Lawanna Gelzer, TJ Legacy and Mayor Buddy Dyer, Rushing to Nowhere

LegacyGelzerDyerWhen I am speeding 34mph in a 30mph no passing zone and someone is riding by bumper honking their horn and waving the finger at me, I will generally slow down to about 25mph, just to get them a little more pissed off. Who the hell are they, that I should alter my agenda for them?

If the situation was reversed, and I am behind someone who is blocking my speed, I will stay a safe distance behind them and pace their speed, until I can safely pass them.

I know that the driver in front won't speed up for me. I also know that if I harass them, my forward progress will be lessened. In order to get to my appointment as quickly as possible, I will accept this temporary 'slow down' and focus on my destination.

TJ Legacy and Lawanna Gelzer, are two community activists, have been fighting for the community for many years. They have been to council meetings submitted dozens of public information request, researched and gathered volumes of data and presented this information to the citizens in the form of meetings, virtual and otherwise.

Both have been adamant about gaining an audience with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to talk about police brutality and other policies that promote an unfair status quo in our community. They want to talk to Mayor Dyer, face to face and tell him about his failures as mayor, and to negotiate strategies that could be beneficial to the community in the future.

During a downtown event, there was a nonscheduled confrontation between TJ Legacy and Mayor Dyer. TJ Legacy asked for a meeting and Dyer promised to have his staff set it up.

TJ Legacy gets the call from a city staff member and was told that Dyer will grant a 30 minute meeting between him and Dyer, without Lawanna Gelzer. TJ Legacy and Lawanna Gelzer thought that Gelzer must be present for the meeting so they decided not to attend.

They worked hard for years to get here, but instead of 'pacing' the slow moving mayor, TJ Legacy and Lawanna Gelzer decides to honk their horn and give him the finger.

This meeting was scheduled to be a negotiation between Buddy Dyer, representing the City of Orlando and TJ Legacy representing a coalition of Central Florida activists.

The request by the Mayor that Gelzer not attend, was the first step in this negotiation. TJ Legacy should have understood that, but he didn't. A smart negotiator, would have countered with an equal request from the city, in exchange.

If TJ Legacy really wanted this meeting, he would have strategies or a plan to fix the problems that he talks about. During his video taped memo to the Mayor, he only restated several times that he wanted a meeting, not understanding that he was granted the meeting already, but he blew it.

In my opinion, Lawanna Gelzer is very adept for research and gathering data. But, she has very poor skills in analyzing that data.

TJ Legacy is very adept in raising awareness and hyping the crowd. He lacks the ability to formulate a strategy and so he continues to repeat the obvious data.

What the Legacy, Gelzer team need is someone who can analyze the data that Lawanna secures. They need someone capable of formulating a plan from that data and target a goal. They need someone who can present the data and then negotiate an agreement.

The team of Legacy-Gelzer continue to raise awareness to the problems in the community but they don't have a strategy to reach the goal. Buddy Dyer is aware of their horn blowing and finger waving, but he continues to set the pace.