Conversations happening across the political aisle stir community engagement in Sarasota
The initiative, known as Conversations Across the Aisle (CATA), was founded in 2024 by Bill Woodson, a former New College of Florida administrator with a background in equity training. Woodson's goal is to foster respectful, informed, and constructive discourse, he explains, on some of today's most pressing and polarizing issues — including education, immigration, and voting rights — by creating a space where people with differing political perspectives can come together over dinner and conversation.
Since its launch, CATA has gained traction, hosting several well-attended workshops, including a December discussion on immigration policy featuring Michael Vastine, a Stetson Law immigration attorney. The next event, scheduled for March 17, will tackle the thought-provoking topic: 'When the War on Woke is Won, What Will We Win? And, What May Be Lost?' Instead of a single expert speaker, the discussion will be framed by video reflections from national and local progressive and conservative thought leaders, as well as area students.
The free dinner workshops are open to the public, allowing community leaders, academics, activists, and everyday citizens to take part in these crucial conversations. While all perspectives are welcome, CATA is actively seeking to increase participation from young adults under 40, people of color, and conservative and libertarian voices to ensure a truly balanced dialogue.
CATA's success over the past year, leadership says, has demonstrated that there is a real appetite for conversations that bridge political divides, and the organization is looking to expand. With continued support from community partners and sponsors, CATA hopes to reach more communities across the Gulf Coast and beyond in 2025.
To learn more, or nominate a participant, or support the initiative, email events.cata@gmail.com.Samantha Gholar covers social justice news for USA Today Network-Florida. You can connect with her via email at sgholar@gannett.com for stories about human rights, disparities, race, injustices, health and wellness, or with story tips, news scoops, and other news-related needs.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Conversations Across The Aisle is a new discourse space for everyone
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Fox News
7 days ago
- Fox News
Civil rights activist challenges mainstream media's racial violence coverage
The mainstream media in America has an alarming "worldview that Black Americans are always innocent victims," according to a prominent author and social commentator. Robert L. Woodson Sr., who is Black and a longtime civil rights activist, penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, urging the nation to "disregard race in how we judge one another" before it leads to "national ruin." "When a mob violently attacked two people in downtown Cincinnati last [month], video of the beat-down spread across social media. But not a single major television network covered the story. It didn't fit the mainstream media's narrative about racial violence in America," Woodson wrote. "The victims were White, and as of Wednesday police had arrested six Black suspects for their alleged roles in the public pummeling," he continued. "Today's media seems to conflagrate over violence only when the perpetrator is White and the victim is Black. Then the cameras roll, protests erupt, and hashtags fly." The Media Research Center's NewsBusters analyzed ABC's "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight," "CBS News Mornings" and "Evening News," and NBC's "Today" and "Nightly News" and found no coverage of the horrific viral brawl in Cincinnatti in the days immediately following the event. Woodson, who has authored multiple books, including "A Pathway to American Renewal: Red, White, and Black," believes that "the mainstream media buries the incident or ignores" violence when the races are reversed and in cases of "Black-on-Black" crime. "Consider the tragic case of Ariana Delane, the 4-year-old niece of George Floyd, who was shot and wounded while sleeping beside her grandmother as gunfire hit their apartment. Despite the horror of her story, it received nowhere near the national attention that followed her uncle's death," Woodson wrote. "Both the girl and Floyd deserved to live in peace, yet there is national outrage when a Black man is killed at the hands of police but silence when Black children are the collateral victims of the senseless violence plaguing our cities every day." Woodson added that "journalists mostly ignored" that Blacks were frequent perpetrators during a 2018 spike in violent incidents against Asian-Americans. "The truth would have broken the media's worldview that Black Americans are always innocent victims," he wrote. "We teach our children that to be Black is to be permanently victimized and that to be white is to be perpetually guilty," Woodson continued. "Americans should renounce any schema in which one race is guilty and another innocent. That is the path to national ruin." Woodson also founded the Woodson Center, which aims to "empower community-based leaders to promote solutions that reduce crime and violence, restore families, revitalize underserved communities, and assist in the creation of economic enterprise," according to its website.
