100 Central Florida

Our panel of 100 influential leaders discusses the most important issues affecting you. To read responses from more Central Florida 100 participants, go to OrlandoSentinel.com/cf100

TOP STORIES FROM LAST WEEK

A WARM PLACE TO STAY, Martha Are, CEO, Central Florida Commission on Homelessness: As everyone in Florida no doubt noticed, local temperatures these past two weekends fell below 40 degrees for over four hours. These are conditions for calling a “cold night” in our region’s homeless system, which means that emergency shelters expand capacity and no person seeking warm shelter is turned away. With the partnership of Lynx buses, the city, county, shelters, emergency management and Second Harvest, over the past two weekends Central Florida provided 1,454 emergency shelter beds to those experiencing homelessness (in addition to those already in shelter). Thank you to those who provided a safe, warm place for our community.

EMBOLDENING HATE, Mary Lee

Downey, CEO, Hope Partnership: You know what makes me really angry? Nazi rallies in my community. You know what makes me even angrier? Leaders who enact policies that embolden these hate groups. We have bills working their way through the state Legislature to restrict teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ issues or telling the truth about our country’s long history of systemic racism, and we’re also on our way to rolling back protections on women’s access to family planning and health care. If all these measures pass, we’re going to have a hard time convincing the hate groups that their protests don’t work.

ERASING RACISM, Eric Jackson, president/CEO, Total Roof Services Corp.; board member, CareerSource Central Florida: Fragility and oversensitivity are terms used a lot lately. These terms don’t accurately describe what’s driving the actions around House Bill 7. There is no fragility here, just good old-fashioned “we don’t want to talk about racism, and we don’t want you to talk about racism either.” Some of the proposed legislation is just troubling. If we lived in a utopian world, much of HB7 would be fine, but we live in a world where both current and historical racism still have troubling and real effects. Our state leaders should be using their time and talents better.

PANDEMIC HELP, Viviana Janer, vice chairwoman, Osceola County Commission:

Families hit hard by the pandemic can still access millions of dollars of funding Osceola County has available. The County Commission is committed to maintaining these lifelines to residents who might be struggling because of the pandemic. Unlike other counties around Central Florida, Osceola County has never closed the window to any of its housing assistance programs. Areas of funding include rental/mortgage and utility assistance, an eviction diversion program and a program aimed at the elderly and disabled. Requirements for all the programs are simple — and help is available. Go to housing.osceola.org to learn more.

MISS USA TRAGEDY, Mark E. NeJame, founder, senior partner, NeJame Law: Cheslie Kryst was crowned Miss USA in 2019. Not only was she beautiful, but she was an accomplished lawyer, a #MeToo advocate and fought for incarcerated people who had received unjust sentences. She was a national television correspondent on “Extra.” As a Black woman and role model, she wore her Miss USA crown atop her flowing, black, natural curls when crowned. She had accomplished all of this being only 30 years old. On Jan. 30, she committed suicide, jumping off a building in New York City. Mental health can impact anyone. All that glitters is not gold, or a diamond-encrusted crown.

STACKED LEGISLATURE, Kathleen Oropeza, co-founder, FundEducationNow.org: Hunger Games participants are told, “May the odds be ever in your favor.” That same sarcastic sentiment could be the motto of the Florida Legislature. If a bill is part of the agenda, its supporters don’t care how much pain it will cause our students, who drive to Tallahassee to give heartbreaking, compelling testimony against bills from the discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” (HB 1557) to the authoritarian “Anti-Woke Bill” (HB 7). The House State Affairs Committee and its 24 members passed HB 7 with 16 yeas and 8 nays, along party lines, illustrating just how stacked the odds really are.

THANK AGRICULTURAL WORKERS, Joanie Schirm, GEC founding president; World Cup Orlando 1994 Committee chairman: Central Florida owes gratitude to the workers who come to perform seasonal agricultural work. Providing some of the most arduous tasks, these workers help make our economy hum. They are responsible for orange juice on our table and plants placed in our yards across Florida and worldwide. So it’s disturbing to see a busload of Mexican men who came legally under the effective Federal H-2A visa program be bullied by right-wing activists pushing the bogus phrase “Stop the invasion.” Since the United States formed, immigrants have been brought here to do jobs mostly not wanted by others. They deserve our respect and thanks.

HATE HAS NO HOME HERE, Nicole Wilson, Orange County commissioner, District 1: According to an October 2021 report from the American Jewish Committee, one in four Jewish Americans had been the target of antisemitism last year. We saw this vile hatred in our own community last week as a neo-Nazi group took to our streets, spreading hate and inciting violence. It shows how pervasive and insidious hate speech can be when not unequivocally condemned by politicians. The former president emboldened these heinous acts when he said “there are good people on both sides.” No. There are no good Nazis. All Americans deserve to hear unambiguously that hate has no home here and it never will.