Blake Harper says his mission is to do what he says all Americans should be doing.
Politicians are public servants, Harper said, and the job of citizens is to manage them, providing them with guidance.
Harper does that, in spades. He is everywhere. You have seen him if you have watched City Council or School Board meetings, and he often is on site when there are public protests.
Perhaps it comes naturally. Harper was born in Andover, Mass., in the area where Abolitionists of the Civil War area lived.
Later, from 1962-67, he lived in Rhodesia, Africa, where his father was a missionary, then went to Kansas, then to Miami and in 1988 wound up in Jacksonville.
He has been a banker, insurance agent and at one time was a social worker. Today he is a “headhunter” recruiting new employees for companies.
Because of his deep religious beliefs, he first got involved in public affairs around 2012 when he “saw men acting as God, enabling abortion,” and joined a group protesting in front of an abortion clinic.
Then the Jacksonville human rights ordinance came along, and he joined the opponents.
He started going to council meetings and raising petitions. Despite robust objections from local conservatives, the bill passed the council.
Harper paid a price. He was fired from his job as an insurance agent for his opposition, after being doxxed by local liberal activists.
Undeterred, he took on other activities. He opposed the renaming of local schools and successfully spoke out publicly against attempts to increase gun control in the city.
Another time he herded people to council to protest after a council president tried to censor prayers by turning off the microphone of a pastor who was giving a prayer the politician didn’t like.
Eye’s Citizen of the Month coincidentally helped Quisha King, last month’s Citizen of the Month, during the early days of Black Voices for Trump.
In recent years, the civic whirlwind began holding “You Have a Voice” programs to spread the message of civic involvement. He has gotten conservative members of the council, legislature and School Board to be speakers at those meetings.
Harper is one of the founders of Americans Rising, an organization dedicated to defending the Constitution and law and order. It has gatherings and a “citizen’s academy” to spread its messages.
His civic activities and his job essentially are his life, Harper said.
“I’m not interested in credit, just in getting things done, he said — which is reminiscent of the famous Ronald Reagan quote, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
