When you reach the age of 80, as I recently did, you think about your legacy. My dictionary defines legacy as “something that is the result of events in the past.” In other words, the things we create, build or preserve that benefit those we will never know, and may never know of us.
This is a particularly important thought when you have lived “in the arena … marred by dust and sweat and blood,” as Teddy Roosevelt so forcefully put it. When the people have given you the great honor of spending yourself “in a worthy cause …”
When I look back at my nearly 40 years of public service to the people of Florida, my legacy is not the offices to which I was elected, but what I achieved while in those offices. This is something that the current leadership in Tallahassee would be wise to reflect on.
Of all those achievements, there are none more permanent and therefore significant than the land and water we conserved to protect Florida’s environment, economy and quality of life. These lands, which define our state, will remain protected from development no matter who is in charge in Tallahassee or Washington D.C.
These lands are my legacy.
We conserved these lands through a series of programs — Save Our Rivers, Save Our Coasts and Save Our Everglades — that spoke directly to the people of Florida. The connection was tangible. Buy this forest, and you will save the Wekiva River. Buy this beach, and you will save Grayton Beach and the Emerald Coast. Buy the development rights on this ranch land, and you will save it for continued productive agriculture. Buy the Big Cypress; it will contribute to the salvation of the Everglades.
These programs conserved hundreds of thousands of acres of lands that Florida visitors and residents continue to enjoy and depend upon to this today. If you have ever swam at Wakulla Springs, cruised up the St. Johns River, enjoyed seafood from Apalachicola, kayaked down the Suwannee, taken a glass-bottom boat ride at Silver Springs, or admired America’s Everglades, you have directly benefited from these programs.
These places and experiences are Florida’s legacy.