Politico
25-06-2025
- Politico
Reading the tea leaves on Florida's next LG
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. Gov. RON DESANTIS has been able to shuffle personnel around the top levels of state government this year. One opening that still remains, though, is the No. 2 job in Tallahassee: lieutenant governor. The most likely contender is Republican state Sen. JAY COLLINS of Hillsborough County, according to a dozen people close to the deliberations. The decision isn't final, the people cautioned, and others considered for the role include former House Speaker JOSE OLIVA and New College of Florida President RICHARD CORCORAN. The selection is being closely watched because it could signal the governor may get behind that person to run for governor in 2026. He so far has snubbed President DONALD TRUMP's selection of Rep. BYRON DONALDS for the job, and Florida first lady CASEY DESANTIS is still deciding whether she'll run. (One of the more far-fetched rumors swirling around Tallahassee is that the governor might appoint his wife to be lieutenant governor.) 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'He's well respected by the entire Legislature because of his military service,' said one Republican lobbyist, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations regarding the role. 'Even though he is relatively new to public office, he's a tenacious advocate who is also likable and principled. It's hard to attack a guy like him who has sacrificed so much purely because of his beliefs in democracy.' But there's other important factors. Collins has been a reliable ally and staunch defender of DeSantis after the governor backed him in his bid for the state Senate. Collins is also willing to step into the job if given the slot. It's not clear if some of the other names recently mentioned are as eager to take the post of lieutenant governor, which does not really have any defined duties. 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FIRST STORM OF THE SEASON — The National Hurricane Center announced Tuesday that Tropical Storm Andrea had formed, though it's not a threat to land and should dissipate by later today. — 'Can Florida handle hurricane recovery without federal support?' by Bea Lunardini of the Tampa Bay Times. TRANSITION TIME — Public affairs and lobbying firm Ballard Partners is pairing up with Global Nexus to expand into Mexico City. Their services will include public policy advocacy, regulatory affairs analysis and international market consulting. — TARA POULTON has been promoted to chief of staff for Rep. Vern Buchanan's (R-Fla.) district offices. She was previously Buchanan's district director. ODDS, ENDS AND FLORIDA MEN — Former Rep. MATT GAETZ and GINGER GAETZ are expecting their first child early next year, the couple announced over X. — 'Laura Loomer airs old texts with Tucker Carlson after he brands her 'world's creepiest human,'' by Isabel Keane of the Independent. BIRTHDAYS: Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz … state Sen. Bryan Avila … South Miami mayor and former state Rep. Javier Fernández.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Yahoo
Truckling to MAGA ended in humiliation for Santa Ono
Century Tower on the Gainesville campus of the University of Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) A few days ago, the University of Florida was all ready to welcome a brand-new president. They'd gotten rid of the useless (yet expensive) Ben Sasse and chosen a single finalist, a scientist called Santa Ono, former head of the University of Michigan. The trustees liked him; Ron DeSantis liked him, especially since Ono, who was once all-in on diversity at UM, recently pulled a 180, loudly recanting his climate change-admitting, student protest-allowing progressive ways and parroting the governor's War on Woke nonsense like a DeSantis Bot. It wasn't enough: The state university Board of Governors refused to give him the job. Poor old weathervane Ono fell victim to a nasty social media campaign against him, led by such intellectual giants as Don Trump Jr., who squawked 'WTF!' on the twixter; New College trustee Christopher 'They're eating the cats!' Rufo; Sen. Rick Scott; and the congenitally absurd Rep. Byron Donalds, who allowed as how while he didn't know Ono, the man didn't sound like he 'comported with the values of the state of Florida.' Au contraire, congressman. Given that Ono was prepared to abandon the principles of free speech, inclusion, and academic independence, I'd say he perfectly comports with the values of the state of Florida. Especially when it comes to higher education. DeSantis and his UF allies may have lost the Ono battle (more on the politics involved later), but he's committed to the larger war: Florida may soon be celebrated in the MAGA-sphere as the first state to lay waste to its universities. The full-scale assault started in 2023, when DeSantis wrecked New College and took to installing ideologically aligned hacks as presidents and appointing university boards so bent on destruction they'd shame a Visigoth. Former politico Richard Corcoran was not educationally, temperamentally, or administratively qualified to be president of the state honors college, yet there he is, DeSantis' boy, drawing a huge salary and inviting accused rapists to speak on campus in Sarasota. FIU and FAU got landed with dead-enders former Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nuñez and Republican state Rep.