Deep Something

A Polite Version of Josh Wostal Is Still Too Much

September 3, 2026 B. John 71 Views 0 Comments Hillsborough County Commission, Hillsborough School Board, Campaign Finance, Stacy Hahn, Neil Manimala, developer contributions, Wostal, Ron DeSantis

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Stacy Hahn doesn’t sound much like Josh Postal. She’s thoughtful, qualified, and generally pleasant. But votes count the same whether they come with a scowl or a smile, and Hahn’s eight years on the Hillsborough County School Board show a record that’s much more conservative than her polished image suggests.

Hahn opposed letting voters decide on more funding for teacher pay, voted against defending that referendum when Postal and the County Commission tried to block it, rejected a Pride Month proclamation, and publicly aligned herself with Ron DeSantis’s political group. There are some exceptions in her record, but when it comes to taxes, LGBTQ recognition, sexual-health education, and DeSantis-era politics, the pattern is clear.

Now Hahn is running for the County Commission with a campaign mostly funded by construction, development, real estate, and government-relations groups—including businesses that have worked with Hillsborough County. These contributions don’t prove improper influence, but voters have a right to look at who is supporting a candidate and what choices that candidate might make in office. Dr. Hahn may be a more pleasant version of Josh Postal, but the real question is whether Hillsborough County needs another version at all.

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Ambition, Attendance, and the Race for HCSB District 2

August 31, 2026 B. John 100 Views 0 Comments Public Education, Hillsborough County, Tampa Politics, Hillsborough School Board, District 2, Brittany Lyssy, Local Governance

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

When someone wants to lead a multi-billion-dollar school district, authenticity comes first. Brittany Lyssy’s campaign for Hillsborough School Board District 2 asks voters to believe that a family of five lives in a 680-square-foot, one-bedroom condo while also keeping a homesteaded home in Manatee County. From barely attending advisory board meetings to repeating national talking points, District 2 voters deserve real community representation, not a staged political act.

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What Is the Money For?

August 25, 2026 B. John 92 Views 0 Comments billionaire philanthropy, generosity, economic inequality, Jeff Bezos, Andrew Carnegie, public good, wealth and power, moral responsibility, billionaire wealth

This entry is in the series The Stoics

A single mother stops at a traffic light and hands five dollars to a homeless person. Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to fight climate change. Bezos will accomplish far more with his gift. Yet the mother may have given up something she needed.

That distinction sits at the heart of my latest essay. The world’s richest people possess more money than they could spend across several lifetimes. Their fortunes keep growing while the planet warms, public institutions weaken, and millions struggle to survive. Their philanthropy does useful work, though it rarely costs them any comfort or power.

So what is all the remaining money for? The answer takes us through the Gilded Age, the widow’s offering, other religious traditions, private bunkers, life extension, and the strange belief that enough wealth can free someone from the fate shared by every human being.

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Real Waste, Fake Waste, and Things Republicans Just Don’t Like

July 24, 2026July 25, 2026 B. John 199 Views 0 Comments public accountability, Hillsborough County DOGE, political ideology, county grants, DEI programs, nonprofit funding, government waste, film incentives

This entry is in the series Hillsborough DOGE Report Analysis

Not every proposed cut is the same. Unused software licenses, underused vehicles, vague contracts, and weak bidding rules are real places to look for waste.

But the Hillsborough County DOGE report also targets nonprofits, equity work, community outreach, and cultural programs. In this essay, I separate genuine control problems from programs that appear to have been labeled “waste” because committee members do not like their purpose.

Political opposition is fair. Calling it financial analysis is not.

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Cutting a Program Is Not the Same as Making Government Efficient

July 23, 2026July 25, 2026 B. John 244 Views 0 Comments Hillsborough County DOGE, indigent health care, county spending, government efficiency, Medicaid gap, voter-approved tax, Tampa General Hospital, public services, health care access

This entry is in the series Hillsborough DOGE Report Analysis

The Hillsborough County DOGE committee calls the county health care plan a source of major savings. But ending care for more than 22,000 low-income residents is not the same as making government more efficient.

This essay looks at what the program actually does, why voters approved the tax that funds it, and what happens when needed care disappears from one budget line only to reappear in emergency rooms, hospitals, charities, and family finances.

Cutting a program may make a spreadsheet look better. The harder question is whether the community pays more when the service is gone.

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They Did Not Find $678 Million in Waste

July 22, 2026July 25, 2026 B. John 210 Views 0 Comments indigent health care, budget oversight, political ideology, public accountability, Hillsborough County Commission, Hillsborough County DOGE, county budget, government waste, taxpayer spending

This entry is in the series Hillsborough DOGE Report Analysis

The Hillsborough County DOGE committee says it found roughly $678 million in potential savings. That sounds impressive, until you look at what the number actually includes: entire public programs, contract limits, fund balances, possible management changes, and spending choices committee members simply do not support.

In my latest essay, I take a closer look at the report and the difference between finding real waste and labeling any disliked program as waste. The committee may have raised some fair questions about fleet use, software licenses, contracts, and oversight. But cutting a service is not the same as making government more efficient, and a large number is not proof.

