As one walks or runs or crawls through life, eyes open or shut, there have to be an issue or two which pique the curiosity button. These are issues large and small, important or not, though there is one thing in common. That is the fact that every single one of these "wondered" about topics can and does affect the lives of people, the many or the few. However, when it affects you, personally, the wondered issue looms large, at times blocking vision of the very answer about which we wonder.
Take a drive along the byways and roadways of Florida, even perhaps limiting it to Southern Florida. Anyone who has lived here, settled here, within the past decade or two, had surely had a time or two, at the very least, when wondering about the quality of life, the value of change invaded the mind, became a mind worm, unable to be ejected.
When we came here, buying in 1998, the environment here was so different. Southern, that crazy busy road now, was a two-lane road with a huge meridian separating them. Gradually, it was expanded, until finally the raised roadway of today was built into existence. Good and bad. Good, for it did ease some traffic, but bad as it encouraged the development of land which until then had remained rural, pristine, beautifully forested land. Now, more traffic as well.
Now, there are developments, to deny the true word. Rather small cities have sprung up all along Southern, the canal alongside widened, and houses, some of which had been in families for generations, disappeared. It is the dwindling few who resist the lure of money, insist on remaining on their land, in their compound and kudos for them. For when temptation is there, life changes for all of us.
Wider streets and highways only invite more building, until it seems to me and many others that every single piece of 'empty' land is subject to total removal of all trees, with a replacement via ridiculous palm trees which do nothing for the shade, for the looks, for the air, for anything, other than serve as sops to the law of tree replacement. Next, the ticky - tacky houses, all alike, all built so swiftly that concern is there for quality. Having rented houses in various vacation areas, the poor quality of homes built in a hurry, to take advantage of the perceived need for both residential and vacation homes, I can see, and indeed know, the pitfalls of these rapidly developed, miles and miles and miles, acres, of destructive elements, unwanted by most, other than the powers that be, who wish for money, money, money, via taxes. Even as they give all sorts of perks to the builders. Even as our way of life is so greatly damaged. The very reason most of us moved here is disappearing before our very eyes.
So drive that highway. Think about the people living in the homes now exposed to the highway, negatively impacted, the highway right there almost literally at their doorstep. What has this done to them and their way of life, their business, as their nurseries are now exposed, becoming useless as a means of employment and economic support. So they sell their homes, we allow more development, more homes are taken for the sake of mammoth highway widening projects which never seems to end, inviting more development. The cycle just never ends, much to our detriment.
Collateral damage abounds. Poorer quality of the air we breathe. Beauty deteriorated, parks diminished, agricultural preserves poached by greedy developers and their enabling legislators. Heat rises as we concrete over all that arable, beautiful land, and for what? For homes that sit empty most of the year? For homes that cost the world plus, leaving people under severe economic pressure? For homes that will be abandoned as in 2008, when they become impossible to maintain and pay for? Then what? We are still at a loss, with land destroyed, with crime inducing abandonment, with despair growing, with nose thumbed at Mother Nature, always a dangerous sport. Never a good idea. We are reaping the consequences already.
Moving on, we must wonder about the "good guy with a gun" theory, the answer, we are told, to the "bad guy with a gun". Really? What about the supposedly good guy who cracks, or who finds a possibility now to indulge that weird impulse he has always had? What about the rising road rage and suddenly, the good guy with the gun shoots the good guy in the 'offending' car, with a good guy gun? What about the not so good guys, the challenged guys, who can now get control of a gun? Assault rifles? No good guy reality or possibility there. None, if we are to maintain, retain, sanity and safety.
Are we actually serious about this reprehensible and moronic proposal? Allow all to carry out in the open, strapped to the nines? Keep the guns legally allowed, bought after investigation, in the drawers and closets, locked away from the kids, and there is your safe proposal of good guys with guns. Yes, in Israel more people walk around with guns as a terrorist attack is always an imminent concern, but even then, the gun permits are regulated, strict. Assault rifles? Yes, for soldiers, not for the rest of the population.
Seriously, good guys with guns? How'd that work out for us as the West developed? Good guys with guns, needing, wanting, land for their immigrant families, for the families of eastern US citizens, for ranchers and farmers. Using their 'good' guns for bad, crossing lines, blurring lines, until gun regulations were in place. "Well regulated" militia is the wording in the Constitution. Let us abide by this cherished document.
Many, many ideas and topics of concern needing wonder, needing deep pondering, and soon. Lest the wonder topics become true intruders into a sane, comfortable, good life for all. A life which allows for dreams which do not destroy the dreams of others, the wonder of others as they raise their families from the poverty line and see the world and its possibilities anew. Why can we not wonder about that, how to achieve it, rather than wonder how to 'get ours' before any other? As we strap on our "good guy" guns and go out and destroy, oops! another good guy with a gun and a temper.
Wonder indeed, but action always an improvement - if the action is appropriate and positive - for the many, rather than the few. Our responsibility here is to watch the legislators, take care of the land and environment, teach our kids the right ways of a good life, and for the sake of all, put down those damned guns!!
No comments:
Post a Comment