A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville’s Mayor is speaking out after Gov. Ron DeSantis was jeered at a vigil last weekend.
During an interview on WJXT’s “This Week in Jacksonville,” Democrat Donna Deegan said that she was “pleased” the Governor attended the event after three Black people were gunned down in a New Town Dollar General by a White man with swastikas drawn on his AR-15. She also thinks that it should have been an “instructional” moment for the Republican presidential candidate, who could finally see the “anger and anguish” his policies wrought.
“I don’t think it is helpful to have policies that allow a rewriting of black history. I think there has already been a lot of anguish and anger over that and over some of the policies that have come out of Tallahassee that divide as opposed to bringing together,” Deegan said.
“So I was personally pleased that the governor took the time to come to that memorial because if we are ever going to come together, if we are ever going to have unity, we’ve got to see each other’s pain. And I think the fact that he was there to see that reaction to feel, to see the tears out there, to see the anger and the frustration and the exhaustion of this community. I hope it was instructional for him.”
The Governor was told by some members of the crowd that he was “not welcome” at the event in a predominately Black area of Jacksonville, one where state level appropriations have been scant and which has borne the brunt of everything from DeSantis’ anti-‘woke’ policies to a congressional redistricting scheme that left them represented by a White Republican from Fernandina Beach.
Deegan added that “if you can’t start to see somebody across from you and the pain that they have, you’re not going to get there.”
“So I was personally glad he was there. What he does with that is entirely up to him.”
During his remarks last weekend after the crowd was quelled by the chiding of a Jacksonville City Council member, DeSantis condemned the “scumbag” who gunned three people down as “racially motivated,” saying the guy “killed himself rather than face the music.”
6 comments
Rick Whitaker
September 3, 2023 at 10:07 am
desantis is the kind of guy that you can’t “instruct”. he’s not a good listener. so the mayor was just trying to be diplomatic.
Sonja Fitch
September 3, 2023 at 11:03 am
Desantis is a damn racist ! Desantis only sees the pr of the meeting Desantis attended! Nope Desantis will NOT ever learn!!!! Get out Desantis
Larry McDowell
September 3, 2023 at 8:36 pm
In truth the gov. is not white all the way, but he like many others, seems to think that this is a white mans world. They all are sadly mistaken, this is God’s world, and it is time for a reckoning. The white race has been taking, and stealing all of their existence. God said that evil will not be allowed but a season, and that what ever a man sows, that he shall also reap. Now the time is here for the reaping.🙏⛪💝💯 I strongly advise anyone that’s infected by the bug of racism, to seek Jesus Christ, he is the cure.
MH/Duuuval
September 4, 2023 at 10:33 am
Well said, Mayor Deegan!
I suspect Ron has been to a woodshed or two over his political lifetime, but he’s a hardhead.
Divider Deegan
September 4, 2023 at 1:29 pm
you will not have so called Unity, when you want to destroy a monument to the women who took care of their families while the men were fighting a war. you do not care about southerners do you Mayor. you are a divider, not a unifier..
MH/Duuuval
September 5, 2023 at 10:30 am
Make it simple: Get private money to move the piece and then relocate it. The public shouldn’t have to bear the costs of maintaining an image in praise of white Southern women — who suffered enormously from the war, but benefitted even more from enslavement of Africans.
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