Developing Florida State Parks 2024

 

 

Remember this: Let Nature Be.

Recently, I have become aware of the issues Florida residences are experiencing in regard to developing infrastructure in Florida State Parks for tourism and entertainment. 

Historically, when you consider the weather and subsequent flooding alone, it makes you wonder who came up with this idea? I know the need for money has everyone squeezing the soul out of a lemon, but this gives new anxiety to humankind's progression to a nature-less dystopian reality. 

The executive office of Govenor Ron Desantis has proposed nine amendments to nine existing management plans of nine state parks in Florida. This is coming from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). 

The argument for this is economic growth, expanding public access, increasing outdoor activity, and to improve Floridian quality of life, but does it? Is it a great argument? Is this based upon what is best for the location, or what goes in the state, federal, or local coffers? What about the ecosystem and the biological participants existing in mostly untouched areas? When you are looking for the devil, it is usually county, state then federal. Everything follows suit. The county is all about progression and how it can expand town out into the country. The first sign is the infiltration of energy, cell service, and water companies into areas that are not on a grid. Once you are on a grid, then you become an unwitting hostage to its dictates. Not that those systems are directly bad, but it brings housing and structure that eats away at land and Nature like the Nothing. This is when you have human population growth because people need place to go. This needing a place to go out competes wildlife and Nature. The only predator(s) we seem to have is bad food choices, disease, virus, bacteria and human incompetence among other things. 

These are the state parks that are listed as targets for outdoor recreation economy. 

• Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Hillsborough River State Park (lodging, pickleball, and disc golf)
• Oleta River State Park
• Jonathan Dickinson State Park
• Doctor Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park
• Anastasia State Park
• Camp Helen State Park
• Topsail Hill Preserve
• Grayton Beach State Park 

There is a proposal for putting a golf course on the state parks. Why? Are there not plenty of those everywhere else?  Don't build another one because you are bored and unchallenged.

Let's look at a real-life golf course that is in the lowlands of South Carolina: The Witch Golf Links. The Witch Golf links was closed (2021-2022) due to excessive flooding that cause the course to be under-utilized or not utilized at all during its golfing seasons. One of the co-partners stated flooding would be a regular thing. This course has 38 acres of wetland and floodplain within its boundaries. Initially, the plan was to build 326-home residential development consisting of 115 townhomes, 211 single family dwellings, and six acres of commercial development. The county had plans to develop this property flood or no flood. At some point, someone made the good decision to not put structures over the wetlands. 

This makes you wonder. How can you look at a property and think this is a bad idea and do it anyway? This is the resonating thought in the Floridian brain pan when this was put on the table for them to eat and it was a definite no go meal. 

The golf course was sold to which the Horry County Council decided it would be developed into a multi-family housing to give a wider birth to the wetlands and swamps where the front nine ran through it. Here you have a property that went from golf course to housing development. 

Who did Horry County decide would be desperate enough to market to and those people would buy an expensive house on a flooded area? Then live with taxes, debt and consequences.

The lesson/idea here for Florida is once DeSantis plunders the state parks with the upgrades and it fails then will it be turned into a housing development? Is it really just a prep for this sort of thing. Gives new meaning to buying Swampland in Florida. 

Not to be a bad cookie, sometimes you can mesh lodgings with state parks. Santee state park has yurts that you can stay in, but they are on the bank of the lake with a pier. People stay there because its down in the woods and they don't want to stay in a hotel. You do have to come to God on the fact you will be visited by insects and snakes. There can be a good balance to the situation where the money goes back to the park. This park has a sink hole problem so that would go to repairing the road system inside the park. When you think of lodging you get into the realm of the wastewater management that comes with people. When you have natural disasters and rising water tables the issues are real.

The pickle ball activity should be left to the towners because you would have to build a court and that takes up surface area and needs to be built to withstand increment weather, as does disc golf. Is anyone going to use it regularly? Upgrades to parks tend to not be used as often and fall into disrepair. Now it is money in and lost. 

Of course, there is always gateway development. What is that? When the local governance decides they want to ease development on constituents and do a little then when that fails go all in and put a bigger spread down because you have now accepted the buildings, gardens, and structures that are there. What you see every day becomes unseen in the long run. You get desensitized to the reality of it because you don't see the minuscule damage going on under the surface.  

The most pressing issue with having our state parks developed is that it falls into the hands of corporations that will see the area as a cash cow or moneymaker on its way to being privatized.  

If you are going to develop over an area, get creative and build things that are engineering feats, work with the nature ecosystem and can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. When you think of life over dollar, dollar is going to win depending on who wants it in their pocket.  

Ultimately, the concern of Floridians on their state parks is the gentrification towards a house development through cherry picked alterations onto the landscape of the park. It is the impact these alterations have on the now existing residents, wildlife and surrounding ecosystems. 

We know our state parks as a place that we can go to get away from the ever-increasing dystopian quality of human life. We resound with Nature by unplugging from it all. Now, someone wants to push an aspect we do not want in that landscape for availability's sake. That is something we already have at home, work, or our daily lives. When you look at human population growth or even migration from other countries, I am surprised that there are not tent camps up everywhere.  Why does everything have to have the life squeezed out of it till all that is left is empty casings with nothing left to give? 