-turned private prison company vice president Adam Hasner. Now the governor has turned his lizardy eye upon the universities of West Florida and Florida A&M with a view to undermining academic freedom, student opportunity, and scholarly rigor. DeSantis, who loves to call Florida 'free,' doesn't want institutions of higher education to be free: He wants them cowed, cramped, and compliant. In April, DeSantis claimed — with no evidence, mind — UWF was some kind of 'indoctrination camp' run by 'Marxist professors' and warned those crazy Pensacola lefties to 'buckle up.' Big changes were coming. To that end, he appointed a noisome bouquet of trustees, several proudly hostile to book-learning. Three of them were either rejected by the Florida Senate or else slunk off before they could be officially sent packing. Adam Kissel, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and one of the discarded candidates, seemed puzzled by the snub. In an interview with UWF's newspaper 'The Voyager,' he claimed he'd been brought down by a 'disinformation narrative' partially based on his comments lamenting the GI Bill's negative effect on American society. That would be the GI Bill that has enabled millions of veterans to get a college degree and join the middle class. Kissel also complained about the general milieu in blood red Escambia County, claiming, 'Cancel culture is still alive in Pensacola.' After these embarrassing rebuffs, you might think DeSantis might rethink his approach but, of course, you'd be wrong. His newest trustee pick, another Heritage Foundation luminary, pitched a hissy fit about UWF students putting on a Halloween drag show in 2019. (Halloween — you know, when people dress up in all sorts of outlandish ways?) Zack Smith, a Pensacola native and former assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Florida, told UWF's then-president Martha Saunders he had 'concerns' (most of which seem to involve gay people asserting equal rights or Black people calling out systemic racism in America), including such outré actions as inviting one of the founders of Black Lives Matter to speak on campus (she's an 'avowed Marxist'!) as well as the UWF librarian suggesting Ibram X. Kendi's 'How to Be an Antiracist' as a good read for Black History Month. God forbid students might encounter a critique of capitalism or an important and provocative exploration of race during Black History Month. Pro tips for Project 2025 zealots: Capitalism is not beyond criticism. I refer Heritage True Believers to Mark 10:25 (the camel/rich man/eye-of-needle thing) and Matthew 6:24 (the God and Mammon thing) as well as analyses of our economic system, many written by those embedded in it. Marxism is a political philosophy. Like any other philosophy, it should be studied in universities. Merely hearing about it does not rot your very soul. Ibram X. Kendi is a distinguished scholar, a graduate of Florida A&M University who has gone on to win a National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Reading his work will not infect you with the Woke Mind Virus. But — agree or disagree with what Kendi says — his book might make you think. Imagine that: college students thinking. Eye-wateringly stupid as Smith's complaints were, they had the intended effect: Martha Saunders resigned, allowing DeSantis to put his education commissioner in as interim president. The irredeemably unimpressive Manny Diaz Jr. has no higher ed experience, no terminal degree, and no business running what was, under presidents such as Judy Bense, a highly regarded archeologist, and Martha Saunders, an expert in communications theory, a university on its way up. Unfortunately for UWF, odds are Diaz gets the permanent gig: That's what happened at New College; that's what happened at FIU. DeSantis wants university presidents who realize they do not work for the institution, fostering knowledge, encouraging free inquiry, and serving education. He insists they work for him. They must do his bidding, battling villains such as faculty unions, student journalists, Pride Month celebrations, critical race theory, gender studies, and African American studies. Which brings us to FAMU. DeSantis and his higher ed henchpersons have, in the past, tread pretty carefully with Florida's only public HCBU. Maybe it's because FAMU is such a, well, let's call it a 'bargain.' In 2024-25, FAMU's enrollment was 9,980. New College's was 850. FAMU's appropriation was $50 million. New College got $52 million. Even those of us who went to school in Florida can do that math. Not that anyone should be surprised the state spends far more per