History Lessons

Venice, Florida, will celebrate its ninetieth  anniversary  of citihood in 2017.  90 Years  — that’s infancy in the scope of history.

Of course, Florida was “discovered” by the Spanish hundreds of years ago.  Never mind that there were people spreading living here for over twelve thousand years.  Spanish rule ended and Florida became a state in 1823.

Those of us privileged enough to enjoy winter months in Florida refer to Venice as “Paradise.” You can get the bumper stickers, the tee shirts and the ball caps. Maybe the wave of settlers in the early 1800’s thought so too, but I have to believe they were a much heartier bunch than your typical Snowbird today.

Paradise, of course — like so many things, is all a matter of perspective.  Last winter I read:

This book was published in 1942 and republished in the 1990’s.  Amazon called it a delightful and heartwarming memoir. I thought there were some interesting bits of history — mostly relating to the insidious nature of racism.

Perhaps I have too much of a tendency to always look within, but this book made me very uncomfortable.  I would hope it would make anyone uncomfortable.