If you would like to learn more, click the link and head over to the Florida DEP page to keep current on breaking news for this situation. 

https://floridadep.gov/about-dep

Just remember, if it is worth it, it is worth fighting for. Once it is ruined, that is a struggle to get it back to a semblance of what it once was. 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

  

Politically-Incited Repressed Memories

Remember this: Emotions are linked to previous traumas. Invoke the memory to free the emotion, and watch it run rampant.

Since this election, I have found myself the observer and participant in bridging some strange gaps between me and other people.

By the way, the best way to bridge a gap is to sit down with someone, extend understanding by listening fully to their concerns instead of diminishing them with rhetoric and hate. They have to talk the poison out. For important issues, talk to the horse’s head and not its ass. 

I was sitting across the table from an African-American woman who said, “If Trump thinks I am going to go back to the way we lived when people of color couldn’t mingle with white people-then he is wrong.”

I said, “I was born in (blank space). I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

She said, “I will not have a white person telling me what to do.”

She was angry and wanted nothing to do with me; a week separation from her was required. 

I took a pause and thought: What could it be? I was a stranger to her.

I was having a burden placed on me that wasn’t my shame to bear. By God, I wasn’t going to bear it either. I didn’t care who I had to fight to figure it out. Yet, where could it possibly come from? It came from her memories. Mine too.

You really had to be a part of the busing that went on around 1974 to understand. This was a time when schools were being desegregated and equalized so there was a certain proportion of Caucasians integrated with African-American children. We were tossed together, regardless of home training and expected to integrate as one.

It worked where I lived so long as you didn’t have the awful whispers of ethnicity hate at home.

If you were poor and Caucasian, you were sent to the rural African-American schools. If you were a financially capable Caucasian, you were enrolled into a private school.

Without reliving the details, children from this era were raised within the bosom of desegregation and the stress it caused by generating situations where conflict was present. It was rough on Caucasian and People of Color because both sides were indoctrinated with predisposed familial-inherited hate and avoidance, then thrust into a situation were previously both groups were conditioned to avoid.

What made it somewhat of a success was there was integration of teachers of different ethnicity with the belief they could work together and educate children of varying ethnicity, without falter, and succeed.

That is the Power of Love.

I had some of the best teachers in the poorest school district because they loved us, and worked because they loved us in spite of what surrounded us outside of the school walls.

One can’t forget the parents brave enough to be okay with sending their children to ethnically equalized schools.

Here you see a multiple-joint effort to get a desired outcome.

Eventually, differing people in a community began to begrudgeonly get along.  The world passes with each new dynamic to challenge an old system that segregated people out. People died for this change.

Years and years later, you begin to see groups self-segregate on their own under the belief they are not being served equally as other groups.

All previous hard work is drifting like broken continents.

All these different groups have their own agenda that moves within the realm of an ethnicity’s majority taking control of the Power, whatever that power may be.

There is no overall unifying harmony in this dynamic. There is no broad spectrum for it to feed into. It is a selfish intention spotlighting to get power over another group in the hopes of controlling the destiny of the main group and the other targeted groups.

It is the emotion of fear, anger, and an avenging Nature fueling the idea, that if one has control they can alleviate the suffering on the chosen group, but end up elevating the suffering on another lesser desired group for justifiable reasoning. There is no balance in this system-ever.

When Trump became the President elect through the Electoral College, everything that he spoke of as a means to gain control and cater to a certain group of people in America, set all those that were not considered into a series of repressed memories and ideas from a long time ago. What wasn’t repressed was now clearly invited into the open to show its ugliest faces.

Society lives with the truth that ugliness lives with us constantly and we hardly ever get a break from it.

When someone is not saying terrible things and making innocent people look bad, corporations are using brutal and less than sanitary means to beat down on a people to get a project finished regardless of the future consequence for profit's sake.

Cast your eyes to Standing Rock. The Sioux are protesting against DAPL placing a pipeline in proximity of their water supply and the possible consequence of a breach in the pipeline polluting their only source of water. There is the truth it was redirected from Bismarck for the same reasons Standing Rock didn’t want it near their water. DAPL didn’t budge because they figured no one cared about Standing Rock and it would be a breeze to knock them over and the world wouldn’t even notice the thump in the night.

When you are an observer looking at the images coming out of Standing Rock, you realize all it takes is the right thing applied to you, and easily you could be in the same predicament.

You can look back over different time zones of history and see images reflecting the exact same thing. It is the brutality, the lack of diplomacy, the lack of understanding, and the overall lack of not listening to the concerns of people, and taking them seriously while treating them as if they are “scum of the Earth” as one DAPL employee uttered on a video easily accessed online.

Where is the mutual respect? Do constituents not deserve it?

Information bleeding out into the social media zones clearly articulate how one stranger can have no regard for human life. That same person could be riding on the Subway with you, or sitting with a cup of Starbucks coffee at Barnes and Nobles.

