-
32 Regionalism and Environmentalism
- University of Georgia Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
“Your predecessors gave away Florida land like drunken sailors ,” Douglas reminded Governor Reubin O’D. Askew. She knew he wouldn’t do the same, though. He was arguably Florida ’s most liberal chief executive ever. A World War II combat veteran, a chaste nonsmoker and nondrinker, and a Biblereading Presbyterian, Askew fit in well with folks back home in Pensacola. Panhandle whites were as socially and politically conservative as those across the border in Alabama and Georgia. Their elected state representatives, collectively known as pork choppers for their penchant for appropriating taxpayer-funded projects for themselves and supporters , had controlled state government since Reconstruction. Douglas referred to them as the wool-hat boys—those men who had gracelessly rejected the suffragists in 1917. Despite Askew’s liberal views, he represented his district in the legislature for twelve years and got himself elected to the governor ’s office twice. The minute he entered the latter in 1971, he was hell-bent on carrying out reforms. He called for a corporate income tax, a moratorium on the death penalty, racially integrated schools, more blacks and women in government, full public disclosure of state business, and a prioritization of Regionalism and Environmentalism [ c h a p t e r t h i r t y - t w o 492 ] part three environmental protection. “Ecological destruction,” he later emphasized in an appeal to conventional values, is equivalent to “economic suicide.” Proposed environmental policy soon enough put him at odds with the Florida cabinet, a popularly elected body. Askew proposed that the cabinet members and their individual departments surrender environmental decision making to what the press dubbed a new superagency, the state’s equivalent to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The agency would be accountable to the governor alone. Most of the cabinet members opposed the proposal, which twice failed in the legislature. After the second defeat, Askew locked horns with the cabinet again, this time over a successor for the retiring head of the Department of Natural Resources. The cabinet was leaning toward Harmon Shields, the department’s director of marine resources, whom Askew might have accepted had the bureaucrat not lobbied against the superagency. To delay Shields’s confirmation , Askew resorted to parliamentary maneuvering in hopes that the public would step forward and convince cabinet members to change their minds. Such was unlikely—cabinet members were known to relish their authority. Two of them, including the well-girded agricultural commissioner , Doyle Conner, accused Askew of “just playing politics.” Secretary of State Richard Stone elevated the Shields confirmation to the “Cabinet’s last stand.” In the middle of this fracas, Douglas wrote to Stone, just as Askew had encouraged citizens to do. As a public servant, Stone had established a record that environmentalists could neither praise nor discredit. He usually supported Askew, but not in the case of the superagency or Shields. Douglas lectured Stone on the long history of abuse in the Everglades , which she said Askew was trying to reverse with the development of sensible water- and growth-management policy. Stone therefore should take the governor’s side. The press called Douglas’s letter “scathing.” One of Stone’s detractors ran off five hundred copies and, in an apparent attempt to undermine Stone’s expected run for the U.S. Senate, sent them to his political backers. Stone told the press that while he knew he “had to respect the flag,” he was not of the impression that he “had to respect Marjory Stoneman Douglas.” [35.173.233.176] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:12 GMT) 32. regionalism and environmentalism [ 493 The dismissive remark was perhaps not well considered. Douglas generated attention; the press’s interest in her letter and in Stone’s quoted retort was manifest proof of that. She was more than a quaint media story; people quickly learned the octogenarian with trifocal harlequin glasses and ceramic pearls matching her silky white curls was a smart, able activist whose open-hearted eloquence could repel antagonism with the full force of its truth. And she was organized. Referring to Friends of the Everglades, American Forests magazine observed that as the jetport conflict was coming to a close, “another group is now forming to be ready for the next campaign.” The speaking schedule Douglas maintained would have exhausted a thirty-year-old. She was constantly appearing before civic organizations, city and county governing bodies, and environmental conferences as well as the legislature and the cabinet. At the Florida Wildlife Federation’s...