Mr. President Please Come See the Real Florida When You Get Back

[FlaGatorJD]

While current Floridians were pleased to have the President coming to Disney to promote tourism, some of us Florida natives not so much. While I understand the realities of target-rich locations and GOTV, we hope next time he can hop off the monorail and maybe get some mud on his shoes.

While the open spaces of Florida, may not be voter dense, they are what means the most to us, and promoting them may actually be a good political move. For instance, I'd be glad to take him on an Everglades tour of the the proposed River of Grass Greenway. The ROGG was recently awarded funds by the National Park Service, a fine example of an eco-friendly federal project, which will not only creates good jobs, it also exemplifies good stewardship of the land for generations to come.

Or he still has a chance to meet with these guys who are promoting the need for wildlife corridors in the state of Florida, as they are currently kayaking, slogging through swamps, and biking up the entire peninsula from Florida Bay to the Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

Also, and I might add that most Floridians don't really have a fond taste in our mouth for the whole Disney thing. For a little perspective on how Floridians feel about the assault on our pristine state, you might read Carl Hiassen's take on Team Rodent.

If the truth is too brutal for you, try one of Hiaasen's novels. With a theme park in the plot, Native Tongue was a humorous approach to the arrival of the bulldozers in Florida. For many of us, Hiassen, a fellow Florida "Cracker", gave us a chance to laugh at the atrocities and make light of the essential eco-destruction which has taken place time after time as huge swaths of pine scrub were bulldozed and replaced with lots of stucco and people in fancy cars and clolthes. During just a portion of my lifetime, my county alone has gone from 15,000 to nearly 400,000 people, and the tour busses are still coming. They call it progress and good for business.

Mr. President, I'm sure when the bobbleheads are all lathered up about the Battleground States again, you'll be heading back this way, and Florida Democrats will be here ready to welcome you back and prepared to work our butts off to get you re elected, but can we maybe emphasize some of the more Greener aspects of the Sunshine State?

[Keystone Writer]

1. You are so right. They don't see the state as we do.

Worse, they think the story ends once the woodlands are cleared to allow for more residents. For some of us, that's where the story begins.