toon #1
Following is the link to Sandy Downs’ and my interview by Matt Gardi on KONKnet, re the Key West Tree Commission. 1-hour interview, less station breaks. It took me 5 minutes to download it on my laptop. I understand the interview will be available for downloading and replaying until April 3.
Naked Conch_031612_Sloan_Sandy Downs.mp3

toon #2
I obtained from Robert Krutko’s lawyer a copy of Key West’s Motion for Summary Judgment in the lawsuit Krutko’s wife filed against Key West in federal court, in Miami. The city’s legal team, which includes a mainland law firm and Key West City Attorney Shawn Smith, claims the city never, ever, ran, or tried to run anyone out of business. Not just Krutko, but not anyone. I imagine Duck Tours’ owner and lawyer, Radim Haviliceck and Sandy Downs would beg to disagree. I told Krutko’s lawyer about when Jimmy Weekley was on the City Commission, which was before he became Mayor, and that city commission authorized the then city legal team to “grind Duck Tours into dust.” Krutko’s lawyer said he had never heard of that before. I told him it is common knowledge in Key West, was in the newspapers.
If I wuz Krutko’s lawyer, I would subpoena Jimmy Weekley to that hearing in Miami, and put him on the stand, and have him, under oath, tell the United States District Judge everything he knows about the Duck Tours case, including the jury finding anti-trust violations against the city, affirmed on appeal, and the ultimate $6.5 million settlement.

toon #3
My dreams and other spirit signals seem to indicate I am to run as a write-in candidate for the District 3 School Board seat now held by Duncan Matthewson, who has announced he will not run again.
Back in 2004, I announced as a write-in candidate for Sonny McCoy’s county commission seat. Then, I got all mixed up in my thinking, among other things, and dropped out of that race. Then, Damian Vantrigilia ran as a write-in candidate and, as I recall, got nearly 2,000 votes. The best performance, ever, for a write-in candidate in the Keys, Damian later told me Harry Sawyer (Supervisor of Elections) had told him.
I ran into Damian last Sunday evening at Boondocks. He was taking photos for Michael Cunningham, who launched his campaign for the District 3 School Board seat that evening, and had invited me and, I’m sure, lots of other people to attend.
When Damian suggested a photo of Michael and me together, I laughed, said, might cost Michael votes to be seen arm-in-arm with me in a photo. Didn’t seem to bother Michael, though. Damian took the photo, as I thought to myself about him having run as a write-in candidate after I went off the edge of the world in 2004.
I thought that to myself because there already had been several nudges re my running as a write-in candidate, but I had not said a word to anyone, until I told Todd German yesterday.
As I recall, the good thing about running as a write-in candidate is no filing fee or candidate petitions to be signed, and no campaign treasurer reports. But you can attend and hold forth at candidate forums, and can receive votes by people simply writing your name on the ballot at the place for the office you seek.
I imagine my main focus will be to try to persuade the public that this school district either needs to be privatized like the new charter high school in Key West, or it needs to be taken over by Tallahassee, and if elected, I will do my darndest to bring off that off.
Wonder if it violates the separation of church and state requirements of the First Amendment for a school board candidate to talk about God during his campaign? What if a school board member talks about God at a school board meeting? The Founding Fathers talked about God in the Declaration of Independence.

On yet another Keys toon front, recent banter with Mark Howell, Editor of Solares Hill, published on Sundays by The Key West Citizen, re God – the Catch 22 of Catch 22s post

From: mhowell@keysnews.com
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
Subject: from Mark at Solares Hill
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:34:14 -0400

Good post today, Sloan –– Mark

thanks, Mark, but it felt like shit – me – putting it together…

“Ah, but it wouldn’t be life if there were not sorrow, loss, loss, loss,” said Joseph Campbell. “You gotta say yes to it and say it’s great this way, I mean I don’t believe anybody intended it but this is the way it is. Pain is part of there being a world at all. I’ll do the best I can…. I will participate in the game. It’s a wonderful, wonderful opera —except that it hurts. This is the way life is. And the hero is the one who can participate in it decently — in the way of nature. Not in the way of personal rancor, revenge or anything of that kind.”That any help?
-Mark

Hi, Mark
That’s pretty much how I was taught to participate in the game; was a slow transition, since I was mostly prone to retaliate, rather than cleverly swim it back up their hinneys, or not even respond at all, or turn it into comic relief. However, I don’t generally see it as a wonderful opera, more like tragic with some comedy, and it hurts plenty most of the time, up close and personal hurt. If I did not have that wailing opera around and inside me nearly all the time, maybe I would feel more overwhelmed by what all I see going on around me, close by and far away.
Sandy Downs is far more sensitive and vulnerable, than I, to what she sees going on outside of her. She viscerally recoils in her soul at injustice, meanness. Makes it all the harder for her respond with cold dispassion. She reminded me the other day of a passage in the Gospels where Jesus chides his disciples for taking offense when they are attacked by other people for doing what he had them do. Being attacked is part of the job description, is his point. He is attacked plenty, and his method of responding is exemplary. No prisoners taken.
I told Sandy, the way I look at it, if I’m not pissing people off, I’m doing it wrong. In the Gospels, Jesus seems to go out of his way to piss people off, but you don’t hear it described that way in churches. He also is gracious, kind. He gives his disciples hell lot of the time. In India, he would be viewed as a high guru, perhaps the highest. But to call him a guru around these parts might not be received very well, although all guru means is teacher, which Jesus is sometimes called in the Gospels. And rabbi, and master, labels similar what India gurus wear. And to labels Buddha, I imagine, and Lao Tzu wore.
I saw Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” in Boulder, in 1988. [A documentary on Campbell, as I recall.] Lots of people there were very affected by him. I already was abducted and was starting to sense it was not going to be controlled by me. I had no clue yet just how little control I would have, except over how I chose to respond to what was served to me by the abductors, on this world, in the spirit world, inside my body. Seriously not something to look forward to, I came to see. Waaaa!!!!

Sloan
keysmyhome@hotmail.com