Not only did we not get to have a voice of our own for the next ten years the night of June 20, 2011, at the County Center, but we were told that it was a good thing that our voice got weakened throughout the Hillsborough County area. They told us that we reside in all areas, where we can achieve growth. They didn’t recognize the natural high concentrations of Hispanics in certain areas. They cared that much about our future. And yet, we are supposed to feel happy about these remarks. Then, we have other minorities. Many members of their community stated that they were willing to support us in seeking representation, and that we deserved it as a minority group as well. Still, we are the bad guys for pretending to get what is fair. For the most part, we also pay taxes, work hard and participate in the community growth in many ways. Finally, that the result of 32% of our population in the final map means that we have gone very far, is supposed to be accepted as a happy ending (as long as they are not in our shoes).
I wonder what makes them all think that we don’t think, what makes them believe that we don’t believe. If they did not follow the natural flow of the overall community growth with their decision, then the river of society could flow another way. Again, why leave room for a sentiment of not being treated fairly, instead of giving us a room to grow in prosperity in a house that is also ours? Although there are usually several factors in a situation, there come the critics of less performance in schools and other negative remarks about our community. I don’t even understand why this has turned into a subject of discussion. A system like this should have granted us what was right. It would have helped us to be better. And it did not matter if some speakers were from different areas other than the one in question, the voice of the majority was not heard anyway. Some people also supported us and this was not taken into consideration either.
It was interesting to find out how some participants were unjustly following the trend.
A high school student who wanted to convince us that we had enough representation somewhere else and we should live with that–another bone someone want us to chew on. Also, a woman who claimed to be known in our community (I asked around and no one seemed to know her.) who reminded us that we knew about her honesty when speaking, in order to feel free to make derogatory statements about our group. Amazing.
Only one commissioner thought that we deserved more than bones. We appreciate that he mentioned that it was unfair to see how our numbers were diluted along the lines of all the maps. We thank him for standing up for what is right. Finally, I think that if “Map I” did not work for everybody, other options could have been discussed in order to get us the representation we needed…if they really wanted to help us. We expected no more, no less and, for sure, no bones.
