MSD victim’s dad counseled by President-elect Biden

Two dates are at the center of Fred Guttenberg’s recently released Find the Helpers — Sept. 11, 2001 and Feb. 14, 2018.

The small but affecting book recounts the lives and heart-rending deaths of Guttenberg’s brother, Michael, a first-responder at Ground Zero who as a result later died of pancreatic cancer, and his daughter, Jaime, a 14-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was among the 17 slain in the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.

But for Guttenberg, another date promises hope: Jan. 20, 2021 — Inauguration Day, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Biden’s election and the transition away from four years of the presidency of Donald Trump promise more than wishful thinking for Guttenberg. The 54 year-old Broward man has spoken often with Biden, who is notable among the “helpers” at the heart of Guttenberg’s book.

“For me, the Vice President has been a helper,” Guttenberg writes in the book, released in September by Mango Publishing. “He has given me the advice that I needed to go forward from the worst moment in my life, often speaking to me about mission and purpose. That advice has formed my life and my advocacy since.”

In the aftermath of the MSD shooting, Guttenberg and his wife, Jennifer, started the nonprofit Orange Ribbons for Jaime to advocate for gun safety. Guttenberg has been ubiquitous and vocal in his activism.

He has testified in U.S. Senate hearings and been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention this past summer as well as speaking his piece at nationally televised town halls, marches and vigils, occasionally clashing publicly with Washington political figures, like Florida’s Republican senator Marco Rubio, who back de- regulating gun ownership.

Invited to attend Trump’s last State of the Union address this past February, Guttenberg was escorted out of the House chamber after standing shouting at the president, who had taken time to express his support for continued liberalized Second Amendment rights.

Biden “has an understanding of what Americans go through,” Guttenberg said in a recent interview.

Biden’s plan to address gun violence is detailed and, as Guttenberg notes, backed by a majority of Americans. Among the proposals are repealing a law that protects gun manufacturers from legal liability, banning the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines paired with nationwide buy-backs, closing loopholes in background checks before gun purchases, and allowing states to implement “red flag” laws.

Biden also wants to enact legislation to support survivors of gun violence and their communities.

“He plans to treat gun violence like the public health emergency it is,” Guttenberg said. “His commitment is real.”

Guttenberg says in Find the Helpers that his life’s goal is “to break the gun lobby,” and to help elect lawmakers who support gun safety and defeat those who don’t. How his aims will dovetail with Biden’s plans, Guttenberg doesn’t yet know, but his voice is hopeful and resounding with the inspiration that suffuses his book.

“I can’t say what my role will be, but I intend to have a role,” he said.

Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope

by Fred Guttenberg

Forward by Bradley Whitford

Mango Publishing, Sept. 22, 2020

Hardcover, 198 pages (18,000 copies currently in print)

Available at Amazon (hardcover and Kindle), Target.com, Barnes & Noble
and Indiebound.org.

List price: $19.95

Notable reviews by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Alyssa Milano, Debra Messing, former Congressman David Jolly, and Glenn Kirschner, legal analyst and former U.S. Army prosecutor.

Find the Helpers was named among the Best Political Books of 2020 by MarieClaire.com and has been noted in newspapers across the country, including the Virginian-Pilot, Twin Cities Pioneer-Press and Columbus Dispatch, in addition to the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

‘Jaime’s Law’ to be re-introduced to Florida legislature

Florida Phoenix

Legislation has been filed for next year’s session of the Florida Legislature that would close a loophole that can allow people barred from owning firearms because of criminal histories to nevertheless purchase ammunition without a background check.

The proposal (HB 25) is similar to a bill that failed during last year’s session. It’s called “Jaime’s Law,” after Jaime Guttenberg, aged 14, one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“As a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, nothing is more important to me than preventing another tragedy like what our community experienced from ever happening again,” bill sponsor Dan Daley, a Democrat from Coral Springs, said in written statement.

“Jaime’s Law is a huge step in the right direction towards ensuring that weapons and ammunition stay out of dangerous hands. It’s also common sense and does not restrict the rights of legal gun owners,” he said.