student at predominantly white New College than at predominantly not-white FAMU. Can't be racism. Oh, no. Perish the thought. Even though on Planet DeSantis, the very existence of a majority-minority student body is DEI gone wild. At any rate, FAMU's no longer flying under the governor's radar. He just got to stick another of his favorites in the top job. The good part: FAMU's presidential search was unusually transparent, at least in comparison to the absurdly hermetic process at UF and other state institutions. The four finalists' names were publicly announced and students, faculty, and community members were invited to meet them. Three had solid-to-excellent qualifications. Contenders included the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the senior vice president for administration and finance at the University of Central Florida, and FAMU's own senior vice president and COO. The not-so-good part: Candidate Number Four. Marva Johnson appeared almost out of nowhere, rumored to be a late addition pushed by trustee Deveron Gibbons, a DeSantis appointee. As you'd expect, she has no higher education experience, but she has far more important qualities: She's a telecom company executive, a MAGA Republican, and a crony of Ron DeSantis'. FAMU has long been a leader in the fight for civil rights and remains the nation's top public HCBU, alma mater of politicians like former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Rep. Al Green, musicians Common and Cannonball Adderley, satirist Roy Wood Jr., Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson, and art collector Bernard Kinsey. Rattlers were horrified Johnson made the short list and held rallies protesting her candidacy. Movie producer, FAMU alum and big-time donor Will Packer said she might 'do irreparable harm to the university's relationship with its community and with its donor base.' Naturally, she got the job. And, like any self-respecting MAGA grifter, immediately demanded a salary of $750,000, nearly $300,000 a year higher than her predecessor. Of course, she won't make as much as the president of New College: He pulls in nearly a $1 million overseeing those 850 students. Taxpayers might wonder why, when legislators and the governor keep whining about the need to cut budgets and save money, there seems to be no problem paying a gaggle of under-qualified nonentities huge amounts to be university presidents. But universities in Florida and other MAGA-controlled states are no longer so much about education as they are about propaganda and power. Republicans want to control curriculum, censoring anything that upsets white folks — topics such as slavery, genocide, colonialism, gender, women's rights. You've seen how Trump is going after Harvard and other universities, cutting off funding, trying to control hiring and admissions, denying foreign students visas. Colleges in Utah, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and (no surprise) Florida are being told to emphasize Western Civilization, the Constitution, and 'Great Books.' MAGAs might not like it if universities really focused on, say, the Constitution. Students might realize that the current regime regularly violates it. For Ron DeSantis, taming Florida's universities feeds his desperate need for relevance. Spurned by the voters during his disastrous presidential bid, ridiculed by onetime patron Donald Trump, defied by the Legislature, DeSantis figures at least he can run — or ruin — education. It's not quite as smooth a conquest as anticipated. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI — they truly do want to Make America White (and Christian and male-dominated) Again — and hysteria over hiring someone who, despite his pathetic attempts to demonstrate that he'd drunk the Trumpy Kool-Aid, clearly knew better. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. Signs indicate Casey DeSantis will run for governor when her husband terms out. But she's got all kinds of political problems, not least an investigation into her dodgy charity, Hope Florida. Her husband is spewing spittle all over Tallahassee, accusing a 'jackass' in the Legislature (the rest of us know him as Rep. Alex Andrade) of taking documents which 'he dropped in a prosecutor's office,' and hollering 'that is not an organic investigation' and any accusation of money laundering is just a 'smear.' Then there's her likely primary opponent, Rep. Byron Donalds. He's been endorsed by Trump. It's no coincidence he led the MAGA campaign against Ono. Higher education has always been political. Governors and legislators have never approved of professors (liberals, mostly) or students (snotty-nosed kids protesting) or faculty (probably Marxists). But DeSantis has taken the politicization of universities to a whole new level of venality, pettiness, and dangerous repression. The 'Free State of Florida' isn't. As that famous novel (which could soon be on the banned books list) says: 'Freedom is slavery' and 'Ignorance is strength.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
