Letter to the Editor / GREED, CORRUPTION AND BEAUTY

By Jerrold J. Weinstock, M.D.

When we moved into our present home on a canal in 1967 the canal held crystal clear water and wondrous legions of fish.

Among them Parrot fish always present streaming by as well as Queen Angelfish.

French Angelfish, Pork fish, schools of Pinfish and Grunt, squid, mullet and many species of Snapper, Barracuda from one inch to 3 feet.

No need to go on these fish were always present different species at random.  Two adolescent Jewfish under our sea wall that became pets.

The point is they are all gone and we have murk and filth, dangerous petrolatum chemicals and detergents that on investigation are regularly found in the bunker of cruise ships.  No more swimming in the ocean after treating,  off our beaches, lesions resistant to antibiotics.  That is my decision after years of swimming with my daughter over our living reef replete with life, beauty indescribable  in words. Thus we have cruise ships that supply jobs , help support numerous businesses not to mention additional tax money.  The beauty in our past memory tracts remains,  but we have a busy city, with a tremendous array of bars and restaurants and many people prefer that path we went down.  The natural ocean habitat , is not contributing to many people’s lives.  Hotels , renters , crowds mean money, tangible benefits. most from tourists  Our air is full of carcinogenic  fumes from cruise ships in old town.

and traffic exhausts  every where but all that is invisible we need not worry. If I somehow forgot to mention our canal is totally dead and the reef a skeleton remains.  

What is our fate , the meaning of our lives.  Why are we here ? That enters my mind. 2000 years ago an unknown scribe wrote in the dead sea scrolls  “ None there be can rehearse the whole tale” . Then Francis Bacon’s famous dictum “ this is the foundation of all.

We are not to imagine or suppose, but to DISCOVER what nature does or be made to do.”

A recent  Sunday in the NY Times is a full page on how shore birds, ocean birds all that migrate are dying and now many dead.  Climate change is the culprit, too long to explain here .  It can be read an essay April 29th in the editorial section.  We are out of harmony, the lyric of life has begun to die on this planet, our only home. There are numerous examples of this.  Even our human suicide rate world wide  has gone way up as has drug and alcohol use.   Is our existent world losing coherence and the edges crumbling?

Those schools that have put their faith in computerizing  materials and social media distributing Laptops and tablets to students  have found reading and writing scores to have gone down.

Digital technology is marvelous for certain things but obviously has its drawbacks.  The population in general is confused, ignorant and dumber, with real relationships that consist of conversing  and compassion diminishing. Those in luscious bubbles those will eventually become thinner while the other 99% are struggling for some joy and a decent life.

I have included some wise men from a long, long time ago, philosophers, scientists that have expressed opinions similar to this small essay.  Can we awake to reality before it is too late too far out of reach?  I hope so, but all is not going on that path another path is being followed with intensity. Each person has to make their own decision, here in Key West.

 

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]