It appears Ann Scott has about as much class as her husband.
Last week, Rick Scott was eviscerated in the local press for having his political action committee spend funds to run an ad campaign against a heckler who embarrassed him at a Starbucks. That same week, Ann Scott selected an adult book to read to elementary school students at a Hillsborough County school.
The school had won some literary award, so unfortunately, they were punished with a visit from the Scott clan. The school, in fact, apologized to parents and let it be known that they had nothing to do with the book selection:
We did not pick the book and have addressed this with her [Ann Scott’s] staff.
Ann Scott decided to read to them a few passages from Patrick D. Smith's A Land Remembered.
After reading a passage from the book that liberally used the terms "bastard," "damnit," and "son-of-a-bitch," she read this passage:
“They turned left again at the mainland, cruising down Biscayne Boulevard, its northern section jammed with more motels and junk food shops, service stations, massage parlors, porno movies, bars, adult book stores, the sidewalks empty in the early morning sun but teeming at night with prostitutes and junkies and winos and professional muggers. Then they came into the downtown business section of Miami, passing the MacIvey State Bank Building with the letters MCI across the front entrance, then Bayfront Park with more winos and junkies and panhandlers and muggers.”
At no point did she stop and think, “hey, this is wildly inappropriate.” Nope. She continued:
"You know, Arthur, I don't know why some folks was so shocked by the riot. Hell, this whole state was born of violence,"….."You can't go anywhere without stepping on the skull of some man or animal that was killed. The whole damned place is littered with bones.”
Okay, to be fair, as unbecoming as it is for the First Lady of Florida to read that to a bunch of kids, she’s right about our state being born of violence. In fact, her husband’s biggest legacy will be continuing the violence against our citizens and our wildlife.
Rick Scott is known as the “NRA governor." Even after Trayvon's murder, he is still a fan of our infamous “Stand Your Ground” law. He has repealed all gun ordinances, and has made it now so any nutjob can build a makeshift, front or backyard gun range—even after they hurt children.
Ann Scott’s husband has also been called an “environmental disaster" by the Tampa Bay Times. Just this past week, you might have heard about the massive fish kill that is garnering national attention. Rick Scott is directly responsible. Thanks to him, polluters have no problem dumping phosphorus or nitrogen into our waterways. There are so many dead fish that they have brought in industrial-sized dumpsters to collect them all.
With this in mind, I am not nearly as offended by Ann’s book selection this year as I am with the selection she chose to read to the kids last year. In 2015, she had the unmitigated gall to read passages of a book to students about being responsible with our manatees, fish and wildlife. The book was called I'm a Manatee. She read this around the same time Rick Scott allowed hunters to kill Florida’s black bears, which were only recently removed from the endangered species list.
So, yes, it was odd that this year she decided to read to kids a book about Floridians being forced into poverty and the killing of our animals and people. However, at least she was being honest this time about Scott’s vision for Florida.