RALLY ACTIVISTS: Clean water stressed on beachfront
Many people lined Estero Boulevard with signs, held hands on the beachfront at Crescent Beach Family Park and then walked down and gathered at The Beach Pub to listen to environmental speakers raising ecological awareness in between sets of live entertainment Sunday.
The Jo Finney Clean Water Rally was an assembly to create awareness of the need for clean water, to end polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee River to our estuaries and Gulf and to protest Florida legislators for the ignored constitutional mandate to appropriate monies defined in Amendment 1 to the acquisition, improvement, and maintenance of conservation and recreation lands for lake water storage and flow way.
The “moving” rally encouraged drivers to honk their horns, beach goers to join in during a Hands Across the Sand demonstration and everyone to follow to the 1668 I Street pub to sign petitions, engage children to play under an eco arts tent, listen to inspirational talks and live music from “Bethanne Dvs” and “Renee Massie Hose.”
“It takes a village to raise a community for clean water,” said Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee tribe in the Everglades. Steady development around the Everglades has changed the dynamic of Native American land and pleas for a flow way to the south have fallen on deaf ears.
Osceloa was an invited guest who spoke about her homeland and the water there that has become so polluted and toxic that it makes it extremely difficult for her tribesmen to “live off the land” as they had in the past. What was known as The River of Grass has been reduced to barely a stream.
“This time of year we have an inch of water, instead of four feet,” she said.
Osceloa informed about the right to rally for what you believe in.
“You have the inherent right to exist,” she said.
about the children as our future.
“We need to raise good stewardship. I don’t want them to suffer for the decisions that we make.”
about respect.
“If you don’t respect yourself, you can’t teach respect.”
about the amendment she voted for.
“It had a little too many loopholes.”
and about nature’s way of giving and taking back life to Mother Earth.
“For indigenous people, we are the circle of life.”
The rally was named for Jo Finney, who passed in a house fire during Memorial Day weekend and was a well-known Beach resident known for her commitment to clean water. In spirit, she was called the main organizer of the event.
“She will always be my mentor,” said rally organizer John Heim, who celebrated his 45th birthday Sunday. “Months ago, this was set up as Jo’s personal birthday present for me. We were supposed to switch roles where she was going to to be more of the leader of the movement that day, while I sat back.”
Rain threatened the rally earlier on, came sparsely during the concert and speeches but held back for rally efforts. Here’s hoping state legislators get the dry message that the misappropriation of more than $300 million of Amendment 1 funds and the devotion of those funds to uses not allowable for the Land Acquisition Trust Fund is not tolerable.
Heim is now in Bokeelia to protest Gov. Rick Scott’s claim that says he has saved the area’s eco-system. On Labor Day, there will be an additional movement to raise clean water awareness on Matanzas Pass Bridge.
RALLY ACTIVISTS: Clean water stressed on beachfront
Many people lined Estero Boulevard with signs, held hands on the beachfront at Crescent Beach Family Park and then walked down and gathered at The Beach Pub to listen to environmental speakers raising ecological awareness in between sets of live entertainment Sunday.
The Jo Finney Clean Water Rally was an assembly to create awareness of the need for clean water, to end polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee River to our estuaries and Gulf and to protest Florida legislators for the ignored constitutional mandate to appropriate monies defined in Amendment 1 to the acquisition, improvement, and maintenance of conservation and recreation lands for lake water storage and flow way.
The “moving” rally encouraged drivers to honk their horns, beach goers to join in during a Hands Across the Sand demonstration and everyone to follow to the 1668 I Street pub to sign petitions, engage children to play under an eco arts tent, listen to inspirational talks and live music from “Bethanne Dvs” and “Renee Massie Hose.”
“It takes a village to raise a community for clean water,” said Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee tribe in the Everglades. Steady development around the Everglades has changed the dynamic of Native American land and pleas for a flow way to the south have fallen on deaf ears.
Osceloa was an invited guest who spoke about her homeland and the water there that has become so polluted and toxic that it makes it extremely difficult for her tribesmen to “live off the land” as they had in the past. What was known as The River of Grass has been reduced to barely a stream.
“This time of year we have an inch of water, instead of four feet,” she said.
Osceloa informed about the right to rally for what you believe in.
“You have the inherent right to exist,” she said.
about the children as our future.
“We need to raise good stewardship. I don’t want them to suffer for the decisions that we make.”
about respect.
“If you don’t respect yourself, you can’t teach respect.”
about the amendment she voted for.
“It had a little too many loopholes.”
and about nature’s way of giving and taking back life to Mother Earth.
“For indigenous people, we are the circle of life.”
The rally was named for Jo Finney, who passed in a house fire during Memorial Day weekend and was a well-known Beach resident known for her commitment to clean water. In spirit, she was called the main organizer of the event.
“She will always be my mentor,” said rally organizer John Heim, who celebrated his 45th birthday Sunday.
Rain threatened the rally earlier on, came sparsely during the concert and speeches but held back for rally efforts. Here’s hoping state legislators get the dry message that the misappropriation of more than $300 million of Amendment 1 funds and the devotion of those funds to uses not allowable for the Land Acquisition Trust Fund is not tolerable.