By Deron Peterson, Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church of Deerfield Beach 

After some discussion and searching for the perfect spot, my wife and I laid down the blanket, a beach towel really, and settled in for the evening’s fireworks.  It was a typical 4th –    cookout, parade and now fireworks – all the things that make the 4th so special. As we sat there, Beth asked me what was my favorite 4th of July. We talked about the first time we took the kids to celebrate in Schroon Lake, the small town where I grew up. We talked about the time in Dallas where the fireworks were spectacular and a local radio station had coordinated the music perfectly. Of course, we also talked about the summer we met 19 years ago. In hindsight, this should have easily been my top 4th of July but, unfortunately, it wasn’t. Seeing the error of my ways, I asked if we could talk about our Top 3 Independence Days. It might surprise you to discover that we both settled on a 4th in the most unlikely of places. During our 18 years of marriage, Beth and I have lived more than half of them in Argentina. We both agreed that July 4th, 2008 was probably our favorite.

In 2008, we moved to the city of Corrientes in Northern Argentina. If you are at all familiar with Argentines, you know they absolutely love cookouts, “asados” as they call them, and will accept any excuse to have one. We decided to have our 4th of July Asado. We invited some other American missionaries living in Corrientes and an Argentine family, who had spent many years living in the U.S., over to the house. Samuel, my son, and I went into the city and spent way too much money on fireworks.

We were U.S. citizens, celebrating our country’s Independence Day while living in Argentina; citizens living in a foreign land. Beth and I spent almost 10 years living in Argentina, even earning “permanent residence” status, but at no time did we stop being U.S. citizens. We worked very hard to learn the language, to adapt to their culture and, for the most part, were very successful. In the end, however, we were still foreigners living in a foreign land.

Reminds me of Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  When we put our faith in Christ alone for salvation, we become citizens of Heaven. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to become so wrapped up in the things of this world that we forget who we belong to, and where our home really is.

For however long we are left on Earth, we need to remember our citizenship is in heaven, and that is where our loyalties should lie. Our lifestyles should be based solely on Biblical principles. We need to know our culture, history, language and understand those we live with, but don’t need to worry about fitting in. When we stop trying to fit in, we can live our lives to the fullest, without worry, as God intended.

On Monday July 4th, Deerfield Beach celebrated Independence Day with a fantastic display set up by Zambelli Fireworks.  ObserverTV was granted exclusive access to the firing area that Zambelli Fireworks set up at the end of  the International Fishing Pier. Also, ObserverTV interviewed people and asked them what “independence” means to them.  See what people had to say by clicking on ObserverTV to view.

The special City Commission meeting scheduled for Thursday, July 7 in Deerfield Beach has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies in Deerfield Beach are experiencing a spike in vehicle burglaries where suspects are targeting valet keys. Valet keys are normally supplied by vehicle manufacturers and can be found in the back of the owner’s manual in the glove box. Their purpose is to allow vehicle owners to supply valet parkers with a key that only unlocks the door and starts the engine. These keys are difficult to copy. Burglars target unlocked vehicles, steal the valet key, then return at a later time to steal the vehicle. If you have a valet key please secure it in a safe place. Lock your vehicle doors and do not leave items of value inside. Call 911 if you see suspicious activity in your neighborhood.

In addition, this was also sent out by BSO deputies:

BSO deputies worked throughout the night to solve multiple auto thefts and vehicle burglaries in the Cove Area.  A month long proactive initiative, coupled with alert patrol deputies, lead to the arrest of one suspect and the identification of another who had just stolen two vehicles from the area.  The suspects targeted unlocked vehicles for property and valet keys.  The investigation is continuing.  Please lock your vehicle doors and do not leave items of value inside.  If you see suspicious activity call 911 immediately.

Since our family, the Eller family, has lived in Deerfield Beach since 1923, I’ve often been asked to put in writing some of the history of the area, either experienced personally, or that I heard from my parents or grandparents. For some of you old timers who might be worried about certain old “scandals” don’t worry. I won’t be writing about those (smile).

— David Eller, Publisher

College life was good, but not always fair

In my last Historical Essay, I shared about my first day in college at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where I played a guitar with my new friend, Bob Bidwell, learning rock and roll. I then went out and pigged out on green olives the first evening, making myself sick.

My first roommate in that dorm turned out to be a rather difficult fellow named Dale from New Jersey, who did not want to be there and was determined to make both our lives miserable. He succeeded for a few days before I was able to arrange to get a new roommate who was more compatible.

David Eller and Bob Hutson

His name was Bob Hutson from Tampa, Florida, a quiet type fellow engineering student whose family owned an orange grove and who could have been a twin of the movie star Tom Selleck. We soon found out that he could attract the ladies with his tall good looks and I would schmooze them along with personality and guitar. We made a good team and had a great time the rest of our five years together in college as engineering students, 2½ at Stetson University in DeLand and 2½ at University of Florida in Gainesville.