When you have someone coming along, stating they care nothing for you, or your issues, it echoes back into government especially if governmental agencies, banks, and anyone else with power are backing these people.

The very last thing the American public needs right now is the idea now seeded in our heads that we cannot trust our government to listen to us, act on our behalf, and take our needs seriously.

These traumas bore several ideas with it.

It brought about the idea that someone in a trusted position of power could use that position, and that power, to inflict great pain on innocent people employing them. That position is the Presidency an any other governmental position with means to invoke a power play affecting the populace. The Presidency is not a place for a hate and fear monger. Nor should it be a place where the majority control of a group for self-serving interests should take advantage of the American public to condone a fascist regime geared to support Republican rule, as the majority.

Diversity matters in more ways than one.

It was the idea that someone in power could wield it in such a way to incite broken trust, anger, and contempt among constituents where outward displaces of pettiness ruled the social media strata.

This infliction of harm could happen to minorities, LGBT, immigrants, and pretty much anyone regardless of creed, or ethnicity; all it needs is a target.  People could be subjugated. Those not doing the subjugation would carry the crime for someone else’s actions.

It was already bad enough that daily individual race relations at the basement level were difficult to hurdle, but having it flaunted on a national amphitheater magnified its effects way out of proportion.

Everyone is guilty for being judgmental and labeling others even before we get to know them. In Trump’s case, he was already a person with a Celebrity facade who slipped from one facade to another much to his benefit.

One of the indicators plaguing this Presidency is: the notion and idea, be it a glaring light, that all the hard work done by people all over the world, and here in the United States, could be destroyed in the swipe of a pen, like a mean child would kick down another person’s sand castle that took hours to build. These people and their actions have done great things. These efforts are to move society to become more independent from the addictions that are ruining our planet and its people.

In a nutshell: Our bad memories of the past should not be allowed to affect our children’s future. Nor should we be enslaved to it forever, or have it wielded against us as some kind of unintentional psychological manipulation.

We have a right to say “No” for ourselves, other people we stand with and for, our children, the World, and the condition of our Earth.We have a right to “say No to that”.

Trump could be the ultimate trickster-for good or evil, or his own boogie man, who knows?

What Trump needs now is a Jiminy Cricket because his behavior is unbecoming of a President.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore "Redivivus et ultor"

Role Model: Female Huntress

Remember this: You want bees-use honey. You want blowflies-use dead wild game carcass.

I told myself I would never do this again. I have been reading the Miley Cyrus rants and reviewing the current and on-going female representation in hunting via social media’s ether, by labeling certain females as role models of hunting.

I was disappointed. Was there a light somewhere in the smog of hunting that shows one female had finally diverted from the it’s all about me, hate the anti’s, and how dare you fellow hunter question me and my antics?

I removed my glasses and massaged my temples before humorously setting about finding this person. I was a little astounded by what I found-because of the one.

My thinking was: if I peruse the role model females’ pages in the mildest sense of research-there should not be a problem. That is what a role model is for-a template for someone not accustomed to what something should be to help them mimic it.

I saw the insulting quote post about looking at a page one too many times. If you wanted celebrity, then you shouldn’t have a problem having people look at it 100 times. What is up with the baiting posts?

Is that not what you wanted? Is it to the point, the page holder feels confident in mistreating anyone cruising through because the page itself represents a target for some? The page has a bait post to drag someone in for confrontation-so it is set up to catch sensitive types that have to post with knee jerk reactions.

I think of addiction-the addict gets use to a certain drug or liquor, and hits the poison of choice everyday not realizing the damage it is doing to their brain, body, and soul. Everyone around this poor soul is saying to them, this is detrimental to you-why don’t you stop? You watch them tip the bottle back, or crack open their chemistry set of narcotics to issue a dose-then off to lala-land they go; dead to the world and your warnings.

Right now, there are certain female hunting role models that do not realize the damage they are doing to themselves and anyone looking up to them. They rebuke intelligent recourse, and some of those interactions are probably negative which makes them ear-blind.

They are in a blind but they’re blind.

This is not about how the female hunting role model goes out and does her physical hunting, or her mentality when participating. It is about the behavior of a human being that disregards fellow hunters’ observations on their behavior and how it is detrimental to what they are trying to achieve. The garbled message people are comprehending and following in behind is lost to the four winds.

I had to stop looking at all this hunting squalor because it makes me feel like I am watching bad chintz wallpaper peel. It is boring too, because the articles are all the same.

If I want reality, I’ll mosey on over to Meateater. I can live with Steve and his wormy attitude.

I looked up four female hunters that are considered to some extent female role models. I went by their Facebook pages, ergo some of them had twitter accounts with the same information but varying followers.

