You can’t have rights and growth at the same time
Once upon a time the beautiful beaches of Northwest Florida were freely accessible by the public. They're still beautiful - if you can get to them. Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
In the shadow of Pride Week and Earth Day, you too could have spent your Saturday creeping bumper-to-bumper through Destin on your way to an oil-stained beach lined with murky brown water.
Ah, the rewards of growth. Praise the Lord and pass the asphalt.
When we speak of growth, we speak of rights – the right to live where we choose, to own our land, to procreate as we please.
Procreation might be the ultimate right, observed and respected by virtually every culture, with the exception of China.
You’ve got to give the Chinese credit. They understand that resources are limited and that uncontrolled growth threatens not only the snail darters of the world, but the imperious privileged who fan their wattles on the veranda of the bistro as they suck down those little umbrella-festooned cocktails.
Sorry to tell you this, Chaz, but the more people you got, the fewer “rights” you got. It can’t work any other way.
If people are so all-fired concerned about “rights,” maybe they’d agree to forego just one right – the right to reproduce the human race into extinction.
Imagine, for instance, how better life might be if 180 million fewer peopled lived between the shores of the United States.
Unemployment would be lower than it is already. Work would be plentiful, and everybody who wanted one could have a job.
Children would receive personalized education because classrooms would be less crowded. These better-educated children would grow up to become better parents, better workers and better members of society.
The pressure and pace of life would diminish. Kick back and enjoy the quiet, the fresh air, and the serenity that happens when society’s manic pace is shut away.
We’d have to bulldoze many of the existing structures. Bye bye, convenience stores on every corner. Bye bye, strip shopping centers. Bye bye, gross wings stores. How sad.
Once those structures were gone, we could set about restoring the land to what it was. We’d plant native trees, shrubs and grasses. Nature would do the rest. The small animals would move in first, then the larger ones. There’d be deer, and yes, there’d be bears. We’d have to be careful.
But the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages. The weather would return to normal. No more freakish El Nino winters, and freakish hurricane summers.
With the watershed restored, Choctawhatchee Bay would clear up. Grass beds would regrow. Fish would become more plentiful.
The gulf would become emerald again. The sand would glisten whitely. Those awful seaweed blooms would become a thing of the past.
Our energy sources would go further, as would our natural resources.
Most importantly, we would become human beings again, not the frustrated, angry, self-destructive rats in a case that we’ve become.
We can go on as we are, giving up more and more of our rights and living at a lower and lower standard. Or maybe we could relinquish a single right and enjoy the future benefits of moderation.
It’s something to think about as you’re trapped in gridlock, staring at the murky brown waters.
This column was originally published in the April 15, 1998 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .