[eth0up]

I just want to proudly, but also sadly, boast that Polk county once produced more oranges than the entire state of California.

Florida was a beautiful place not long ago, but a very peculiar and aggressively anti indigenous development is redefining it daily. Things have become so strange that squalid retention ponds qualify as wetland restoration.

I could rant for a while, but won't. Sarasota once produced more celery than possibly all states combined, and that helped us get through the Depression locally. But we sure did grow some oranges, and how wonderful the scent of orange blossoms are. It's something to behold.

[lovich]

Florida is a democracy. Florida voted for leaders who ignore these problems because of “woke”.

Floridians deserve the results.

I will grant clemency for anyone who was born there and isn’t wealthy enough to move out.

I will grant 10x hate for anyone who moved there for the politics and complains about the results.

[eth0up]

Born here. And for me, the government is the pine flats, the oaks and palmetto scrubs, the springs, the sea, the spirit of the Timucua, sandhill cranes, thunderstorms.

If Billy Bowlegs or Geronimo come back, I'll vote for them. I'd consider voting for someone who actually respected this place, but I'm not sure anyone does. I've been to nearly every state, and some other lands, but there's no place finer. I'm pure Florida man.

[fuzzfactor]

Yup, the things that outlast any government are what means the most.

I'm a native too and I'll add a data point.

It's people who moved to Florida that voted the destructive operators into leadership positions, once they outnumbered the natives.

[eth0up]

We all know this too well. The last 30 years has been similar to watching my closest friend be ravaged by terminal illness. It hurts, bad. All I can do is aim for a small farm (proximal to protected forest) someday, if I can ever afford so.

What I can say is that the terrain is being pushed too far and closer to a breaking point than most realize. One anomalous back-to-back hurricane series could reveal this rather harshly. Florida is wetlands, not a shopping center. We can't just expect the bays to swallow everything. Someday we could have airboat options for visiting Disney. Pestilence, contamination from flooding, excessive heat on an isolated power island, mucho etc - yeah, we could realize soon.

[lovich]

> I've been to nearly every state, and some other lands, but there's no place finer. I'm pure Florida man.

Ok, then you have the capability of leaving and haven’t. I judge you heavily.

Everytime I hear a southron bastard crow about secession I agree with them. Especially when I see the morons making up maps of the “national divorce” that give New England the gas fields of Pennsylvania.

I hope bugs bunny manifests into reality and cuts Florida off of the mainland.