Since I was on a scholastic scholarship, however, I had to make exceptional grades to keep my scholarship. Fortunately, I had had a high school teacher named Joe Calis at Pompano High School who had given me some good advice. He told me, “David, when you get to college, it is very important for you to make really good grades your first semester. If you make mostly A’s your first semester, the professors the second semester will know you are a good student and will ‘carry you’ going forward, giving you the benefit of the doubt and blaming themselves if you’re not doing quite as well in their class. They will grade you up. Meanwhile, most of your freshmen classmates will be partying their first semester, many flunking out. So, their second semester, they will have to study all the time and you can ‘take over’ their first semester girl friends. It’s a win/win for you.”  He was right, and it worked. Life was good.

Wally Smith was another friend I made on our dorm floor. His nickname was “spider” because he was real skinny with long legs and could literally walk up the wall in the hallway by spreading his legs out to each wall and jerking each leg up in spurts until he could touch the ceiling with his hands. He once bragged that he could get us good seats on Saturday night in the normally crowded theatre in downtown DeLand. When we got there, he bought a small bag of popcorn and water which he mixed together and took it up to the balcony of the theatre, telling us to stay below. He then leaned over the balcony, over the best seats in the theatre, and made loud “throw up” noises as he scattered the wet popcorn on the people down below. They started jumping up and running to the rest rooms to remove what they assumed to be nasty stuff. Wally ran down and directed us college boys to assume the great seats, which had just emptied. We tried not to look at them or smile when they came out of the bathroom and went down to find new seats down front.

Life was good, but not always fair.

David Eller

Deerfield Beach

Main Beach Parking, Ocean Way & SE 1 St. , Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Free concerts all day and a variety of food vendors. Smuggling YoYos – 1-3 p.m., Scott Ringerson, “The Elvis Experience” – 4-6 p.m., The David Ray Band – 7-9 p.m. Fireworks (off the pier) – 9 p.m. Free shuttle available – between The Cove and the beach 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. 954-480-4430.

Road and facility Closures

International Fishing Pier closes at noon, July 3, reopens 5 a.m., July 5. Ocean Way from Hillsboro Boulevard to SE 3 Street closes 6 a.m. July 4,  reopens morning of July 5. Hillsboro Boulevard Bridge and A1A, from NE 1 Street to SE 3 Street, will be closed to traffic 6-11 p.m. July 4. www.Deerfield-Beach.com or call 954-480-4430.

Pompano Beach

Pompano Beach Main Public Beach

222 N. Pompano Beach Blvd., Pompano Beach, FL  33062

FREE. Fireworks – 9 p.m. Blankets/chairs welcome. Refrain from bringing fireworks, glass containers, alcohol or pets. NE 14 Street Causeway and Atlantic Boulevard bridges will be in the “down” position from 9 to 11 p.m.  954-786-4111.

Rocketown celebrates 4th

371 S. Federal Hwy., Pompano Beach, FL 33062

Teens celebrate! Concert-6:30 p.m. Group 1 Crew performing with Authentik, Twenty 2 G Crew and other Christian rock/ hip hop music. $12 before, $15 at door. 954-786-1116. www.rocketownfl.com.

Boca Raton

Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton, FL 33431

FREE. 4 p.m. — “1940s Radio Hour,” University Theatre on campus. 6 p.m.—family-friendly activities. 7:30 p.m. – Florida Wind Symphony plays patriotic tunes. 9 p.m. – Fireworks. Bring blankets or chairs. Food and beverage vendors on site. Bring canned or non-perishible food item to help Operation Food Bank. 561-393-7827.

Independence Day is soon upon us. There will be fireworks that light up the night sky as we celebrate the many freedoms we are blessed with here in America that so many others across the globe are denied.

And yet, on the very same day that we will be celebrating our independence, I will be spending time with a number of people who have seen themselves become more and more dependent on others for their most basic of needs. Some of them are dependent on a dialysis machine to do some of the work that their kidneys used to do. Some are dependent on oxygen to ensure they get enough air to breathe. Some are dependent on others to change them, feed them, clean them and get them up into a chair. The truth is, we are all more dependent on others than we would like to believe.

