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Name calling must be okay now

By Sue Carlton, Times Columnist
Published March 7, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [Disney] Disney's Cruella De Ville.

Excuse me, but did anyone else notice a certain elected official at a certain public meeting refer to a certain gadfly by the same name as a certain evil cartoon character best known for wanting to make a fur coat out of puppies?

Or was it just me?

It's true the subject of the meeting at the time was free speech, not to mention name-calling. And we are talking about the Hillsborough County School Board here.

This week, the board showed up for Round 2 on a wacky public-speaking rule previously invoked by Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero. Besides requiring that any citizen hoping to have a say before the board follow certain guidelines - a three-minute time limit, for instance - Faliero announced that no one was allowed to say anyone's name.

Speak the name of the person you're talking about, and risk getting kicked out. Faliero later said the rule was to ward off personal attacks.

Enter Lee Drury De Cesare, sharp-tongued critic, frequent speaker and perpetual thorn to certain public figures, Faliero included. Guess what? De Cesare said a name and kept talking as the buzzer sounded. Faliero told a security officer, "Do your thing," and De Cesare was escorted out.

At the next meeting came a polite visit from the American Civil Liberties Union, a clarification by the School Board lawyer that name saying is in fact not verboten, and talk of the First Amendment. Even Faliero got into the spirit with, "People can say whatever they think about their government. ... I am very thankful that I live in this country where people can get up and say whatever hurtful, untrue things that they can. We just have to take it."

De Cesare referred to the treatment she got as "vulgar" and requested an apology from Faliero, which did not appear to be forthcoming. When De Cesare finished, Faliero said, "Thank you, Ms. De Vil."

Or maybe it was "DeVille." Maybe Faliero absolutely positively did not mean Cruella De Vil, the infamous fur-loving villainess of 101 Dalmatians. Maybe any resemblance between the white-haired, elegantly dressed De Cesare (resplendent in red that particular day) and the Glenn Close version of Cruella is purely coincidental.

Maybe Faliero had a song stuck in her head from the '70s band Mink DeVille, or she was ruminating on whether her next car should be a Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Maybe it was a genuine slip of the lip - De Vil, De Cesare, De Vil, De Cesare - though you would think the name would be excruciatingly familiar by now. I don't know. Faliero did not return my calls for comment.

Did good come from this meeting? Sure. In all that free speech talk, April Griffin wisely managed to get fellow board members to agree to "request" rather than "require" that speakers watch their content. And Susan Valdes offered up an apology for how things went down last time. As is supposed to be with public boards, everyone got their say - the gadfly, and the public official in her sights. Now the citizens who were allowed to hear it get to make up their minds on what they think of all that free speech.

[Last modified March 6, 2008, 23:57:15]