian Evangelicalism that's asserting itself like never before in American politics. As a former Evangelical myself, finding hope in the church is by no means a foregone conclusion. Quite the contrary, in fact.

I remember exactly where I was standing when I first heard the term "one issue voter." It came from the mouth of a man whose intellect I had the utmost respect for, yet, due to religious reasons he had decided that he could only vote one way.

I had to ask what the one issue was. Yeah, that was a while ago.

At any rate, sitting, singing and clapping in my church during "Pride Sunday" where the church declared (as it does every Sunday):

ALL are welcome to this time and place of worship. Know that in this church you are welcome as you are and for who you are. As followers of Christ, we are compelled by the Gospel to seek reconciliation and wholeness in a world that is all too often an unloving place. Therefore, whether you are gay, straight, or in-between; whatever your country of origin or ancestry; whether you are a believer, a doubter or a seeker; in Christ’s love, we welcome you, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can work together to usher in God’s Reign of justice, peace, and mercy.

The previous two days the church hosted an art exhibit by Gay in the Gables in honor of the beginning of Pride month (remember, for most places in South Florida, Pride Parades are much earlier in the year so as to avoid death by heat stroke–literally).

I'm sure this marks me as a "liberal." As a person who tends to reject labels I'm not crazy about this. As a human it makes me wonder why allowing the full range of sexual orientations to exist is a political issue, yet here we are.

Anyway, recognizing the humanity in everyone fills me with hope.

Bear

The History Hound Finds

‘Fake’ Christian? Or Faithful?

Though MAGA believers call James Talarico “blasphemous,” he’s squarely within his Mainline Presbyterian tradition. And that’s a timely reminder of the diversity of Christianity in Texas and beyond.

The Texas ObserverDavid R. Brockman

The spectacular collapse of a case against ICE protesters: ‘It’s not justice, but it is a win’

Though the federal government’s prosecution fell apart, the Broadview Six of Illinois say their lives have been upended

The GuardianKim Bellware

Hegseth warns Europe to defend itself against a second D-Day

The Pentagon chief said Europeans were being “stormed” again in a speech that seemed to side with the Germans at Normandy.

Mother JonesAlex Nguyen

Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land

Guardian analysis finds facilities to be built in some of the driest areas as outcry grows over water needed to power AI

The GuardianOliver Milman and Andrew Witherspoon

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