OldSouth keeps watching events from afar, but will be traveling Florida himself tomorrow for a few days.
His basic premise is that once we take action to fix the culture, we'll be on the way to fixing the economy. And, slowly but surely, a narrative is beginning to take hold:
Two themes emerge:
The Federal Government is incompetent, venal, intrusive, and absolutely oblivious and uncaring about the consequences of its decisions and behaviours in the lives of the citizens. The same government that brought us the SEC that looked the other way as Madoff and company looted and burned down the economy of this country (while the regulators were surfing porn and angling for jobs with the looters) is the same government that seized Alabama's oil boom, grounded the skimming boats in Louisiana, and delayed the building of the sand berms that would have saved many square miles of marshes--all in the name of 'we know best, and if you dare disagree we'll come after you'.
Local governments and citizens are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Today's story of Oskaloosa Island is just one of what may well be many to come. They played by the Fed'ral Guv'mint rules, and it became clear that only disaster awaited them if they continued to play by the Fed'ral Guv'mint rules. So they took matters into their own hands.
So, what's the Fed'ral Guv'mint gonna do?
Arrest the mayor and city council? Just imagine that jury trial, with full discovery required! Wouldn't you just love to sit in that jury box?
Sue the city? Ditto on that thar' trial thingy--discovery and deposition can really be a bitch! And there's that little inconvenient thang called the counter-suit. And juries determining culpability and awards. Makes one salivate, just to think of it.
Send in the National Guard to seize the city? Are those troops really going to fire on the citizens? Which officer will order them to open fire, here in the Age of YouTube? The citizens may well fire on the troops, if push comes to shove. The citizens have a lot more guns and ammo than your average Guard unit, the local knowledge of the terrain, and a hell of a lot more motivation than that enlisted Guardsman. The last time the Guard fired on citizens was 1969, Kent State University. Look it up, if you wish. Things did not go well for the Ohio Guard that day or subsequently.
It's always heartening to see Americans acting like Americans. This is something The Winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize probably did not factor in when he set about to create chaos on the Gulf Coast. One part of OS's family hails from that coast. These are tough, tough, determined, hard-headed, proud and cantankerous people. They are not impressed by your Harvard JD.
Now comes the big question: What if folks in Ohio and Utah and Nebraska and Tennessee tumble to the same conclusion as they watch events unfold on the Gulf Coast?
Can ya'll say 'Katie, bar the door!'?
So, a bit of the story of Oskaloosa Island.
A Florida Panhandle community that's been victimized by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico says it can fight the destruction of its beaches and waterways better than the federal government -- but it's left with one problem: "Who will pay the bill?
Now that tar balls are washing ashore along the beaches of Okaloosa Island, county commissioners say it's time to stop waiting for the federal government's Unified Command Center to approve closing its East Pass -- the area leading to the docks of the profitable fishing village in the town of Destin.
“Over the last 50 days," Okaloosa County Commissioner Chairman Wayne Harris told FoxNews.com, "I like to say we played the game, if you will. We did what we were required to do, which was wait for all the permitting processes and wait for all the permission ....
"Over that period of time, it was obvious to us that somebody in those levels were not communicating with each other.”
Frustration started when the county devised a $9 million plan to implement an extensive boom system of barges and air curtains to close off all inlets and bayous from incoming oil. But the government rejected that proposal and began reducing the number of areas a system would protect. That, Harris says, is when the county decided to take matters into its own hands.
“We were getting the bureaucratic shuffle," he said. "We couldn’t wait for the bureaucratic process. We could not wait for indecisiveness.
"This is our county, and our people depend on us to make decisions.”
Our county, our people, our decisions, our lives, our homes, our businesses.
We've had enough, ya'll. We'll get it done, and figure out how it gets paid for.
Screw the Feds. They are the problem, not the solution.
(And this insight from Planet Gore, with a journey down Memory Lane.)
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