Wednesday, May 28, 2014
A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith
Tobias was a strong man who lived
off the land and for the land. Tobias loved the natural world and the
relationship that he had with it. He believed that the land belonged to man and
that if you worked on the land that you owned the land. Tobias related to the
land because he was a part of the process of the land feeding and providing for
him. Tobias saw the land for what it was a support system for animals and
humans and appreciated it for all that it provided for him and his family.
Tobias feels
a sense of place in the outdoors and in the scrubs. Tobias enjoyed his time
outside and being able to be a man who tended and used the land. He was
comfortable herding cows for a living, once he started that and it was a good
way to help him feel proud of himself and his family. Tobias felt was at peace
with his lifestyle and enjoyed the life he lived and the morals he had. Nature was
a huge part of the MacIveys life especially Tobias’.
Tobias left
a great legacy behind. Tobias was known for how he used and lived from that
land and his strong beliefs about the land. Tobias taught his son how to live
off the land and helped set his family up for success with the orange groves
and the cattle business. Zech had a great role model to look up to and learn
from during his childhood. Tobias left behind a legacy that could never be
forgotten.
I selected Tobias because I thought he was a
strong man who set a great example for his family. Tobias was a country man who
wanted to make an honest living, support his family, and live a modest lifestyle.
I enjoyed Tobias’ values and his perseverance; I want to be able to preserve like
he did. I, too, love that we can tend and then take from the land. I would love
to be able to one day tend and take from my own land for my families use, I think
this idea is so awesome. Tobias remained a strong character throughout the book
and I think that this is an important character trait. All in all, Tobias was a
great character that inspired me to want to be more like him, just a modern
version.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Endgame by Michael Grunwald
Grunwald wrote a tale about the struggles highs and lows of
setting up a plan to help save and maintain the Everglades. He said, “The greatest
enemy of the Everglades, the coalition’s leader declared, was further delay.”
(Grunwald 79). It took a long time to come up with and lobby for a plan to be
implemented in the Everglades. There were many people who wanted to Everglades
to be saved and kept alive for future generations and our environments’ sake.
It was time and delay that became an enemy of this idea. It took a long time
and many efforts to even get the ball rolling in trying to get a plan set up
for the sake of the Everglades. Then a plan emerged from many people and the
environmentalists and people rooting for the Everglades decided, “Our feeling
was: This isn’t perfect, but it’s more
good than bad.” (Grunwald 87). Many people had many different ideas about what
needed to be done with the Everglades; once a plan was proposed about what
should be done with the Everglades the people weren’t entirely satisfied or
disappointed. There were many ideas and not everything could be included from
everyone’s ideas, the people who wanted to save the Everglades decided that this
was at least an effort to try and preserve this precious land instead of
decided to develop on it. So in the end, “most green groups went along with the
deal- some with trepidation, some with enthusiasm.” (Grundwald 91). I believe
that this was a hard time for people of all sorts; there were people who wanted
to develop, people who wanted to preserve the land, and people that wanted
their specific plan to be in act. This was a time of much deliberation and hard
decisions on what to do with a piece of land such as the Everglades. As we can
see, the Everglades are still here today and there seem to be no plans to take
it away or develop on it. Whether or not the land is as full of life as it once
was it probably debatably, but there is no doubt there have been efforts to
save and keep the Everglades to the wild and interesting place it has always
been. In the end, “President Clinton was finally signing the Everglades bill,
America’s first effort to restore Graham’s boyhood playground, to re-create the
watery wonderland…” (Grunwald 99).
| http://www.airphotona.com/image.asp?imageid=7685&catnum=0&catname=All%20Categories&keyword=&country=&state=&pagenum=420 |
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
The Nature of the Everglades by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
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| http://www.eosnap.com/image-of-the-day/the-everglades-and-miami-florida-december-24th-2008/ |
Douglas paints a wonderful picture and idea about the Everglades. The Everglades are mysterious and a place that are like no other place in the world. Douglas wrote, “…the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass.”(Douglas 104). This quote I feel describes what you see when you look at the Everglades, it’s like a sea and like a forest combined. The Everglades are different than any other natural part of the world they are unique and something that we should appreciate.
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| http://vanessacastillo.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/miccosukee-tribe-member-john-tiger-tail/ |
A name almost as new as the word “Everglades,” it means “Big Water.” (Douglas 107). I didn’t know that the Everglades meant big water I think that this is very interesting. The Everglades is truly a big water system full of saw grass that has stood through time. There have been many years and events that the grass in has always stood through time. The rocks in the land are small and like eggs in the sea, they stretch to the bottom and around the bottom of the Everglades. There isn’t anything particularly wonderful about the rocks in this system but they are a part of one of the most unique spots in the world.
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| http://vanessacastillo.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/miccosukee-tribe-member-john-tiger-tail/ |
There is
so much you can do in the everglades. There is a lot to see, you can airboat,
be a part of a new environment and see and smell new things. There Everglades
is something that needs to be prized and taken care of and something that we
should appreciate especially as Floridians. “If the saw grass here is four
thousand years old, many other of these associations may have been here almost
as long.” (Douglas 134). There is a lot encompassed in the Everglades and many
of it could be a part of history that stretches very far back in to time. There
are many species and plant life alive and well in this type of environment
there are things unique to this region that we wouldn’t necessarily find in
another location.
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| http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/aquatic-species/ |
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