Bartenders are required to card people who order beers, he noted. “Why isn’t a vendor required by law to ensure that someone seeking to purchase ammunition is legally allowed to do so?”

Daley filed similar legislation last year, as did Sen. Lauren Book, also a Broward Democrat, but it failed.

Existing law requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks on buyers and to refuse purchasers who have felony convictions, histories of domestic violence, or mental illness. But the law doesn’t apply to ammo sales.

Daley’s bill would require that purchase records for law-abiding people remain confidential. It cites an existing ban on any gun registration lists. The Legislature when passing that ban declared such a list “an instrument that can be used as a means to profile innocent citizens and to harass and abuse American citizens based solely on their choice to own firearms and exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under the United States Constitution.”

Following the Parkland shootings, the 2018 Legislature voted to let
some school personnel carry guns on campus and the next year to allow teachers to carry under some circumstances.

Gun reform advocate Fred Guttenberg, Jaime’s father, has endorsed the proposal.

“With approximately 400 million weapons already on the streets, we must make it harder for those who intend to kill to do so,” he said.

“Prohibited purchasers of weapons are also prohibited from buying ammunition, but there is no mechanism in place to keep that ammunition out of their hands. We must close this ammunition loophole and this bill is a step in the right direction to do it. Jaime’s Law will help save lives immediately.”

Visit www.floridaphoenix.com for more news on state politics.

December 9, 2020December 2, 2020

Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL, 22nd District)

Dear Friends!

This year, our community has faced tremendous challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of loved ones far too soon and placed millions of families into economic hardship. Many celebrations, traditions, and even daily activities have been put on hold as we isolated ourselves to keep each other safe from harm. As we all hope to return to a sense of normalcy, we must continue to follow social distancing guidelines as we try to heal from the pandemic. Although this year has been difficult for us all, our community has shown incredible strength. Throughout the past few months, we have seen heroes emerge to keep us safe, healthy, and thriving. But our work is not over. As public health experts warn of a COVID-19 resurgence, we must all continue to do our part to keep each other safe. In Congress, I will keep fighting to get Floridians the help they need to get back on their feet.

One in twenty seniors in the U.S. is a target of fraud schemes, costing them at least $36.5 billion per year. Yet, the National Adult Protective Services Association has found that only 1 in 44 seniors actually report that they are victims of a fraud scheme. Recently the House passed my bill, the Seniors Fraud Prevention Act, that would help protect seniors and their families from becoming the victims of fraudulent schemes designed to steal their assets. I was proud to work with Rep. Buchanan, Rep. Peter Welch, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Collins to introduce this legislation that would create an office within the Federal Trade Commission charged with tracking scams, educating and alerting seniors to new scams, and establishing a more effective complaint system to ensure reports of fraud are quickly addressed by the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Recently, I joined Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Rep. Kathy Castor to release a climate report prepared by the House Oversight Committee outlining the health benefits for the state of Florida if the United States meets the goals of the Paris Agreement. The report outlines that in Florida alone, meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could prevent 101,000 deaths and 40,000 emergency room visits and hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease over the next 50 years. The state would avoid more than 23 million lost workdays. Collectively, avoiding these health issues would save Florida over $750 billion. I wish you and your family a safe and happy new year and encourage you to visit CDC.gov for current social distancing guidelines. As always, please feel free to reach out to our office if we can be of assistance.

August 24, 2020October 8, 2020

Holocaust education bill signed into law

Learning about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism is the new norm for school-age kids in Florida public schools.

A new bill, H.B.1213, was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 27, which directs public schools to teach about anti-Semitism during Holocaust instruction and requires the Florida Department of Education to give schools curriculum standards for teaching the subject in grades K-12.

The department would be required to create a process for schools to annually certify and provide evidence of compliance with the Holocaust instructional requirements.

This bill, introduced by Rep. Randy Fine, (R-Brevard County) and Sen. Lauren Book (D-Plantation), is the result of an incident in April 2018, when then-principal of the Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton, William Latson, wrote in an email to a parent, “Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.”

