Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
August 7, 2015
Op Ed Piece--Time to end trophies for a rapacious few
Recently, a Minnesota dentist killed a beloved lion. He wounded the male lion, Cecil, with a bow and arrow and later killed it with a rifle; then he cut off its head and left the remainder to rot.
The male lion had two prides of cubs. Now that he is dead, other males will kill his cubs, setting back the success of the lion population in Africa. This dentist killed a lion who brought happiness to millions and was being studied by scientists. The dentist put his selfish needs before the needs of the environment and the rest of the world.
In Florida, we have seen similar selfish actions. The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board rescinded a vote to permit revenues to increase to help fund needed programs — thus putting a bullet in South Florida’s future. They will now begin to eliminate programs that reduce pollution and that would have protected estuaries like the Lake Worth Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon.
The district has laid off 500 employees over the past several years. Gov. Rick Scott is cutting the head off the SFWMD.
The Palm Beach County Commission fired an arrow into the back of the Agricultural Reserve, leaving it to stagger about until its members dispatch it permanently through over-development. They decided to increase allowable commercial development and to open up more area to home building.
Commissioners did so even after the county Planning Commission voted 12-0 to reject the same proposal. During workshops held last year, all agreed that increased traffic was impacting farming and that placing houses next to farms was an impediment to farming.
The commission failed to listen to any of the arguments of the environmental community, who stated that the county’s use of $100 million of bond funds was a commitment to preserve the entire Agricultural Reserve as an island of farming, preservation, limited development and a buffer to the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge.
Cecil the lion is a metaphor for everything that is wrong with our society. Millions enjoy the pleasures of the environment, but only a few can hang a trophy on their wall. Whose needs should be met — the few or the many?
DREW MARTIN
LAKE WORTH
3 comments:
Our own Suzanne Mulvehill is staggering around wearing a "forced to farm" tee shirt. What a crock of crap! Mulvehill's relatives owned a nursery that they want to sell off for condos.Never mind that they and other a-hole hypocrites benefited for years of low taxes because of the agriculture designation of their land. Mulvehill and her fellow money whores want to be able to have their cake and eat it too. I say buy out Mulvehill and her embarrassing ilk and let her slink away back under the rock she crawled out from under. Lease the land at a very low rate to real farmers that share the majority's concern for our disappearing food resources.With the severe droughts in California,these irreplaceable vegetable growing areas are becoming even more priceless. The people of Palm Beach county made a visionary move to protect farm land and our food source.Too bad our clueless county politicians and greedy hypocrites like Mulvehill are dooming us all to a future of eating people chow from China. Thanks, Suzanne.
Farming is all they have ever done. They don't have a problem farming. The problem is the County treating their property differently than all the surrounding properties thus devaluing it immensely. At least that's how I understand it.
The county is "treating" their land like it should be teated-AS AG LAND !!! They have NO DESIRE to farm. What they do have a desire to do is raise a one time crop of condos, take their money, and RUN!!!
I have NO patience with hypocrites like Mulvehill and her family !! For YEARS they benefited from MUCH lower property taxes - BECAUSE WE THE PEOPLE understood the VALUE OF FARM LAND !!!! And the FOOD it raises for this country !
DISGUSTING !!!
Do Mulvehill and the rest of her fellow hypocrites want to pay back the people of Palm Beach county the 100 million dollars, with interest, and the difference that they got to pay in taxes for their Ag designation ? No ,of course not. They want to play the victim,cash out and say "suck it losers" to the people of America.
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