Welcome to Babel County
Broward may have become Babel County – with a future similar to the Bible's famous example of linguistic diversity.
How so?
As a newspaperman for most of my professional life, my journalistic efforts have been defined by two simple conceits which:
One – There are people who care about “the common good.”
Two – They are motivated (and able) to improve their “community”.
This is why, at 72, I've adopted the role of an aging Cassandra via a series of posts on this blog detailing various data that suggest that --- as a community – Broward Doesn't “Work.”
Trouble is, reality suggests that my diminishing time on this planet might be better spent folding paper bags, or watching tractor pulls on ESPN.
Why?
Simply put – and like the 300 million-plus citizens of 21st Century America – Broward's 1.7 million residents are motivated by a very narrow and narcisstic sense of “community.”
Even worse, while most Broward residents have a clear idea of what's “good” for them – they rarely, if ever, are motivated by any sense of “good” that is “common.”
In short, yesterday's e pluribus unum had been replaced by I'm entitled.
Which is how and why Broward today “works” like a bucket of crabs – where dozens of disparate socio-economic and political groups battle for their proper place in the sun.
And so we have, for example:
Hispanics sub-divided into -
White
Black
Latin American
Central American
Mexican
Cuban
Puerto Rican
European
Native-born
Foreign-born
Wealthy
Middle Class
Low income
Young
Old
Educated
Uneducated
Of course, it's even more absurdly diverse, disparate and confusing among Broward's “Non Hispanic Whites” and “Non-Hispanic Blacks – be they Zionists from from New York versus Born Again Baptists from Georgia, or Jamaican nurses versus a Haitian landscapers.
Nor can we ignore the aggressively insular world of the retirees.
Or the complex needs of families with children in school.
Or home owners versus renters.
Or gays versus straights.
Or victims versus perpetrators.
And so on.
Further compounding the problem, are Broward's equally divisive sub-communities geographically divided into the Eastern Shoreline Affluent, the Decaying Low Income Center along 1-95, and the Western Upwardly Mobile Consumers.
Nor can we forget how Broward's 1.7 million citizens are further sub-divided into residents of 31 different cities – each with its own jealously guarded status and turf.
And finally, we have whatever passes for Broward's civic, political and business leaders-- most devoted followers of Our Lady of Perpetually More for Us and Less for Them.
All of which leads me to one final existential question, which is:
Who do you like in a good tractor pull – Ford, Farmall or John Deere?
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