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The Price of Political Playacting: Michael Owen’s Assault on Hillsborough Schools

July 9, 2026 B. John 225 Views 0 Comments Public Education, Hillsborough County, Culture Wars, Local Governance, school referendum, state preemption, Michael Owen, political overreach

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest district in the nation, is facing a top-down assault disguised as “local accountability.” State Representative Michael Owen’s House Bill 4027 calls for a referendum to eliminate our professionally appointed superintendent in favor of a partisan elected office. The schools are already governed by an elected board of education. This change is not about transparency; it is a calculated effort to force a toxic culture-war agenda into our local classrooms and strip our school system of seasoned, professional leadership.

The structural fallout of this power grab is devastatingly clear. Instead of an experienced educational administrator focused on student performance, our district risks being handed over to a political partisan. Under an elected model, policy decisions on curriculum, budgeting, and student safety will inevitably bow to the need for campaign survival, turning every fourth year into a multi-million-dollar reelection spectacle. This essay shows how Owen’s legislative overreach, paired with his habit of distorting local facts for political points, threatens the shared institutions our children rely on.

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What Are We Going to Do Now?

July 5, 2026July 9, 2026 B. John 284 Views 0 Comments Political Participation, 250th Anniversary, Democracy, Civic Engagement, Social Justice, American Democracy, Citizenship, We the People, American Values

This entry is in the series The 250th 4th

Essay 3 of a series examining where we are at 250 years

That question is easy to ask but far more difficult to answer. It is tempting to surrender to cynicism, retreat into anger, or simply conclude that one person’s voice no longer matters. Yet history tells a different story. Every major step toward a more just America began because ordinary people refused to believe that tomorrow had to look exactly like yesterday.

This concluding essay in my 250th Fourth of July trilogy is not about despair. It is about responsibility. It is a personal reflection on the kind of citizen I have decided to be, regardless of the political climate, and an invitation for each of us to consider the role we will play in writing America’s next chapter. Because history will move forward. The only question is whether we will help hold the pen.

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Is Karen Gonzalez-Pittman Representing South Tampa or Tallahassee?

June 29, 2026 B. John 287 Views 0 Comments Tallahassee preemption, housing policy, infill redevelopment, school boards, wage recovery, South Tampa, Karen Gonzalez Pittman, Home Rule, local control

This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Karen Gonzalez-Pittman represents South Tampa, but her voting record raises a fair question: is she representing this community, or carrying Tallahassee’s agenda back home? Again and again, she has voted for bills that take decision-making power away from local governments, local school boards, and local voters.

From housing and tenant protections to infill redevelopment, school policy, civilian oversight, and local employment standards, Gonzalez-Pittman has sided with state preemption over home rule. For South Tampa, where traffic, flooding, housing pressure, schools, and neighborhood character are intensely local concerns, that record deserves much closer scrutiny.

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What We Choose Together

June 12, 2026June 12, 2026 B. John 651 Views 1 Comment Stoicism, government, justice, Civic Engagement, common good, Faith250, Citizenship, The New Colossus, public life

This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Politics can make otherwise reasonable people turn strange. It can harden conversations, flatten human beings into talking points, and tempt us into anger, contempt, or despair. But avoiding public life entirely is also a moral choice. If government is, as Barney Frank once said, “the things we choose to do together,” then citizenship is one of the places where our values become visible.

This essay reflects on a recent Citizen Engagement training at Hyde Park United Methodist, the beginning of the Faith250 series, and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus” as a way into a larger question: what does a Stoic owe to public life? The answer is not withdrawal. It is disciplined participation, rooted in justice, guided by wisdom, restrained by temperance, and sustained by courage.

The Stoic citizen does not control the whole outcome. But we can still show up with clarity. We can still speak truth without surrendering to hatred. We can still widen the circle, lift a lamp, and choose together as wisely and justly as we can.

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When Principle Gets Called Partisan

June 11, 2026June 12, 2026 B. John 391 Views 0 Comments motivated reasoning, Democracy, confirmation bias, public discourse, moral principles, Civic Engagement, civic responsibility, partisanship, political bias

After a civic engagement event I helped organize, a woman approached me with a question that stayed with me. She wondered what a similar event held by “the other side” might look like. Would they just sit around saying ugly things about “us”? When I explained that our event was designed to be nonpartisan, focused only on helping people engage with public officials on whatever issue mattered to them, she looked at me and said, “Well, I’m here to tell you this was definitely partisan.”

That moment got me thinking about the difference between being partisan and being principled. We often call something partisan because it actually promotes a party, candidate, or ideology. But sometimes we use the word because something made us uncomfortable, challenged our assumptions, or touched a moral concern we have already sorted into a political box.

This essay explores how bias shapes what we hear, why two people can sit in the same room and experience almost different events, and why civic responsibility itself has started to feel suspicious in our divided culture. Democracy cannot survive if every effort to help people use their voice gets treated as a political threat.

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