Speak Up Okaloosa County!

In our area we have two industries: tourism and military. Both come with their annoyances...trash from inconsiderate visitors, loud fights from the drunken masses on the beach, noise from the various aircraft in training and other occasional crimes and misdemeanors that come with the tourist populations and the young un's on their first leave trying to squeeze weeks of good times into one weekend. Arguably, these are the unpleasant drippings from our succulent, money infusing tourist and military trade. Without these visitors/trainees, what would we have in our area?

No big businesses are here. No car manufacturing, distribution centers, large production centers of any kind. We have two constants: real estate and related industry and tourism with its own industry of sorts. Sure, we have some IT stuff, a call center, shopping malls, this-n-that but all spins around the ever-rotating military and tourist markets.

In a small town in Okaloosa County, the residents are worried that the massive F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter Program) aircraft and their "noise" will come here with the millions of spending associated and ruin their home market values. Okay, I don't live there and I don't know everything there is to know about the situation BUT can we afford to stop a major influx of desperately needed revenue because a select few will possibly lose value to their already devalued properties? Why is this now a legal battle? Look, if the military gets tired of this nonsense, they will take their business elsewhere like, I don't know, Bay County? They've offered to take those potential millions off of the wavering hands of the Okaloosa politicians.

No matter what side you sit on with this issue, remember that this is a democracy. You have a voice and you need to use it. Whether for or against, we all need to speak up and tell our politicians to act in our best interests. It seems to me that this decision was long ago made--why are our tax dollars being wasted on legal fees and political posturing? Why didn't someone speak up when the plans were made if there were complaints? I suspect the why is because we were all too busy raking in our millions when the real estate market couldn't keep a house for sale 24 hours before it was sold. Now, with frustration pouring from everyone's ears, idiocy prevails.

You know what they say about idle hands?

gchmama