Huntress No. 1

% Self-promotion

% Out-sourced advertising

% Politics and Political Views

% Inflammatory-Insulting posts geared toward groups not supportive     of hunting

% arguments with fellow hunters

Huntress No. 2

% Animal Rights Activist-Hunter Shenanigans

% Epic, My Life is so much more epic than yours posts

% Out-sourced posts from random pages not self-generated

% Nothing about the actual person except photos

% Inflammatory-insulting posts geared toward groups not supportive     of hunting

Huntress No. 3 (she’s been trying to get famous since she had her                   moles removed off her face)

% Self-promotion

% Inflammatory-insulting posts geared toward groups not supportive     of hunting

% allows multiple attacks on fellow hunters if they are foreign       female hunters

Huntress No. 4

% Self-promotion

0 % inflammatory-insulting posts geared toward groups not supportive     of hunting

% Promoting hunting for women, children, and education

*Finally learned the power of good Public Relations and filtering the crap from the cream. Guess who this No. 4 is?

I wonder. Why it is important to entertain a conversation when it is based around negative rhetoric?

I won’t lie. Some of these women make me want to gag-gagging the rainbow.

I see posts saying, “Do your research, learn about wildlife conservation…”, but you do not see the research being displayed on these women’s pages.

You want that information; you have to read Ecology, National Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation Magazine, State wildlife Magazines, or Ranger Rick.

I digress; I don’t have to bash any of these females. That door was opened by them the moment they took to social media, and the world started throwing punches and shooting fire arrows at them.

No. 4 was Melissa Bachman. I perused her Facebook page and actually like it, when before I didn’t. It is more professional and the negativity has been drained from it. It was good to see at least one problemed female taking her public relations and image seriously, while putting the focal point on her abilities, performance and outreach instead of being the visual victim of attacks with pomp and circumstance through self-generated altercations.

Some hunters want to articulate to these top-notch celebrity figures that the behavior and the actions are causing the problem-but fear being excluded and branded a hunting heretic.

Does anyone remember the election? I didn't get the memo to vote, did you?

I would not have voted any of these people as role models, celebrities, or even representatives of the Hunting sport. It is shameful to say the least, and that is the women-some of the men are just as bad.

If you want to do Hunting a favor, hunters need to stand up to this kind of behavior. Hunters need to let these hunters,voted by unknown sources as the representation of the hunting sport, be informed by the masses that what is being publicly advertised and displayed as examples of hunting participants is not consistently true of the vast number of diverse hunters. It is direly erroneous.  

It is a misrepresentation of the diversity and quality of hunters everywhere.

I want to know when this crap is going to stop being a thing.

Written by: Cryptic Angelia and W Harley Bloodworth

Hiding in the Grass

Remember this: Count your accomplishments to know your effectiveness.

I was watching this eagle hunting on a field; decided today would be a good day to go hunting. I went down to the woods, realized the lane was slick as eel crap. A fat doe walked out in front of me like she was grocery shopping. I had Nena Two Feathers with me. We got out and walked around the grassy, wildlife lane I cut with the lawnmower. I walked up on the sandy hill and cut some witch cane, then walked over to the other stand. It was 12:30 pm. I could hear either someone sitting in the woods blowing like a buck, or a buck. I would later hear this again mixed in with the sound of a bull. These are two distinct sounds. I walked back to the truck and left.

I went back around 2:30 pm. There was no bait anywhere. I decided not to go into my dad’s man cave of a stand. Walked through the briars and mud to get to my stand I hadn’t been in for two years; sat there for a while in the calm, watching a squirrel dig nuts out of the leaves. I was reading this book called The Luminaries, when I heard a lizard scurrying under the black trash bag. I looked out the hole. At the end of the lane in the woods, two doe walked across. One stopped, and I could have tagged her out, but decided she was far away for a shot. The temperature began to drop and I was getting cold. I heard something crashing through the water in the swamp. I sat there a while. I heard this high-pitched, musical sound that was like a loon call. I relieved the trigger of my rifle, put my book in my bag, then put everything on my back and crawled out the deer stand. 

I slowly made my way through the woods and the water to the man cave. I put my rifle down with my backpack. I took my broken camera out then walked over to the side of the duck pond, which is elevated. I got down on my stomach, crawled up the side in the mud and briers then waited to see if I was discovered. 

I could hear and see the migratory birds calling and playing in the water. I started to laugh at my shenanigans of trying to take a picture of ducks with a broken camera. I watched them for a while. If I had stayed still, I could have gotten away with it for a long time. I finally stood up to take a photo; they flew off. I laughed, but was like meehhh, at the same time. I decided I was going to build a nature blind so I can take photos, undiscovered, in a couple of days.

Listening to those ducks was the most tranquil thing. I began reflecting on my successes, riddled with typos, with this particular construction into creative writing.

My greatest success here is: I wrote bulk posts and didn’t have to kill one animal to do it. This illustrates the unnecessary activity of people who chose to kill to compliment a work, instead of it just being for food. There again, if you’re hunting something for food, then happen to write something up, it is all in your intention.

My point got across in whatever form it took. I didn’t have to sacrifice my ethics or morals to appease a public audience, because doing such was quietly expected.

In order for you to prove yourself, and be accepted into the social media hunting community, it is implied to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt of your validity. I said, “Screw that.”

