C
Bike for Global
Democracy
Report
for First Week,
Monday, March 9, 2003,
Sebastian Inlet,
North of Vero Beach, Florida
Our experiences have been so many and varied that it's hard to believe it all happened inside of one week. Bicycling pleasures and adversities were only prelude to our real goal - to talk with many wonderful, thoughtful, and active people about an alternative to war and empire - an Earth Charter vision for our global future.
The week began in Miami, where Dick's brother Jim was our host part of the time, and our UU minister friend Lucy Seck hosted the other part. On Saturday Lucy drove us to the Everglades, where we witnessed a great blue heron spearing and later swallowing a good sized fish. The next day we swallowed a pretty big fish ourselves by conducting the Sunday service at her church. Our service was in a wonderfully earthy Frank Lloyd Wright type building. We challenged the congregation alright, perhaps a little too much. We were advised to shorten the sermon and to dramatize certain points - the agony of yet another edit.
On Monday we were graciously hosted by Steve Jens-Rochow of the UU Church of Fort Lauderdale. He had talked to a local reporter, who wrote a good newspaper article about the forum we were to lead at church that night. Wednesday found us in the beautiful home of Sylvia and Dick Ansay where twenty people came for a lively and interesting discussion over a delicious pot luck dinner. Lesson: The potluck drew about 3 times as many people as the forum!
By Friday we were in Stuart where we were hosted by Dick and Esther Ross and met many more wonderful and well informed people. We spoke with them while standing in the sunshine in solidarity with them on the busy Roosevelt Bridge waving signs in opposition to the war in Iraq and in recognition of International Women's Day.
We have, of course, seen and learned much about the State of Florida and the state of the world. We saw that the Everglades are being destroyed by development and poor water management. Sylvia Ansay took us to visit a sea turtle rehabilitation center, where we met some real live victims, mostly of boating accidents, thankfully being nursed back to health.
Unsustainable development has been evident to us during our 200 miles of cycling, mostly along route A1A which is literally lined with high rise condominium complexes surrounded by parking lots. To maintain "beauty" of sorts, developers have replaced the tropical forest thickets with well trimmed grass, flower beds, fountains, and even fake waterfalls. We are told the grass they plant takes over and threatens the native species.
We have also passed an incredible number of opulent mansions, some of which reminded Mona of palaces she has seen in Europe. Mona has chanced to sight maids in uniform through open gateways. So we have caught a glimpse or two of those who benefit from economic globalization, not to mention ill-gotten wealth.
Another fact about many Floridians is that they only live here during the winter months. So a large percentage of all types of dwellings, be they apartments or palaces, are actually second homes. With so many rich people here in Florida, you would think the Republicans could have won down here fair and square without needing to steal the presidential election.
At Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Mona left her diet supplements out in plastic baggies on the picnic table overnight. In the morning we awoke to find them scattered all over the ground. Apparently the neighboring squirrels and raccoons had had quite a party. Every plastic bag had been torn open. The liquid had been sucked out of every one of the little phosphitidal choline capsules. Dick had shooed away what he thought was a house cat away in the middle of the night, only to discover it was a cute and wily raccoon.
The temperature reached into the upper eighties to low nineties for much of the first week, with corresponding humidity. This made for tough cycling for Dick, but made a different impression on Mona. She had previously never really believed in tropical paradises, relegating such images to the stuff of fairy tales and wishful thinking. But within one week, she has come to accept by repeated submersion into direct first hand experience that there really are warm, sandy beaches where people sit around under umbrellas, play in the surf and ride the waves without ever once shivering or freezing. But now she wonders whether she has not merely retired but is instead deceased and gone to heaven.
Click here for a larger picture - more sand and palm trees!
- Dick Burkhart & Mona Lee
Bike for Global Democracy
206-851-0027 (cell)
dickburkhart@attbi.com