OC’s Landscape Changes
Editor:
The Mayor and City Council should really stop and think about where this town is going. But then again I wonder, how much do they really care? Perhaps they have achieved what they wanted along — pure commercialism.
Last month I came upon a tree that I’ve walked by for 17 years. And all that was left was a trunk. On a daily basis in summer, the squirrels would eat and harvest the pinecones out of this tree and store them for winter. And both the squirrels and birds would nest in it. No more now. The tree is gone to make room for a fence. The animals will need to move on to try and find another tree. Environmental change happens a little at a time, but the indicators are there if you take notice of the subtle changes. When we bought in OC near the Northside Park on 125th Street, the natural environment was healthy, full of life. The habitat was thriving. At night you couldn’t take a walk around the park without almost stepping on a toad or seeing a green frog with his sticky pads hanging out near a light post. Insects were pollinating wildflowers along the lagoon, butterflies were collecting nectar, bees hovered over the clover, baby turtles were hiding under leaves in shallow pools, and rabbits were chewing on grass near the marshes. The park was a Shangri-la and retreat in the midst of a booming beach town.
Fast forward 17 years and there’s barely a trace of even the smallest wildlife, if any. The park was the last chunk of natural lush habitat. The land is still there but much of its life is gone. The reason we now see foxes stealing flip flops on the beach is because they had to assimilate into the dunes on the beachfront to scavenge for people food because there’s barely any natural food left to be found elsewhere. They constantly cross the highway at all times of day and night, desperate for shelter and food. They poop on the beach where sunbathers bask in the day. It’s also the reason I see so many of them with mange over the years — mites and lack of proper nutrition.
For 10 miles, any habitable land has been replaced by concrete buildings rising higher and higher each year, eliminating an environment for even the smallest of creatures to survive. Riding over the Route 50 Bridge into Ocean City, your eyes are blinded out by the newest obnoxious Cambria, and it’s towering floors of white LED lights that block your eyes view of the town entrance. But does the town even care? No. Because it’s eye candy for the tourists, bait for people whose sights are set on being entertained. Money for the town. The continual loss of habitat is not in the meetings notes to discuss, it’s been left off and replaced by discussion of the next new condo or wind turbines that will ultimately, thanks to big govt, be blocking your ocean horizon.
And maybe that’s the fate of OC, a 10-mile strip of land locked between ocean and bay, a sterile town now, devoid of most natural elements but beaming with bells and whistles for the modern man. Eat drink and be merry. But don’t expect any of it to be natural. The landscape has changed in OC and not for the better if what you seek is real. I adore OC because of the memories this place holds for me, and I’m grateful I had the best of them. The sun still rises and the moon still shines, the waves still meet the shore, but other than that, the town of OC is becoming a barren strip of land turned make-believe, a skeleton of its former beautiful, small-town, lush, spacious, ocean-retreat self with nowhere else to go, just like the foxes.
K. Shearin
Monkton, Md.
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Pay Attention To New
Editor:
Wake up Americans. What is this administration doing to the average American taxpayer? It appears if you are anything but a hardworking American you can get everything you need from the government, which by the way, is funded by the American taxpayer and what happens when they use up all the taxpaying Americans. Taxpaying Americans are relegated to all the new guidelines from the CDC, federal government, state government etc., but if you are an “undocumented immigrant,” criminal individual, homeless you are exempt from all requirements and the American taxpayer gets to pay for it. Now it appears our president wants to give tuition forgiveness to college students. What happened to when you signed on the dotted line for a loan you were obligated to pay for it. What about all the taxpaying parents who could not afford to send their children to college now paying for children who don’t want to pay for what they owe for college and some of them are our congresswoman?
The new “Inflation Reduction BIii” gives the well-to-do, tax credits for purchasing solar panels, new electric vehicles, new appliances, anything marked green and, guess what, we the American taxpayer get to pay for it. If you are having issues paying for the gas in our vehicle, paying your electric bill and purchasing food what good is a tax credit going to do you when you have to front the paying of solar panels, electric vehicles, etc., which by the way are made in China, and everywhere else but America. This administration is out of touch with the average American.
The prescription part of the bill does not kick in for four years and it is just 10 drugs. Are there individuals in government who are pushing this agenda getting special deals by pushing all these new green electric vehicles, solar panels, etc. With the government adding, what the bill says, 87,000 new IRS agents to brings in more tax revenue to pay for this. We the American taxpayer and small business owners, not only end up paying their salaries, medical and retirement for life, we will be paying higher taxes on top of one of the highest inflation rates we have ever seen, and I have been around a long time. What happened to all the monies that were sent out in error for the last $2 trillion spending bill passed by this administration; who ends up paying for that?
Many of these politicians on both sides have all been in office way too long and living off the American taxpayer not working for the American taxpayer. We most definitely need term limits. Again, we have an election coming up, for local and national candidates, and everyone who is legal should vote, but please listen and learn about the individuals you are voting for, make sure that they have you and your family’s interest at heart, not their’s.
I also wish the news media would stop reading teleprompters and actually report the news; all the news, good and bad and all things happening in our community, good and bad. There are so many issues happening locally and nationally it is hard for the average hard working American taxpayer to keep up, which is exactly what the politicians count on. Also, why was it necessary for the taxpayers to pay for a wall around the president’s beach house when they won’t finish building the walls at the border to protect the Americans? By the way, the parts for the border wall already paid for by the American taxpayer are rusting away piled high near the border. Again, another waste by government spending and who constantly lecture us that they know better how to spend our money than we dol
JoAnn Roland
Berlin