See below.
St. Augustine's history must be told by the best (National Park Service), including all of the many contributions by Native Americans (11,000 years here) and African-Americans (some 450 years here) and our Civil Rights history (adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act because of what happened here in 1964.
St. Augustine also has a rich Spanish, French, Minorcan, Greek, British, Jewish, Catholic, Gay/Lesbian Territorial, Railroad, Flagler Era and World War I & II history, too. We must tell all of our history, with warts and all.
St. Augustine and its environs have incomparable natural beauty and s seacoast unraped by oil drilling (like the Gulf Coast and parts of California) or tall buildings (like South Florida).
St. Augustine's environs have wonderful endangered/threatened species that need protecting, from the Anastasia Island Beach mouse to endangered butterflies to endangered leatherback turtles to the endangered Right Whale (the calving grounds are in Northeast Florida and there are only 400 Right Whales left in the entire North Atlantic, according to Florida Wildlife Commission.
Let's not hide St. Augustine's history and beauty under a bushel basket any longer.
Let's not allow sleazy would-be developers to destroy St. Augustine's history and beauty any longer.
There's a long proud American history of sleazy would-be developers, loggers, miners and dam builders being stopped -- and land and history being preserved -- by America's National Parks.
Ken Burns' twelve-hour PBS film, "THE NATIONAL PARKS -- America's Best Idea" documents that the move for national parks began in horror at how cheesy commercial interests ruined Niagara Falls and how nature was being destroyed.
National Parks came about because some persistent pests (like John Muir) cared deeply about their country and those pests would not rest until the parks were enacted into law by Congress.
Take a gander at each of the National Park, Seashore and Coastal Parkway laws (codified at 16 U.S.C. 210).
Don't let anyone tell you that a "national heritage area" is any substitute for a National Park. It's not. (There's no regulation and no land acquisition with a "heritage area" -- only the distribution of grants to non-profit groups).
A "national heritage area" resembles a national park like a moose needs a hat rack. (And folks, we need a "heritage area" here about like a moose needs a hat rack).
This is another day in a beautiful place. Given our "sense of place," let's preserve this place for others to enjoy forever.
Let's not allow St. Augustine and environs to degenerate into a cheesy tourist trap (the way Niagara Falls went).
We can do a first-class job of preserving our history (as in Williamsburg, Philadelphia, Boston, New Bedford, Mystic, etc.).
We can do a first-class job of preserving nature (as in the Everglades National Park and in our National Seashores).
We need the National Park Service to do it right for the 450th/500th anniversaries of St. Augustine and Spanish Florida (in 2013 and 2015) and for the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (in 2014).
See links to park legislation (and more) at right.
Our City's history is currently presented in an ethnocentric and stilted manner typified by an ex-Mayor who once said the City only wanted to recognize "positive history." As UF Professor Michael Gannon has said, we must be honest about St. Augustine's history -- that means all of it -- the "good, the bad and the ugly," too.
We need to stop reckless feckless destruction of our coasts and forests before it is too late. As Robert Kennedy said, "it is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from.... We dissent from the willful, heedless destruction of natural beauty and pleasures."
I reckon we can do it -- it's time to protect the peoples' parks (including at least five state parks, county beaches and city parks that can be run for the benefit of all Americans, with federal funding).
That's how we grow our tourist economy, get economic stimulus, and survive the recession while creating a world-class destination for history and environmental tourism.
What do you reckon?
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