MOVE THESE NUISANCES
Editorial - Tampa Tribune - April 16, 1980

For the betterment of Florida, it is time to evict autistic children and mullet fishermen from the state’s quiet neighborhoods - compassion and common sense to be forgotten.

In Pinellas County, mullet fishermen, the argument goes, make too much noise, use obscene language and work late at night. It is such a terrible problem that Sen. Mary Grizzle of Belleair Bluffs and Rep. Dennis Jones of St. Petersburg want the Legislature to pass their bills to prohibit commercial mullet fishing with in 100 yards of any dock.

Forget that the problem must involve only a very small number of fishermen (who were in the bay waters long before people lived on the shore). Forget that these gillnetters are part of a multi-million industry putting low-cost protein on the tables of people not fortunate enough to be inconvenienced in their waterfront homes.

Noise isn’t the problem in Orlando’s country club subdivision of Rio Pinar Estates; it’s the children who behave strangely. The Central Florida Society for Autistic Children rents a six-bedroom house to shelter children for a few days to relieve tense family situations caused by care for someone badly handicapped. Neighbors want them, like the mullet fishermen, to move away. "There must be a better place," said one protester.

Forget that the psychological state of these children makes them peaceful, withdrawn, full of fantasy and rejecting external reality. That latter symptom should help them fit right in with their uncompassionate neighbors--and with those who would ban those noisy fishermen of Pinellas County.