Daddy Dave
Well-known member
The Perils of Airboater Complacency
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition defines the term “complacency� as: A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy.
The airboating sportsmen of Florida, face a number of serious challenges---challenges that threaten our continued ability to enjoy the airboating freedoms we have enjoyed in the past. Our biggest threat lies within as those who comprise this group become complacent to these threats.
We are threatened by homeowners who live on Florida’s lakes and rivers that seem to believe these waters belong to them and not the citizens of the state. Those who feel that because they live on these water bodies it gives them exclusive right to their use or at least the right to say how they are to be used. Make no mistake, they complain and act. They complain to their state and local government officials�continually trying to get laws passed that would further limit airboating if not ban such activity altogether.
In the past many airboating sportsmen have been complacent about these threats. Some of us have been content to a fault, sure in our own minds that airboating freedoms are here to stay. We must find a remedy to this affliction of complacency quickly and we must find it in the common sense of an enlightened membership, a better-informed public, and in educated and understanding elected officials in both the state legislature and local governments.
Clearly, we have seen in recent months the need to become concerned, involved, and committed to protecting our freedoms. Slackening our effort and cutting down on the pressure on elected officials might just trigger a downslide that may be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.
Every club, every member, every sportsman has a special role to fill. Remember complacency kills new ideas and innovation. It dampens enthusiasm and destroys creativity. If we continue to do as we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always got.
Airboating sportsmen need to come together at this time and work in an active way to secure a professional representative in Tallahassee, a lobbyist that will watch for unfavorable legislation – bills and amendments to bills that would adversely affect our sport.
We are sportsmen and there are few of us that understand the inner workings of government. We do not have knowledge of those key contacts that can get our point thru and get legislation passed that will protect our right to ride our boats. Our lobbyist will know how to do all these things, and be working for us even while we are out enjoying our sport.
A wise man once wrote, “The complacency of fools will destroy them.� Another wise man noted that the definition of insanity is “to keep on doing what we have been doing and expect things to change.�
Please log on to: -http://www.airboatworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=0-
Lauren Brown, RN
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition defines the term “complacency� as: A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy.
The airboating sportsmen of Florida, face a number of serious challenges---challenges that threaten our continued ability to enjoy the airboating freedoms we have enjoyed in the past. Our biggest threat lies within as those who comprise this group become complacent to these threats.
We are threatened by homeowners who live on Florida’s lakes and rivers that seem to believe these waters belong to them and not the citizens of the state. Those who feel that because they live on these water bodies it gives them exclusive right to their use or at least the right to say how they are to be used. Make no mistake, they complain and act. They complain to their state and local government officials�continually trying to get laws passed that would further limit airboating if not ban such activity altogether.
In the past many airboating sportsmen have been complacent about these threats. Some of us have been content to a fault, sure in our own minds that airboating freedoms are here to stay. We must find a remedy to this affliction of complacency quickly and we must find it in the common sense of an enlightened membership, a better-informed public, and in educated and understanding elected officials in both the state legislature and local governments.
Clearly, we have seen in recent months the need to become concerned, involved, and committed to protecting our freedoms. Slackening our effort and cutting down on the pressure on elected officials might just trigger a downslide that may be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.
Every club, every member, every sportsman has a special role to fill. Remember complacency kills new ideas and innovation. It dampens enthusiasm and destroys creativity. If we continue to do as we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always got.
Airboating sportsmen need to come together at this time and work in an active way to secure a professional representative in Tallahassee, a lobbyist that will watch for unfavorable legislation – bills and amendments to bills that would adversely affect our sport.
We are sportsmen and there are few of us that understand the inner workings of government. We do not have knowledge of those key contacts that can get our point thru and get legislation passed that will protect our right to ride our boats. Our lobbyist will know how to do all these things, and be working for us even while we are out enjoying our sport.
A wise man once wrote, “The complacency of fools will destroy them.� Another wise man noted that the definition of insanity is “to keep on doing what we have been doing and expect things to change.�
Please log on to: -http://www.airboatworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=0-
Lauren Brown, RN
