Can anyone ever really change?

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Jim Stafford now has his hat in the ring to become City Commissioner District 2.

This is the same Jim Stafford who had a web site called Lake Worthless. According to him, everything about this city was a piece of you know what, but the major complaint then was the Utility Company. All he and his friends did was pound on their keyboards, complaining about the high rates and cost of service and rollllllllling brown outs but not one time did they offer any helpful ideas.

Instead, Jim and his best buds, watched as millions of wasteful spending put the city into jeopardy...and never once did we hear a single word from him or his complaining friends even when the city went with FMPA, a really bad decision. They just kept pounding away and screaming insults at anyone and everyone. And, at that time, they never entertained the possibility of corruption or waste. All we knew was Lake Worth was spending like a drunken sailor. To this day, I still get the question from one of his sign thief friends, "What corruption...prove it." We have no idea where all the money went.


Jim Stafford, with no sense of the importance of our history, was all for tearing down the casino and having the property become a passive park never to be rebuilt even though we were known for our Casino since 1922. Our new casino will open in a month and it will be the shining light that will draw tourist dollars to Lake Worth. Stafford was wrong on that one. But now we might possibly hear about the seawall and the coastal construction line, developing a political platform with the help from his old cyber attack buddies who still just like to complain about everything.

Stafford also developed his Lake Worth Talk where he became, without a doubt, the biggest bully in town in every sense of the word. His best buds commented there while he planted the seeds of human destruction and attacked everyone in town for whom he and they hated with a passion. At the time there was the Electric Utility Task Force with Bill Coakley as Chair. There were two schools of thought:  going with the 26kv (which would have bankrupted our City) or 13.2kv upgrade. He went after Coakley like a dog in heat for Coakley's stand on remaining with a "standard" system. In the end, Coakley was proven correct and exonerated but it never stopped the attacks.

Click here to read blog by Coakley.

It was all just ugly politics...cyber attacking at its very worst. It was a daily little frenzy of hate going on not just aimed at elected officials and city board appointees but private citizens. Some of the very same people who thought nothing about using a disgusting descriptive to portray their political enemies in the worst of lights by attacking their credibility or telling the biggest lies ever told, are still around doing the same thing.

Mr. Stafford's presence on the scene, not that many years ago, is conclusive. At that time, he said that he wanted to be an influence on the political scene, a "power broker,"  but instead he was the most divisive influence on the city and the master at despicable anonymous cyber attacks that he also daily encouraged on his blog.

However, his blogs were not just opinion pieces but body slams holding everyone up for condemnation who disagreed with him. A few people, to this day, have not been able to overcome the hate and the lies that are still believed by some thanks to Mr. Stafford and his good buddy who keeps the hostility alive. His hateful blog membership cheered wildly as he and they spit out the venom. It reminded me of Christians being thrown to the lions. It was mob rule and a daily lynching of good people whose only fault was disagreeing with Mr. Stafford and his group. It was all a blood sport and he and his followers walked away daily with blood dripping from their venom injected mouths.

So, basically, my question is, can anyone ever really change his basic nature? 80% of those who took the poll say NO. I do believe that people probably can change with a lot of dedication and help, but one's past can be a compelling decider into the character and nature of a person. Mr. Stafford is an excellent photographer and has added more to his family since his bully era and this hopefully has brought a maturity. But no one really knows if Stafford has changed. Other than last night and the very rare appearance, we have not seen him at City Hall to speak on anything. We need to elect someone who has respect for opinion and has an opinion of his own that is not inflammatory.

His blogs might have been the window to his soul.