And sometimes, even a temporary loss of some of our independence reminds us of that very fact. Take, for instance, one beautiful young woman who recently felt what it was like to lose a blessing many of us take for granted — the freedom to walk without pain. She suddenly had a lot of pain … it was in her foot, her heel, and it took away some of the joy in her life. Tennis, which she has an incredible passion for, became almost impossible to participate in. Dancing, which she has a knack for, became another activity she had to stop. And, as the pain got worse, she wound up in one of those special boots to take all the pressure off a specific area of her foot. On top of that, she needed crutches for a while. (Yes, I do have a bit of a ‘crutch’ on her)

So how do we help someone who is dealing with such a loss of independence, even though that loss may only be temporary? Well, in this case, I decided to use humor, albeit sick humor, humor that had her groaning and probably shaking her head, but humor that helped ease her burden. She was stuck in the house and spending a lot of time on the computer, so I sent her the following e-mail:

“I just BOOTED up my computer so let me see what I can come up with on the SPUR of the moment…”

“It’s Aboot time, its aboot space about two men in the strangest place…”

“Tell her aboot it…..”

“There’s a hole in the bootom of the sea…”

“Let me tell you all a story ‘boot a man named Jed…”

“One hundred bootles of beer on the wall, one hundred bootles of beer, take one down and pass it around, ninety-nine bootles of beer on the wall. (If you think I’m going to type out the whole song then you are more than a little bit wobbly)…”

“I’ve looked at life from boot sides now…”

“Wasn’t Abe Lincoln killed by a boot? John Wilkes Boot…”

“What do you call it when you kick a guy in the ear? A bootinear!”

“Everybody loves some booty sometime…”

“Booterflies are free and so are we…”

“Have you seen the greatest movie of all time? Mutiny on the Booty…”

“If you put your cell phone down on your foot, does that make you a phone boot?”

“Shake, shake, shake your booty…”

“If you come over to see me, are you making a booty call?”

“Oh what a bootiful morning, oh what a bootiful day … I got a bootiful feeling, everything’s going my way …”

“Have you heard the good news? If not, be sure and read the Good Boot…”

I hope some of you reading this will be able to come up with better ones to cheer up someone you know who is going through a loss of independence. In the meantime, hope you have a bootiful day…

Shalom My Friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a Hospice Chaplain and Member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. He also provides Professional Pastoral Care Services to a number of health centers in Broward County.

Deerfield Beach’s 4th of July Celebration takes place at the Main Beach Parking, Ocean Way & SE 1st St. Free concerts all day and a variety of food vendors. Sponsored by the Deerfield Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)

Entertainment
Smuggling YoYos ~ 1-3 PM
Scott Ringerson, “The Elvis Experience” ~ 4-6 PM
The David Ray Band ~ 7-9 PM

Spectacular Fireworks Display from the International Fishing Pier – 9 PM
FREE event with complimentary shuttle service from locations west of the Intracoastal.

Parking and Shuttle Service*
Parking on the barrier island will be extremely limited during the event. Park at the Cove Shopping Center and walk across the bridge or take the complimentary shuttle service between the Cove Shopping Center and the beach.
*Shuttle service will run on July 4 from 11AM – 5:45 PM, at which time Hillsboro Blvd. and the bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic. Road will reopen following the fireworks display.

FORT LAUDERDALE, May 20, 2011 – Members of the Broward Teachers Union have joined Florida public employees in filing a lawsuit today in Leon County Circuit Court in Tallahassee to stop the 3 percent pay cut otherwise known as a mandatory retirement income tax on school employees and other workers imposed by Governor Rick Scott following this year’s legislative session.

BTU President Pat Santeramo said Tallahassee Lawyer Ron Meyer on behalf of the union’s state affiliate, the Florida Education Association, filed the lawsuit today because the 3 percent mandatory retirement income tax, which amounts to a pay cut from school employees as “contributions” toward their Florida Retirement System (FRS) benefits, is unconstitutional.

“Florida’s leaders talk ad nauseam about the need to cut taxes for businesses and the state’s wealthiest residents and yet, when it comes to our police officers, firefighters and teachers, they didn’t even blink an eye when imposing this income tax increase,” Santeramo said. “Under the false premise of a retirement pension contribution, the governor and legislators are doing nothing more than trying to balance the state’s budget on the backs of public employees.”

The lawsuit alleges Florida law provides that the Florida Retirement System is one in which employees do not have to contribute part of their salaries and describes that as a contractual obligation of the State. The suit claims that the Legislature’s action unconstitutionally impairs those contractual rights.

The FRS collects retirement money for more than 900 state and local government employers in the state, covering 655,000 active employee members and providing benefits to 219,000 retired members. It has been a non-contributory plan since 1974.

The lawsuit names Gov. Rick Scott, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and John Miles, secretary of the Department of Management Services, as defendants in the lawsuit. Scott, Atwater and Bondi are the members of the State Board of Administration that is responsible for overseeing the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund and Miles runs the agency that oversees the fund.

Meyer will be representing BTU and FEA’s members in the lawsuit. He is requesting the court to segregate the money it collects from the 3 percent pay cuts and place it in an interest bearing account until the lawsuit is fully settled. If the court agrees with the claims, teachers, school employees and other public workers would receive their money back with interest.

From the Governor’s Press Office