Florida Mermaid Musings

I recently read a deposition of an illegal alien from Mexico. While working as a laborer here he met a teenage girl, the daughter of another illegal alien, and got her pregnant. The teenager received her prenatal care from a government health clinic, paid for by the taxpayers. She complained of pain toward the end of her pregnancy and the clinic sent her to a hospital by ambulance. There were complications and she died during childbirth. The baby survived but with severe mental and physical deficiencies. The child cannot walk or speak and is fed through a feeding tube. The illegal alien who is the father of the baby and the illegal alien who is the mother of the teenager sued the hospital and received a six figure sum in settlement. The two illegal aliens are now suing the United States of America because they feel the teenage girl did not receive adequate prenatal care from the government health clinic. Every day a nurse and an occupational therapist paid for by our tax doll...

I am not an outdoorsy person. I haven't been for many years. My idea of a hike is lugging my bags from the parking lot to a hotel lobby. This weekend I did something totally out of character and took a friend kayaking for her fiftieth birthday. A wonderful thing happened. Journeying through the Dora Canal I found myself relaxing more and more with every stroke of the paddle. The great blue herons standing among the cypress trees, the alligators gliding through the water, the fecund smell of marsh, the long beards of moss reaching down to touch the water, all brought a flood of childhood memories rushing back to me. When I was a little girl almost every weekend my family would load up the camper and head into the nearby Ocala National Forest for a weekend of "roughing it." Back then I loved exploring the many hunting trails in the forest and was never once frightened of being alone or getting lost in the vast forest. I came across a bobcat once and fancied petting ...