In a community with many Jewish residents and an estimated 12,000 actual Holocaust survivors residing in Palm Beach County, this statement caused an uproar and a call to action. One-third of Americans do not believe that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and two-thirds of Millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is.

“I couldn’t be happier that this bill was signed,” said Book from home where she is quarantining due to COVID-19. “It’s about ensuring there is consistency in Holocaust education.”

The legislation took effect on July 1. According to multiple sources, including a spokesperson from Senator Book’s office and a spokesperson for the Palm Beach County School District, the curriculum is mandatory and not elective. No one will be permitted to “opt-out.”

In Broward County, Daniel Gohl, Chief Academic Officer, says: “Instruction is embedded in our core curriculum and, therefore, all students receive the instruction.”

Book brought Czechoslovakian-born Magdalen Bader, an Auschwitz survivor who was nine when the war broke out, to testify in front of the committee in Tallahassee for 45 minutes about her travails under Nazi rule and says, “Her testimony was so powerful. You could hear a pin drop; there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

“One of the lessons is: Don’t be a bystander,” says Book. “Use your voice. Don’t sit quietly by; this is something we need to ingrain early in our students’ education.”

Fine, the only Jewish member of the Florida House of Representatives said the bill is critical to not only teach about the Holocaust but to teach the definition of anti-Semitism. “This will take the law to the next level,” he said.

The history of the Holocaust (1933-1945), will be taught in a manner that leads to an investigation of human behavior, an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping, and an examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purposes of encouraging tolerance of diversity
in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting democratic values and institutions, including the policy, definition, and historical
and current examples of anti-Semitism and the prevention of anti-Semitism.

H.B.1213

Each school district must annually certify and provide evidence to the department, in a manner prescribed by the department, that the requirements of this paragraph are met.

Also included in the bill is an amendment introduced by Sen. Randolph Bracy (D-Ocoee) to include the teaching of the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Riots, which annihilated the black population near Orlando due to outrage over a black man – Julius “July” Perry, attempting to exercise his legal right to vote in a presidential election. Ku Klux Klan members rioted and burned black-owned businesses and residences to the ground. An estimated 30 to 50 black citizens died in the massacre.

“The signing of this legislation will spread the story of the Ocoee Massacre into museum exhibits and classrooms, and will inscribe victims’ names into school buildings and state parks,” Bracy said.

“Now more than ever it is paramount we educate our citizenry about the origins of racial conflict and its manifestations in policies that are anti-black, anti-democratic, and anti-human,” said Bracy. “I am proud to have sponsored this historic piece of legislation and am grateful for Senator Book’s partnership in getting this bill across the finish line.”

“Many people, including myself, were unfamiliar with this historical event,” says Book.

Local residents herald new bill

Parkland residents of twenty years, Alan and Felice Rosenthal have three sons–Josh, Matt, and Daniel – who have attended Parkland schools, including Park Trails, West Glades, and MSD. They are pleased that the governor has signed this bill into law.

“As the survivors die off, we need to remember their stories,” says Felice Rosenthal, a mom, and former educator. “It’s important to keep their stories alive, even when they won’t be.”

Members of Congregation Kol-Tikvah, their three sons attended religious school and were bar-mitzvahed there. While not overly observant, the Rosenthals say they value being part of a Jewish community.

In 1990, Felice Rosenthal took part in the March of the Living, an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust.

Her son, Josh, who just graduated from MSD was scheduled to participate last April, but the event was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Felice Rosenthal remembers meeting many actual survivors and hearing the late Elie Wiesel, himself a survivor of Auschwitz, speak at the concentration camp in Poland and said it has left a lasting impression in her memory.

“Every time I hear a survivor speak about their experiences and how horrendous it was, it gives me chills,” says Felice Rosenthal. “Our kids need to be taught this history and how it happened. It’s not something we can forget.”

“This bill makes it standard for all kids across the state,” says Alan Rosenthal, an estate planning attorney. “With anti-Semitism on the rise, having this mandated in the public schools will be beneficial. As the number of survivors decline, and we lose their first-hand accounts of the Holocaust, this ensures that educators take over and every student will understand what happened and how to prevent it.”

