The Politics of "The Swamp"

After reading, Michael Grunwald: The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise “Endgame” in the Colloquium Reader, I was very baffled with how big of a mess politics actually is.  You would think that something like politics, that affects everyone and not just the people making the decisions, would make more sense.  The quote that really caught my attention on this subject is “As a public servant, Gore was often far ahead of his colleagues on issues like nuclear proliferation, environmental protection, and the ‘information superhighway’, but as a politician, he had a tendency to straddle.”   Last time I checked, if you want to get something accomplished in politics, you do not “straddle” on the subject at hand.  Who is going to side with you, if you don’t even have a clear side of your own.  In my opinion, the reason you would have the tendency to straddle on certain issues is because you either don’t have an interest on the subject or you do not know how to handle the situation.  Yes politicians are very smart men, but when it comes to the politics side of things, they always seem to take the easy way out. 

Another quote that caught my attention was "Everglades restoration could set an international standard for sustainable development. It could prove that man and nature could coexist in peace."  I think it is very important that we come up with a international standard for sustainable development before it is to late.  Why not be proactive on the situation instead of waiting for something to go seriously wrong.  The environment is not something that you can replace once it is destroyed.  We must take a stand now before the world is never the same as it once was. 

The last quote that really caught my attention was "the single greatest threat to restoration of Americas Everglades is the lack of time left in the congressional session.”  In my opinion, if Americas Everglades were really that important to politicians, then time would be made to help restore them.  When something is really important in politics, it is pushed to the front and dealt with right away.  This quote just gives the impression that politicians are just pretending that the Everglades are important to them, when in reality it is not that important of a subject to them.

 

Marjory Stoneman Douglas "Nature of the Everglades"

After reading Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s excerpt from The Everglades: River of Grass, “Nature of the Everglades”, my whole perspective on the entire Everglades has changed forever.  The quote that really caught my eye more than anything is "Water in the rains runs North to Caloosahatchee, west to the seacoast, in some of those small rivers like the Estero and the Imperial, once called Surveyor's Creek, and the Corkscrew River, and into Trafford Lake and Deep Lake, and others.... South is the mass of the Big Cypress."  I think the reason this quote meant so much to me is because I can actually relate to where she is talking about.  I have been on both the Corkscrew and Estero river before and they are every bit as pretty as Marjory Stoneman Douglas describes them as.  Every time I read this quote, it brings back the memories I have of kayaking down the Estero River with my dad and I can almost remember it like it happened the other day.  

 

The other quote that really caught my interest right away was "It is one of those trees people call rubber trees or Banyans. They are all Ficus, but the strangler is Ficus aurea. A strangler seed dropped by a bird in a cranny of oak bark will sprout and send down fine brown root hairs that dangle and lengthen until they touch the ground."  This isn’t the first time I have learned or read about the Banyans.  My teacher in high school used to always rave about how this tree interested her and I always thought she was crazy for loving them so much.  Even as crazy as I thought she was, reading this quote brought back all those memories of being in her class.  

Jennifer Penner

The last quote that caught my attention from “Nature of the Everglades” was “Here the rain falls more powerfully and logically than anywhere else upon the temperate mainland of the United States.”  I found this interesting because you always hear people around here talk about how it really doesn’t rain anywhere else in the United States like it does in Florida.  Rain is what makes Florid how it is today though.  Can you imagine if it didn’t rain as much as it does?!  There would be such a shortage of water it would be scary.  All the crops would die, the Everglades would dry up, and all the rivers and lakes that we have would be threatened forever.

A Land Remembered

      After reading the book, A Land Remembered by Patrick Smith I was very intrigued by some of the characters, but Solomon MacIvey is the one I found most interesting.  Solomon, also known as Sol, is the child of Zech and Emma MacIvey.  Even as a young boy, Solomon lived and breathed for power and this obsession only got worse as he grew older.  This obsession for power quickly escalated after the death of his father.  He wanted to be remembered and make a difference with his money and family business, but not in the same fashion his family did.  This is why he eventually started to call himself “the least of the MacIveys”.  This is because he did not share the love for nature that everyone in his family did.

            Solomon had a very distant relationship from the environment and the natural world.  Unlike everyone else in the MacIvey family, Solomon wanted nothing to do with nature or the preservation of the natural land.  Instead, when he is left to manage the family businesses, he leaves the homestead and decides to move to Miami.  In Miami, he starts new business to further his fortune, such as a bank and a real estate company.

            I think Solomon’s sense of place changes throughout the book, but I think at the end of the book is when he finally discovers his true sense of place.  Towards the end of his life, he mends his relationship with Toby Cypress and helps him preserve land in southern Florida.  This helps bring back his love for nature even after greed had torn him so far apart from it.  He moves back to the MacIvey cabin, which I think is his true sense of place.  He eventually dies in 1968 in peace inside the cabin, which I think is very fitting ending for his life that had so many ups and downs.

            I think I relate to Solomon because I sometimes led greed take over my life sometimes.  Instead of being thankful where I come from, I sometimes forget about my true roots in search for monetary reward.  Also, I am not someone who wants to follow the exact footsteps of all of my previous ancestors.  I want to branch out and live the life that I want to live.

Aldo Leopold-A Land Ethic

I am not going to lie, the first time I read through all of Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac: With essays on conservation from Round River, “The Land Ethic” in the Colloquium Reader, I had no idea what I had just read.  It wasn’t until the 3^rd time I read the entire thing that something finally clicked and began to understand what I was reading.  The first quote that really had an effect on me is when I read, “I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.”  Not only was this the first thing I understood in the text, but it really hit home because I live in a time that wilderness is disappearing by the day!  Yes, the wilderness will not be completely gone by the time I am dead, but by the time I have kids and they grow old that is a great possibility.  In recent future there was been a great increase in global and environmental awareness, but is it really enough?!  I would hate to grow old have hear my grandkids talk about how trees or even something as simple as a palm tree is becoming endangered. 

The most debatable topic that Leopold brought up is when he stated, “Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?”  I currently in my 4^th year of college and still have another year until I will graduate with my degree.   I have taken some classes that will help me with my future job, but if you honestly break it down, I have paid for a lot of classes that I will probably never use again in my life.  Would I have benefited for if I went straight into the real world to start making money for these 4 or 5 years instead of paying to trade away my awareness of the real world?!  Yes I want a college degree, but people who decide to go straight into the work force have a very fair argument for their decision. 

The last quote that really sparked my interest is when Leopold said, “We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness.”   I found this very interesting because it couldn’t be more true.  People grow up working towards having a stable family with a stable job.  When you really think about this, this in a sense is a very dull life because there is no excitement.  You don’t hear about very many people anymore that grow up saying they want to live in a different country every year.  I am one of those people who does want a very stable life with the whole “white picket fence” lifestyle, but that’s just me.