The bulk of the photography I used was images I took myself. My critique of issues I wrote was directly from my train of thought. Some of the posts are responses that required thought. Ideas just appeared for me to write, which I am grateful for. I didn’t have to hijack people for content, or mine for gold on other people’s pages due to the desperation to be prolific and relevant.

I offered friendship, it was denied. No big deal. I still did what I wanted. I was able to express myself in a creative way. I didn’t want the bad company, or the faux friendship people extend to those they idolize, and douchey people full of their own celebrity. After all, you are still just a regular person; nothing more.

I was reading a book about Georgia O’Keeffe. The writer asked O’Keeffe if she would agree to the writer penning a biography. O’Keeffe tells the author she can write the book only by the information she finds, not what O’Keeffe divulges. I realized even published this wasn’t the deeper version of O’Keeffe. People should have some option of privacy, even in their thoughts.

I wasn’t interested in mining other living peoples’ lives to steal a story that wasn’t mine to tell or take, even though people probably sampled from me. I do like getting my point across to people out to do harm. There are those people that watch what you are doing, get pissed, want you to shut up so they can write the same thing, kind of. Why?

I would suggest this. It is because the individual is enamored of you and can’t express this to you, or they think they are the expert and feel it is their place not yours. These people have all of the connections in the world-so they use you, then hope and pray no one realizes what they are doing. 

With that being said, there are people reading, get the message, and pass it for the truth it is. You know who you are.

The best decision I made was not be accessible by comments. I sidestepped lots of negativity. I can gladly say, I didn’t fight with anyone, other than the random comment by a fake profile, about hunting. My last count was three negative interactions over five years. As a person, I was irrelevant, but as a vat of knowledge, I was priceless.

When it came to people and situations, I deferred to my I Ching of Everything question. There is a simple formula for determining any situation or person by asking these two questions in one:

Are you an Asshole, or are you not?

Drowning down reality with a lot of word play can be relegated to a simple yes or no answer. Don’t complicate things.

What would I know? I am just the voice that speaks from the ether.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

The Fishing Net

Remember this: Spread the fishing net wide.

Usually, I write about four of these conjoined writings on one topic. I have been watching CNN still. This will probably be my last unless something speaks to me.

I was watching The Morning Joe and was impressed by Mika Brzezinski’s suggestive words to Mr. Scarborough about not continuing or pursing negative, repetitive content for the day. The change in dialogue and approach was noted and applauded.

Moving on

Everyone knows the story of contaminated smallpox blankets, indigenous America, the Spanish, and the Wooden Horse of Troy.

I am sure someone on social media is saying this information is all a historical lie concocted by the concept of white supremacy. That is not my premise, but the one related to terrorist riding in on the wave of fearful people running from the ones purposed to be walking within their numbers.

When you gaze upon social media, you see page after page saturated by this sentiment contributed by faceless posters to spread information to polarize the constituents of American for purposes of internal social strife. Regular people seem to have a problem saying, “No”, and engaging in this following of negativity and hate. There are people in America with an addiction for following different radical ideas themselves. They have yet to act on this.

This misuse of Social Media is one of the complaints of the POTUS and his administration. The use of social media to spread hate speech, contributing and recruiting sensitive targets to do their bidding, and eliciting the use of fake identities to hold dialogue and conversations of inflammatory natures, while social media does nothing to monitor this derogatory past time.

Responsible application makers, social media wingnuts, and people participating in those avenues need to be more responsible and selective in the garbage left out on the curve. Turn it in and for those receiving the information, take it seriously.

Syrians, or people moving into other areas are considered the smallpox blankets, or the wooden horse as expressed by politicians and other people talking out the side of their necks.

There is always the potential at any given time for someone to turn into a radical. Look at Trump; perfect example. He is radicalizing right before our eyes, and it is not even based on a religion. As a Presidential candidate, he is polarizing and doesn't seem to understand there is a population of people he will have to work for. It is not a business. The American people will not be working for him, or will they? I began to visualize a movie entitled, "New America: Trump's National Sweat Shop."

One point exposed that hasn’t been addressed is: The lack of interview and dialogue from the internal and external Muslim community regarding the negative affect the religious extremist jihadists are exerting on global public relations of the non-radical Muslim faith.

Pertinent questions should be asked in the vein of:

How is the behavior and publicizing of extremist religious jihadist affecting the present and future of the Muslim faith?

What are the plans of the present Muslim faith’s participation in helping to disclose jihadist identities to prevent more harm to the Muslim faith?

These are just a couple of questions to facilitate the participation of Non-radical Muslims, foreign and domestic that should be asked.

There is no dialogue or conversation from the Syrian refugee camp either. Why is this?

One of the issues from the POTUS was aligning non-radical Muslim followers as integral members in the spread of messages throughout the Muslim communities to clarify their stand on, or against jihadist behavior, why hasn’t this been pursued?

This is crucial to the worldview, diplomacy, and diffusing fear and misunderstanding of the Muslim community throughout the world. Interaction amongst all people at this time is demanded.

Once again, non-radical Muslims are given no voice; no voice whatsoever, in a time when their collective and individual voices need to be heard. That would be indicative of how important their role is, and how as a Nation, America and other countries can validate non-radical Muslim existence in forming a coalition to oppose the further development of religious, radical extremist groups, both foreign and domestic.

