Well, the crisis is over. The stall worked, as I'm sure they expected and SFWMD has announced they may reduce the Lake O discharges by 30%. This means that they will only be killing our estuary and water systems at 70% of the rate they were. Very, very comforting.

With the crisis past, Sanibel canal residents may have to give up their dream of converting scum balls into petroleum, SCCF has dodged the bullet of suing the hand that feeds them, Florida politicians can go back to accepting sugar contributions ABOVE the table, Mike Valiquette can return to being attacked by COTI (lefty division) for building inappropriately sized homes, and Maureen can start cooking at home. The SFWMD Board and Corps of Engineers will surely be nominated for the EPA Environmentalists of the Year Award, and the sugar farmers for a Good Neighbor Medal. Whew, it was an interesting couple of months, wasn't it?

HOWEVER, for those cynics who don't like the pawn outfit they have us wearing in this little play, for those angry dogs who don't like the meatless bone they're throwing us, and for those who have come to understanding that this is only a piece of a far larger puzzle, this issue is NOT going to subside with the diminishing water. This issue is LONG from being over.

When Okeechobee falls to 12' (at our great expense) this monster will only be hibernating. When July comes and the currently silent sugar farmers are calling for water that they say is impossible for them to take any now, when we have the next extra-wet year and/or a couple of hurricanes and the Corps BOMBS us with water because of their mismanagement of the system, when the next gang of political hacks and sugar representatives are appointed to SFWMD Board we SHOULD hang our heads in SHAME. We could do that OR we could learn the bigger lesson this political tragedy has exposed.

At the core of this disaster is an industry that is pampered and subsidized and has corrupted everything it has touched. There are few industries in the United States more deserving of going utterly out of business than the Sugar Industry. We pay DOUBLE the World price for sugar and STILL subsidize this product. Our water systems are being destroyed to accumulate irrigation water for them, just in the off chance there's a drought and, through burning and poor farming method, they're ruining the land, much of it they don't even own. We (taxpayers) own and lease to them at ridiculously low prices.

The genuine tragedy is that after they have corrupted our political system, after they have killed our estuary and water systems, after they have decimated the lands entrusted to them, after ALL that, the REAL tragedy begins. That is when they sell off the properties for housing development and the opportunity to save the everglades and other systems is gone forever.

I'm hopeful, but skeptical, that this lesson has illuminated to the Sanibel isolationists that their blockade philosophy is, and always was, tragically flawed. We are an island for sure but we are also part of a bigger community and their stubbornness in accepting that concept has extracted a heavy toll on our area both in our quality of life and our influence over outside forces that impact us. Who better to take the lead on this critical topic than Sanibel with our World famous eco-friendly mandate? The better way to insure we are no longer the final filter before the Gulf is to affect the quantity and quality of the water long before it reaches us.