More Words to Ponder and to Heed

I begin my weekly post with the following quote from one of the greatest Presidents of the 20th Century - Theodore Roosevelt --

“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.” -- Theodore Roosevelt - A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916

I cite to this today as last week, as expected, the short sited House of Represenatives, passed a bill which the majority of Floridians oppose -- oil drilling off the Florida coast. I am still optimistic that the bill will fail in the Senate and hope both of our Senators, Nelson and Martinez, will keep their word and filibuster the bill. The Florida Gulf Coast lives and dies on tourism. Floridians take pride in the pristine beaches, estuaries, and preserves which line the Gulf Coast of our State from Cape Sable to Pensacola.

Teddy Roosevelt's words spoken nearly a century ago speak loudly in the 21st century. And for those of the leftist persuasion who are out there and wish to tell me, "hey we told you so," my response to them is, that this is your fault. This is an issue of state's rights, which the left abhors in favor of having a bloated overreaching national government. In my opinion, each state should be allowed to decide for itself whether they want the rigs off their shores or not. The majority of the Florida bi-partisan delegation opposes the drilling. Obviously, those folks outside Florida who are pushing this legislation couldn't care less about us or our coasts or our interests. But it the oil interests win, we can only blame the continued overuse and abuse of the commerce clause by the federal government to infringe on the rights of the states and the people to determine their own destiny.

Until next time infidels, I say . . . ciao folks.