Letter to the editor: Face-value not enough in politics

Earlier this week, I discovered Lori Martin Gregory on a billboard for City Council. At first, I was impressed: 40 years of business experience… MBA, journalism degree, CEO of a film company. Sounded great. But I’m the lady that clicks the other links on Wikipedia as I scroll any one page, so I Googled 7th Chakra Films. They do not have many productions.

So I figure, hey, maybe that is why they hired her. Turnaround story, get the juices flowing with new management. LinkedIn here I come!

20 years as a consultant – self-employed. Ayuverdic medicine (will she accept my insurance…?) and the one recent CEO job. My disappointment began to grow a bit more. We typically treat self-employment without a good portfolio to point to as a resume gap in my industry.

I wasn’t a fan of a remark on a video of a forum where she said CF wasn’t an option in her time. I graduated in 1979 and went to UCF, where I graduated in 1981 and 1987 with my MS degree. How does, as a man named Stan Hanson on Facebook claim, she goes by “Hometown Lori” while she was educated and worked most of her career elsewhere, and disparaged my alma mater of CF as beneath her? It was good enough for my sons and classmates who are here now and very successful people. Why not CF, why not UF or UCF? Denver is awful far to go for college. I’m very proud to have graduated from CFCC and loved my time there. That remark truly saddened me on a personal level more than the rest of this.

My questions are these: where have you worked as a journalist besides your self-employment? Who are your top three clients in a 20-year consultation career? Why don’t you mention your music career and band Swish? How do you claim to be around Ocala for five decades, with 20 of those years spent very clearly in Boston, Denver, LA, St. Pete as a student, activist or realtor? But a lot of what I find in less than 30 minutes online contradicts most of what I have seen her say in her campaign material. She might be a good councilwoman if elected, but on her way in, boy, she sure is a good politician because I was sold at first glance.

Sarah Driscoll

Ocala