Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine engages in a little 'hero self-worship'

In this rare, un-retouched photo, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine visits 
paratroopers on June 5, 1944, moments before the troops boarded 
transport planes bound for Normandy and the June 6 D-Day invasion. 
Photo courtesy of the Office of Miami 
Beach Mayor Philip Levine. (Click image to enlarge)

South Florida's most self-important and narcissistic politician, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, recently penned an op-ed piece for the Miami Herald that talked about his city's fight against sea level rise.

The reason I know this is because he's been endlessly promoting it on Facebook.

But Levine doesn't provide a link to the piece on the Herald's website.

Instead he posted the op-ed on a website he uses to communicate with his constituents.

A possible reason for not linking to the Herald may be that some unknown editor at the paper appears to have performed a little surgery on Levine's grandiloquent prose.

Perhaps channeling Mahatama Gandhi, Levine begins his piece in his usual modest style:

The truest measure of any society, or any person, is the willingness to protect a future they will never personally experience.

Call it what you will - caring for others, having a conscience, paying it forward - but this is precisely what defines and motivates the best in all of us. This is especially true when the cause is universal, the effects are close to home, and the outcome is uncertain.

So far, so good.

And then come these three lines:

Like America's "greatest generation," who, at a critical moment in time, stood together to defeat the terror of Nazi Germany.

Like President John F. Kennedy, who stared down Kruschev-like dictators banging shoes on tables to claim what was never theirs.

Like President Ronald Reagan, who inspired a nation to believe again after a prolonged time of doubt and despair.

No, you're not hallucinating. Philip Levine is actually comparing his city's fight against sea level rise with the fight against Nazi Germany.

However, it's unknown why those lines didn't make it in the paper. A bit much, even for the Herald? We'll never know.

But Levine saves the the best for last with these two paragraphs that did get in the paper:

[T]here's nothing I won't do, no place I won't go, to seek the answers to one of the greatest challenges society as we know it has ever confronted.

As Great Britain faced an impending invasion during World War II, Winston Churchill said, "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

Modesty is not one of Mayor 
Philip Levine's strong suits. 
(Click image to enlarge) 

In just 726 words, Levine manages to compare himself to "America's greatest generation," John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Winston Churchill.

Really, Mayor Levine? Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy?

You can't be serious.

I suggest you look up "megalomania" or "narcissistic personality disorder" in the dictionary and then seek out the services of a competent psychiatrist. You have some serious issues.






Previously: Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is now a published author!

Philip Levine, Miami Beach's not-ready-for-primetime mayor, traveled to Washington DC this weekend and made a complete ass of himself