Tom Ramiccio, Governor Elect Florida Kiwanis

Governor-Elect Florida Kiwanis
Thomas M. Ramiccio

MISSION:

According to its web site--Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time.

Kiwanis does good work, especially with children--no question about it. But the Governor-Elect, former Director of the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce and former mayor of Lake Worth while engaged here, had a proclivity to stifle free speech of some citizens with whom he disagreed. He took the "changing the world" part literally.

He disallowed citizens to petition on city streets and called the police when he was head of the local Chamber of Commerce. He was very political and seemed to only back candidates who were pro-development. There were even some who feared him. Even though it appeared that he was against anyone who had a different political view, he always came with his hand out to the CRA for money, not only for Evening on the Avenues but the Chamber building itself...money that was tax from those living in the CRA district, a district full of slum and blight, with some residents there that were rumored to be those he disliked the most.

The Kiwanis organization of Florida is just another organization, like the Chamber of Commerce, that should stay out of politics. A few of the objectives are to encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships and to cooperate in creating and maintaining sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase if righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

Some Clubs are having speakers regarding Amendment 4 and some members seem to have been brainwashed to the Vote No mentality. Are they taking lessons from the Florida Chamber of Commerce? In fact, one Kiwanis Club president stated yesterday that the club had a hard time even finding a speaker For Amendment 4. As our rep for Amendment 4 described it to me, it was a hostile environment filled with some very rude people.

Good luck to Kiwanis Florida and good luck to Tom. You don't get to that position without a lot of connections, politics and hard work. It is an awesome responsibility to represent over 10,000 members across Florida.