Music venues will close without financial assistance GLAD TIDINGS RUBIO’S AMBITIONS

I own the Crowbar in Ybor City and am leading the charge for independent venues in Florida, along with the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), for emergency relief. We were the first to close, have had no revenue and the Paycheck Protection Program didn’t help because when you’re shuttered, you don’t have employees.

We’ve been begging Sen. Marco Rubio to pass the Save Our Stages Act, which would help us hold on until the pandemic passes. Without the SOS Act, 90 percent of NIVA members say they’ll be forced to shutter forever. If that happens, not only will these small businesses go bankrupt through no fault of their own, but also gone will be all the jobs, artists coming to town and the financial benefit we bring Florida communities. A 2019 study showed that for every $1 spent at small music venues, $12 of economic activity was generated for area businesses. When we go down, they go down.

In Florida, many businesses have chosen to operate with no restrictions. Yet there’s still a serious health risk in front of us. Our state has been averaging more than a thousand — several thousand on some days — new COVID-19 cases a day since Sept. 29. The longer it takes to get our state’s numbers under control, the longer it’ll take to get our industry back to 100 percent.

Those of us trying to set an example run limited shows featuring local artists at 20 percent capacity or less, and require masks and social distancing. But we’re losing more money than when we were completely shuttered.

The only way for independent venues to survive is with emergency relief. More than 2 million people have written Congress asking to pass the Save Our Stages Act.

It’s time for Sen. Rubio to fight for us.

– Tom DeGeorge, owner, Crowbar,

Ybor City

The Dec. 1 Miami Herald contained a gem of a story “Man and boat were missing off the coast for three days. Then, 90 miles at sea, a ship passed.” It brought me comfort and joy congruent with the season.

Stuart Bee was clinging hopelessly to his sinking boat when he was rescued in this extreme moment of peril and distress by the crew of a cargo ship, the Angeles. Someone took a photo of Bee as he climbed onto his rescue ship. His face tells a story that would take thousands of words to tell.

It is a story for our times, when so many may be feeling as if they are drifting at sea, clinging to a sinking boat. Miracles happen; expect them and keep hanging on until the angels arrive.

– Jose A. Fernandez,

Miami

Re the Nov. 29 Herald editorial, “Take the high road, sir, if you can find it:” We in South Florida will not forget Sen. Marco Rubio’s bargain with North Florida state legislators in 2003. They had long objected to a complicated district cost differential formula that provided more school money to urban areas because of the higher cost of living.

As a 2016 article in the Tampa Bay Times noted, “Rubio promised to support a change that would redistribute a greater share of the money. The concession swung support for his speakership from the North

Florida delegations.”

That deal has meant that over the years, MiamiDade County’s public schools have lost more than $1 billion in funding, which has gone to other counties, particularly in the northern part of the state.

Rubio made this calculated decision at the expense and better interest of the constituents who voted for him, just so he could be made Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

This episode speaks to the heart of who Rubio really is — a person who will compromise his principles to obtain his personal ambitions.

As a former mayor of Hialeah said, “It told me he would sell his soul to reach his objective. He’s disloyal to his own people, the people who gave him his start.”

That is the truth. And just as I don’t expect Rubio’s mentor, President Trump, to change, I don’t expect Rubio to change, either.

– Javier Berezdivin,

Miami