“Having the history of the Holocaust and the definition of anti-Semitism taught together makes this bill more impactful,” says Alan Rosenthal. “We hope the legacy of this bill is a kinder and gentler society.”

Evan Goldman, VP, Community Planning and Government Relations at the Jewish Federation of Broward County, said the Federation has advocated for increased education around anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

“More than ever, there is a need for high standards in Holocaust education,” says Goldman. “Education is the touchstone to long-lasting community change.”

He’s appreciative of the efforts of The Holocaust Documentation & Education Center (HDEC), which spent time lobbying for the initiative in Tallahassee. The HDEC is devoted to documenting the memory of the Holocaust and educating today’s generation about the dangers of bigotry, hatred and intolerance.

“It was a masterstroke to wrap Holocaust education and anti-Semitism into one bill along with the teaching of the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Riots,” says Goldman. “Rep. Randy Fine, Sen. Lauren Book and Sen. Randolph Bracy should be commended for bringing it all together.”

“The bill is important so the next generation understands that anti- Semitism and racism are insidious and simply cannot be tolerated,” Goldman stated. “It’s important that we stand up against hate and intolerance.”

“It’s gratifying to see both the Jewish and black communities united in their response to hatred, in whatever form,” says Goldman. “We are stronger together.”

By Jan Engoren

August 3, 2020July 28, 2020

Alyssa’s Law comes home

In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, and in an attempt to make schools safer, Florida is now the second state in the country, after New Jersey, to adopt Alyssa’s Law, named after one of the shooting victims.

The state committed to allocate $8 million to implement the statewide mobile alert system for schools, despite a pandemic and budget cuts.

Thanks to Senator Lauren Book (D-Plantation) and State Representatives Michael Gottlieb and Dan Daley, Alyssa’s Law unanimously passed the Florida House of Representatives and was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 30.

“We’re so excited to get this bill passed,” says Book, a mother of two-year-old twins and an advocate for students and educational issues.

The bill is named in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, an honor student, then 14, who was murdered on Valentine’s Day 2018 while in her classroom at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, along with 13 of her schoolmates, and 3 staff members. The bill mandates that all public schools in the state of Florida install silent alarms that will be directly connected to local law enforcement in a state of emergency.

According to her parents, Ilan and Lori Alhadeff, Alyssa was “bright, energetic, happy, athletic – a pure ray of sunshine who lit up every room with her warm smile. She was an honor student, a good friend who was known to stay up later than she should have in order to support others, a winning debater, and a star soccer player, the captain of her traveling team.”

Alyssa’s parents founded the non-profit Make Our Schools Safe, with a mission of empowering students and staff to create and maintain a culture of safety and vigilance in a secure school environment. Part of those efforts was lobbying for the passage of the Alyssa’s Law bill.

“In the massacre at MSD, milliseconds mattered – and the lack of real-time coordination between first responders likely cost precious lives,” Book said in a statement after the bill was signed.

The Parkland Commission, set up after the tragedy to determine what went wrong, found that chaos and delayed response time contributed to unnecessary loss of life.

Beginning with the 2021 school year, Alyssa’s Law will require all public elementary and secondary schools to install either silent panic alarms, a cellphone app, or alternative emergency mechanisms approved by The Department of Education from which to silently alert the police.

In an interview with local Tallahassee TV station WTXL, Lori Alhadeff, now a member of the Broward School Board said “We didn’t have panic buttons. If we had an Alyssa’s Alert, teachers would have seen it on their phones and would have known how to respond properly. They could have locked and barricaded their rooms and got[ten] out of the line of fire.”

Alhadeff’s goal is to get all 50 states to pass Alyssa’s Law.

Visit: makeourschoolssafe.org

To help bring Alyssa’s Law to the national level, visit: change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-pass-the- alyssa-law-at-the-national-level?recruiter=985442548&utm_ source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&recruited_by_ id=c6ac5260-a9a9-11e9-aa54-e9ab6b748c2a

By Jan Engoren