Editorial: Sacrificing two kayaks and a Toyota for free speech

[teach1st]

Editorial: Sacrificing two kayaks and a Toyota for free speech
Tampa Bay Times, 7/18/2018

Maggy Hurchalla joked this spring that all she could offer a billionaire who won a $4.4 million judgment against her after she exercised her free speech rights were "two kayaks and an aging Toyota.’’ The billionaire didn’t laugh. This week, Martin County sheriff’s deputies armed with a court order seized the 14-year-old car and the kayaks — the only property owned by the 77-year-old sister of late Attorney General Janet Reno. This bullying should send a chill through every Floridian who cherishes their constitutional rights to free speech and to petition their government, and the Florida Supreme Court ultimately will have to correct this miscarriage of justice.

The David vs. Goliath drama played out on Florida’s east coast with themes that include the environment and the water supply, open government and a citizen’s right to protest to their elected officials. As the Tampa Bay Times’ Craig Pittman reported in May, billionaire George Lindemann Jr. put together a group to buy 2,200 acres of sugar cane fields near Lake Okeechobee in Martin County that is known as Lake Point. The idea was to dig up rocks to sell for construction projects and use the mining pits to store and clean water from the lake. By 2009, the South Florida Water Management District and the Martin County Commission signed off on the deal.

...

"There is something very childish about thinking that if they take away my car and my toys I will burst into tears and stop defending the First Amendment,’’ Hurchalla wrote in an email to several reporters. "The car and the kayaks can be replaced. The First Amendment cannot.’’

Agreed. Florida needs more engaged citizens like Maggy Hurchalla who aren’t afraid to tell government officials what they think — not fewer.

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[populistdriven]

1. he was the 736th richest person in the world, and the 220th richest in USA

Unlike Trump he sues and wins but he died on June 21, 2018, hope he was happy with his legacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lindemann

From 1962 to 1972, he served as the president of Smith, Miller and Patch, a pharmaceutical company.[5] He sold Permalens, his family company, to Cooper Labs for $75 million in 1971, and founded Vision Cable in 1972.[3][6][7][8] In 1982, he sold it to Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. and his brother for $220 million.[3][6][7][8] Shortly after, he founded a cell phone company called Metro Mobile and later sold it to Bell Atlantic for $2.5 billion in 1991.[3][6][7][8] He was then the CEO of Southern Union, a pipeline company, which was sold in 2012 to Energy Transfer Equity, LP for approximately $2.0 billion.[3][6][7][8] He also owns 19 Spanish-speaking radio stations.[6][8] He has been the president of Cellular Dynamics and the Managing General Partner of Activated Communications Limited Partnership since 1982.[5] He has been a General Partner of Panhandle Eastern since 1990.[5] He sits on the board of directors of HI Europe Limited and on the advisory board of Hudson Clean Energy Partners

He has made donations to Republican candidates, such as Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ed Royce, Denny Rehberg, and Virginia Foxx.[11] He is a supporter of the Center for Jewish History.[12] The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera is named after him and his wife.

Lindemann serves as the president of the board of directors of the Bass Museum of Art. George Lindemann Sr. lives in Palm Beach, Florida, with further homes on the Upper East Side and in Greenwich, Connecticut.[3][6][7][8] As of September 2011, he is the 736th richest person in the world, and the 220th richest in the United States, with an estimated wealth of US$2.1 billion.[3] He owns a 180-foot schooner, Adela, which has won international sailing competitions.