Influence Peddling
May 16, 2011
By Karl Wickstrom
There's no doubt in our mind that the public would Take Back Our Everglades in a heartbeat if people had a yes-or-no chance.
Neither is there any doubt, unfortunately, that our compromised politicians will not let a Take Back happen. So we're stuck.
It's the same sad situation with commercial overfishing.
Most citizens want one thing; the office-holders and lobbyists give us another.
In both situations, smooth-talking elected officials use bureaucrats as front men for pandering to special profit interests rather than the best interests of the public.
The hired employees stand as buffers between politicians and the voters.
Gobs of money and financial conflicts of interest grease the system and allow the actual politicians, who are responsible for our woes, to wiggle out with platitudinous generalizations that sound good but mean little.
Only when the horrors “bottom out” as with blue-green algae scandals in our estuaries or the senseless closure of family-level grouper fishing do citizens get excited enough to act.
Still, let's fight on. Long range, surely, there must be hope.
Our Take Back column last month drew this response from a water-expert friend: “Anyone who understands the watersheds knows that the EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area) is behind the mess we're in...but.”
A Tampa reader pledged $1,000 now and $10,000 as a matching challenge to get a Take Back campaign going. Another asked if there are bumper stickers coming. Generally, though, folks are tired and discouraged, I'm afraid.
And yet we must stand tall and realize that if we somehow organize a powerful coalition, we could peddle our own influence—the public's influence.
Although it's no easy task to overcome those other powerful influence peddlers who deal in big money and personal profits, we have to try.
If we're jousting at windmills, so be it. Joust onward.
FS
