A challenge to the Morse family on heels of Trump visit

In an earlier posting, one before President Trump came to The Villages last week, I suggested that the Trump visit should be cancelled. But he remained invited by the Morse family and as we know spoke at their namesake arts center in Spanish Springs. Trump’s initial visit in early August was cancelled due to the murders in Ohio and in Texas, as we also remember. 

Very unfortunately, my words have become a premonition that should strike at the heart of the Morse family’s pocketbook. What, you ask? Just juxtapose the moniker and marketing line for their investment – Florida’s Friendliest Hometown – with the the pushing and shoving that I not only read about in media outside their newspaper, the Daily Sun, but in videos sent to me, asking for my legal opinion on whether assaults occurred to those who merely were expressing their First Amendment rights in a non-violent way. 

I concluded that such unlawful touchings did, in fact, occur by those that voiced support for Trump. No, this isn’t the direct result of any Morse family, but just as Trump mouths words daily that are nothing but a con and, well, out and out lies, for the Morse family to continue to push their moniker of “hometown”and “friendliest” now is less than accurate any longer. 

The Villages may have been anyone’s hometown, or quite friendly before Trump, but it has lost both these descriptions because of all that is Trump.

Concomitantly, this is not to say that there aren’t many fine, upstanding folks that call The Villages their full or part time residence, but the perception no longer exists that it is Florida’s friendliest hometown. 

Let my post be a challenge to the Morse family to right the ship here, and convene a gathering to show that The Villages, while tolerating diverse views among its residents, is no place to assault those that express views that differ from others.  And anyone caught assaulting others should be dealt with to the fullest extent of prevailing local, county and state law. 

Morse family, are you willing to go public and in your daily newspaper and confirm what I have just posited, or will you continue to hide behind the skirts of your present characterization that your multi-billion dollar investment remains the friendliest hometown in the state?  The choice now remains yours. I hope you choose wisely.

Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.