All,
Although I agree in principle with the "paper and ink" illustration it reminds me of William Hearst who thought he could become president by buying up newspapers (with his daddy's mining fortune) and touting himself in the papers. (It didn't work.) I think the first step to getting a handle on the situation is to try to put ourselves inside the mind of our opponents. "Hold your friends close, but hold your enemies closer." Pretend to be them and look at us from their perspective. Often the issues people place on the table are not the underlying issues. I tend to believe the people on the land see us as ner-do-wells, bums, getting away with something, much like Gypsies. And they are right in many respects. It's why many of us have struggled so hard to get afloat. The land people are subject to many leeches in the form of taxes, fees, expenses, new and costly rules, sucking their life blood, forcing them work hard to keep up with that drain, and are they angry that we are avoiding their fate. They want to make us pay like they do. They think that being resentful of our freedom is not a powerful enough reason to drive us away so they focus attention on the poopie and abandoned boat issues instead. Of course, simple greed for money and power is a large factor, especially with the political types, who see us as an untapped source of revenue and who instinctively yearn to subdue us with their rules. In many cases all the attention is focused on livaboards at anchor, as in the Melbourne FL case, and not at all at livaboards in a marina. I am convinced that this is because livaboards in a marina are much more like the land people, paying money into the system, many still working at jobs, locked in by being tied up to a dock and so having much less freedom just like the land people. If they want to drive us away they can simply keep changing the rules until they do. If we all install LectraSan units, they will simply make a rule for no discharge, even against all logic. Even to no discharge of grey water. They could make rules against dinghy landings anywhere. They can put in a mooring field, like St Augustine is doing, then charge whatever they want to insure that only the rich, desirable, cruisers can afford to be in "their" town. They can say how long one can be at their mooring, and have rules the boats comply with to insure only the boats they deem worthy can be there. The different "issues" are limited only by the imagination. At the same time, since most of us can just sail away, we have great difficulty forming a united front to confront them so they win by default. On the other hand, if there are honest people ashore, and the issues of poopie and derelicts are really the true issues on their minds, then the issues can be dealt with. Marathon FL had a concentrated livaboard community in a lagoon with very poor circulation (natural flushing) that for a time raised lots of dialog, but then apparently was dealt with to the satisfaction of most, but certainly not all. Perhaps someone on the list can fill us in. The poopie problem, I believe, was taken care of by a poopie boat the periodically visited each liveaboard boat and sucked out the contents of the holding tank. Perhaps it was paid for by a subscription sticker. Abandoned boats can be taken care of in the same manner as other abandoned objects ashore. If these are truly the issues of concern, they can be dealt with. Perhaps I am too cynical, but I don't have much faith in people in power doing the right thing. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL > [Original Message] > From: Bob Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 11/16/2007 1:45:05 PM > Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Fw: lv-ab: Re: St Augustine problems > > > > Heard a similar saying at a seminar yesterday. Don't pick a fight with > anyone that buys paper by the truckload and ink by the drum. It's a loosing > battle! > > Bob > Pat's Cat > > Norm hit the nail on the head: "The bottom line is, like gambling at a > casino, you cannot win a battle with the people that can make the rules. > They will just keep making more rules until they accomplish their goal. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Norm of Bandersnatch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:57 PM > Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] lv-ab: Re: St Augustine problems > > > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html > > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
