Meanwhile, the most poetic moment in my relationship with
Jim Hendrick requires going back to the beginning, when Jim told the county
commissioners a special place in hell is reserved for developers who buy
trailer parks and evict the tenants. Jim was representing a mega-real estate
developer, who had bought a trailer park and then submitted an application to
redevelop it for high-end residences. Jim convinced the commissioners that his
client was not making the trailer park tenants leave, and that the development
was grandfathered under a Florida statute, which had been repealed by the state
legislature. (Eventually, all the trailer tenants would leave.)
As a registered Independent, by a 3/1 margin, I had recently lost my first county commission race to the Republican incumbent commissioner. My mantra during the race was: "No more new development, period, the end. The Florida Keys already are way over developed, and there is not a person living here who can look in a mirror and honestly argue otherwise." I introduced myself to Jim as he was leaving the commission meeting. He knew of me from the commission race. We exchanged email addresses. Our friendship began.
As time passed and things happened, I came to think the mega-developer was possessed by Lucifer, and I published that on my blogs a number of times. Then one day, Jim said he would prove to me that his client was not possessed by Lucifer. I invited Jim to put on his case. Jim said his client was the best salesman he ever met. He got people to look at what he wanted them to see, and not at what he didn't want them to see. I said, "That's how Lucifer sells. I rest my case.
Also at the poetry
reading were Jim’s wife, Todd German, and Jim’s future wife, who one day would
ask Todd to ask people who had known Jim to write about him. Be careful what
you ask for?”
Jim said he and I would
play a game of chess. I said it was not time for that, we were with people who didn’t
care about chess. Jim insisted, I again tried to beg off. Jim insisted, got out
his chess board, set up the pieces. I relented.
Jim said he was going to
tell me his strategy as we played, and he still would beat me. That’s what
happened, as he criticized my play. Jim said we would play another game, and
the same would happen. I again said it was not the time for that, and he had
proved his point. He insisted. I gave in. Same thing happened again, as Todd,
Jim's wife and future wife watched on.
I viewed the chess games
as Jim and Lucifer’s reaction to my inviting Jim to put on his case and my then
saying he had proved his client was possessed by Lucifer.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
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