Non-radical Muslims could be a serious benefactor to illustrating to other Muslims on-the-fence to how becoming a religious, radical member of an extremist group is self-defeating, a distortion of the message of the Quran, and a destructive factor in spreading the non-violent word of the Muslim faith. Give non-radical Muslims their voice in the world to help fight the very Jihadist that is misrepresenting the overall religion to the point of subterfuge.

So far, the jihadists have all the News Media’s attention. Turn that attention away from the jihadists and shine the light on the non-radical Muslims that have just as much to lose as the Syrians. Their whole world is being threatened by the actions and behaviors of strangers, or people they are not directly affiliated with in the Middle East. 

It seems every news outlet is avoiding the Muslim perspective. Do not neglect this perspective.

When it comes to the non-radical Muslims, you have the effect on worldview, the individual, and Islam itself in the negative and positive connotation.

Radicalism must be disclosed as the misrepresentation by a minority onto a majority of non-radical Muslim followers. Only through terror tactics does this minority slowly become a majority by driving all others out.

At this current time, what is the jihadists’ effect on non-radical Muslims, their presence in the world, and how non-radical Muslims combat internally and externally, this jihadist presence and stream of belief.

In closing, do not leave a stone unturned, especially a would-be ally. 

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

The Sweet Spot #1: Santee State Park

Remember this: Sometimes a body has to go hide in Nature; not hide the body in Nature.

Yesterday, I had official business. The interstate landed me a flat tire due to debris. I pulled over into the wildlife refuge to change my tire. After I got the lug nuts off, an Officer Kuhn showed up on the scene and helped me finish off changing my tire; very professional man. Before I left, I walked out to what should have been a sandy beach-like shore, but the water was up to the margins. In the grasses, there were a host of dry, white snail shells in mass with large mussels three inches wide.

I left and went on to my appointment. I was hanging around the Santee State Park. The Santee State Park is a 100 site Lakeshore campground located in Santee, South Carolina. The first thing you notice is the cleanliness of the location. The second is peaceful.

The water was high, but not that bad. Aside from the weather mishap, this would be a good opportunity for anyone wanting to get away from town to meditate, fish, write, or do artsy things in the name of whatever you are into. Do nothing. Nothing is doing. I laugh.

Let me be your eyes and ears for a minute to tell you about this secret honey hole that you might not know about. Usually, when people look at brochures, they want to believe what is advertised, is what they are getting. It is truthfully represented by the photography on the State Parks page. This place is exactly what it is advertised to be.

It is a calm, quiet place situated down in the woods on Lake Marion. Santee State Park is a place with pivotal, well-placed benches of contemplation. I could imagine slews of poems written just by looking out over the flooded forest. You see this tree line that defiantly stands above the water on the distant horizon. If you didn’t know any better, you would think you were staring out over an ocean. In reality, it use to be a town. Somewhere under that water is the location for General Francis Marion's old homestead.

I’ve hiked the 7.5 mile loop trail. It goes down along the water and back around. The thing of note here is to stay on the trail and follow the markers. The ground looks stable near the lake side, but it is moss and debris over roots. You could take a step through into what looks like solid ground but find yourself in a hole you didn’t know was there. The bank naturally slants back down toward the lake. That condition is to be expected. There is also a Limestone Nature trail, Oak Pinolly trail, and Sinkhole Pond Trail. These are a mile long. The best part about these trails is neatness. You still have to pay attention to where you step.

If you are into ecology, biology, or even geology; this park has a sinkhole for you. You will be submerged in Nature. 

The man in the initial picture above fishing off of the pier is a transplant from New York. He was pulling catfish out left and right. This place is well stocked. It has the following fish and variety number:

Sturgeon (2)

Gars (1)

Bowfin (1)

Freshwater eel (1)

Herring and shad (5)

Mudminnows (1)

Pikes (2)

Minnow and Carp (25)

Suckers (11)

Freshwater Catfish (10)

Cavefish (1)

Pirate Perch(1)

Needlefish (1)

Temperate Bass (4)

Sunfish (19)

Perch (11)

Mullet (1)

Sole (1)

For all my fishy friends...this is the hotspot for you.

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Out on a pier over the water and back in the treeline on the lakeshore, there are spacious, quaint cabins. It is the perfect place to squirrel yourself away from technology to work on a novel, draw, or just meditate on nothing. Outside these cabins is easy access down to the fishing piers. The area is well-kept and free of clutter.

There are an assortment of things to do. The nearest town, albeit deceptively away, is under ten minutes or so to get to. You are not completely isolated but it gives you the feeling you are. Looking at the online website you find things like:

Special Events

Survival Boot Camp with Chef Laurie

Artist-in-Residence

Fisheagle Tours (Assortment of tours)

Nature Adventure Outfitters (kayak, canoe, and paddle board rentals)

Fishing

Boating (the boat ramp is like a dream with parking)

Playground (very huge)

Swimming

Birdwatching (the bird list is seven pages long)

Geocaching

Tennis Courts

Biking

Hiking

A book and video check out like a library. 

