(return to media page)Orlando Sentinel, January 17, 2008
Opinion: Florida LostI'm amused about the Florida Hometown Democracy supporters who wax poetically about "Florida Lost": a land of panthers, scrub jays, bountiful fish and a few simple Florida Crackers working the soil before the crooked politicians and developers took their paradise away.
They bemoan the rooftops, the highways and the pollution of our rivers that ruin their views and offend their senses. Of course they don't mean their roof or their car or their pollution. It's my pollution and my home and my car they despise. Or it's the first-time home buyer's roof, car and household garbage they despise.
In the real old days, pioneers pushed on when the settlements got too crowded. Maybe the Hometown Democracy supporters should rally their 500,000 troops and go save Mississippi, North Dakota or Detroit -- just as their relatives did years ago when they moved to Florida.
PITT WARNER
Winter Park