Boardgames

A mercantile on location

Picnic areas available

Outdoor latrines

Campgrounds (Primitive and others with electric and water)

Laundry facilities and dump stations

I go to this location several times a year just to get away from things that bother me and a change of scene. It is a relaxing place. The next time you decide you want to change things up and try something new, this might be the place for you.

Get out there and explore.  

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

If you would like to try it out follow this link to make reservations:

http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/santee/introduction.aspx 

Required Reading

Remember this: No harm ever came from reading a book. 

I have been engrossed in a book called, “Hope for Animals and Their World. How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued From the Brink”, written by Jane Goodall with Thane Maynard and Gail Hudson.

I do not like book reviews. The purpose of a book, such as this, is meant to make the reader think, consider what is being conveyed, and help the reader formulate a view point based on someone else's endeavors; read, absorb, think, respond.

It should be required reading, based on ease alone.

There were several good questions put forth. A concept I would like to approach is protectionists. This term was applied to a group against intervening on the part of the California Condor, at a time when extinction was critical. The protectionists wanted to offer more protection in the wild but if this supplement didn't work, then the animal was allowed to die as no more than a footnote, sight unseen, in the wild; another name on a very long list of fallen species. I don't think I have seen too many things die with dignity, not even humans.

The scientist for saving the California Condor had to sue to get permission to remove wild condors from their habitat and implement a breeding program for reintroduction.

Thank the Cosmos, no one listened to the protectionists!

One point I have become aware of in my readings and writings is the existence of groups of people, outside of the citizen realm, that makes decisions, such as these, in the stead of endangered and abundant wildlife, on the part of everyone.

There is the word protectionist, that in no means describes a person with the mindset to save or protect, merely to let exist without human intrusion, even to an untimely death. How can this be protecting a creature? I even questioned protectionists being equated with conservation, because that is not their agenda. The protectionist agenda seems to be protect and conserve the area, allow no human intrusion upon the wildlife from birth to death. Nothing is being conserved with this agenda. Letting something merely exist does nothing about the problems that will plague that system from the outside. It is not in a bubble.

How can someone professing to protect an animal on the brink of extinction, by standing in the way, then try to block efforts to propagate a species,morally and ethically, regardless of success or failure? How can someone stand by and say, “I just let it die.”

This is a little different than having an animal before you, with a terminal cancer and absolutely no hope of treatment, or even surviving treatment.

Makes you wonder how many endangered species died because of this mentality. Yet, protectionists believe their stance is morally and ethically correct.

These do not sound like stewards of anything. To some degree, it sounds like a mean way to come back on someone and say, “I told you so. Now it is dead”, without any thought to intervention to block attempts. It is a set-up for failure and retribution.

This is as dumbfounding as people going into the woods to shoot Bigfoot before anyone can see such a thing alive. After that, the Human Alien will probe Bigfoot until the cows come home.

Not to ruin your read, this book is full of one relevant example after another on the people that intervened on the part of the animal, bug, etc, to attempt efforts of captive breeding and restore endangered creatures back to wild population status.

Once again, humans included in the ecosystems of life.

One such example was of a falconer that intervened on the part of peregrine falcons becoming diminished. Although, Goodall doesn't agree with the conditions raptors are kept in and handled as hunting birds used for field sports in falconry, she was very enthusiastic and compromising with the trade-off of intervention on the part of the hunter. He loved his birds and wanted to see them restored to previous glory. He accomplished that goal through hard work with the help of may people, just as Goodall accomplished her goal of collecting stories for her book.

There is a section on the Black-footed ferret. I was perusing my feeding stream and read an article update about the use of 20 year old frozen ferret sperm being used in current times to impregnate females to increase numbers. 

A prime example of how a hunter and a non-hunting conservationist can work together, regardless of differing life views. It is the outcome that counts.

The glue that ties this book together is recognition of problems, no matter the cause, and action taken on the part of scientists and regular people to become stewards of the natural world. The outcomes, without promise of what the future holds, gives the read a sense that it is possible to slowly turn the tides on a planet in trouble. All one need do is be aware and acknowledge the predicament. Then plan stratagems on solving the problem at hand.

If you are a hunter or anyone thinking of, or involved in conservation efforts, this should be on your reading list for sure.

It is a process to watch this ongoing saga of animal lives and the people who help them, hunting or not.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

The Curious Person

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Remember this: Curiosity is not a bad thing, but don't put your foot in your mouth. It might choke you. Think first impressions.

Every once in a while, someone will come along and appear curious. When the same person comes along and you've had them blocked from your accounts since 2010, you get curious yourself. What exactly does the curious person want?

 

Keep in mind, I didn't go looking for this interaction. It came to me, which makes it stick out like a sore thumb.

The curious person will either show the person they truly are, or keep up with the charade. Of course, once you have made the executive decision to move forward yourself, and not revisit people from your dark and immediate past, who you have given opportunities to, it is fair to say everything is reset at zero for you.

There are people who will take it upon themselves to act like your mirror. This is unnecessary when you have solved your own problem without their help. They are only irritating a situation that has come to a resolution, which could set you back on this weird regression. This is detrimental to your evolving as a person; same for them, as well.

If nothing is thriving in the way of relationships, then one can conclude it is a dead-end street. Someone has to let go. I decided to do this.

I blocked the person again. I minded my own business. I am not interested in hurting someone because of curiosity. Hopefully, it was just innocent curiosity. I have no desire to say who this person is. The likelihood it was fake is extremely high. I just let it go. I remembered the man and woman's pictures from 2010.

I wondered why they were back bothering me. Seven years had past and I remembered them both. The photos I saw had not changed. I was looking at another lie. This is why I feel the need to protect myself constantly.

There was some things said to me at the onset of the conversation that someone should never do. I was being nice. When you list all the things not-to-do, then the person goes through and checks all those things off, they are probably there to hurt you. I thought it was more of an information gathering scenario. It begins to look like a set-up and a lure page.

This was what I saw. I friended the person. There were some family photos. In the information section, it listed this person had publicly declared a relationship with a woman.

Red Flag #1: Why would you be talking to another woman?

I noticed posts were sourced out. I don't know if the curious person could tell, but I could see the happy photos of the curious person on vacation with the declared love-of-his life at the moment. I wasn't mad about it. This person was a stranger to me.

Red Flag #2: Why would the pictures be readily available from the girlfriend's page?

The curious person gave me their number. I called them. A male answered the telephone. Right off, I could hear this hint of anger or resentment in their voice. I thought to myself, what is this. Within five sentences, the male voice said, “You don't have any money.” This is really the only part of the conversation you need to know. It expresses the point of this blog.

The curious person and the girlfriend indicated Christian beliefs. I wondered if it were not a couple on the internet trying to lure unsuspecting people into situations where they could cry foul or pervert, then ruin people's lives. I suspected this because of the reference of “my friends”. People on my google plus account are strangers. I can't control if they want to post nudity or some pervy photography, esp men.

Red Flag #3: When the curious person approached someone else for pin-up photography for themselves. I guess that person forgot they were on the man's page.

This wasn't the first time a woman has gotten on a man's page then tried to pretend to be a guy to do nefarious things or try to compromise and ruin me. I don't know what these types get out of it. Parents, who have their children on their accounts, can get into trouble when their kids are using their profiles for mischief.

There again, it could be someone using the photographs of some innocent person, while talking to me, thinking I won't investigate this because I am so desperate for love. They think you are love thirsty, which opens you up to all kinds of abuse.

I am not that.

I thought some mysterious person could have sent me videos and destroyed my processor in my old phone. The curious person could have sent me things to click on to hack my phone to watch what I was doing.

I am a little no-body and can't imagine why someone would spend so much time doing all of that extra effort. Of course, this could be another group of men or women, doing mean things to hurt me because they have boring lives.

Red Flag #4: When the curious person wants to talk to you like one keeps pots on the back burner.

Here is some dating advice for anyone talking to a person for the first time.

Do not discuss your money, their money, or dead people's money on the first conversation. This information should be withheld until you decide you are going to get serious about marrying someone or becoming common law. There is no need for anyone to know about your finances, except you. If a stranger wants to know if you are worth the effort because they are well-off themselves, or are money-oriented, then let them move on. You don't need to take a back seat to love because of a piece of special paper and ink with currency value on it. People get jobs every day. You can support yourself.

If money is the main reason couples fight, both of you will never be content. Money will always lay in the bed between you.

If the person makes you feel so uncomfortable that you do not want to call them back because you start questioning motives, then don't. Move on. The person was just curious. Leave it at that.

If you have made it clear (as the curious person's mark) that you do not want people approaching you for initial sexual interactions, do not encourage this conversation on the first call. If the curious person brings up the subject to lure you into sexual conversations, do not engage. It is a trap. This usually indicates that sexy time or conversation is all the curious person wants.

If the curious person has declared themselves publicly to another woman, have the girlfriend do that job. Don't employ a stranger outside your relationship to please you. Go to therapy and figure out why you are straying. If you want someone else, break up with that person, then move on. Otherwise, the curious person is just potentially using you to help them break up with their girlfriend, only to dump you as well, once the curious person gets what they want.

Don't be a patsy.

When you begin thinking about dating another person and getting into relationships, you have to consider it the same as applying for a job. There are things you do not do on initial contact that could ruin your chances.

I went back to monitor the pages. The persons behind the profiles seemed to be somewhat aggressive. I didn't need another abusive person in my life, even if they were hiding their true nature.

If there is retribution from this, then I will know the real motive behind this interaction. This could have been just a socially inept guy, unhappy with his present girlfriend, who wanted options. I am going to believe this was the scenario until forthcoming information is available.

You do not need to find a person to fill a hole in your life. My son was telling me this quote from Two Chains, a rapper of all things, “Instead of trying to find the right one, you should become the right one.”

I'm working on that. I could be Mrs. Darcy. Now, there is a very big misunderstanding wedged right in there.

We'll never know.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth