by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

The Film, Recording & Entertainment Council (link) is one of South Florida’s most important economic development organizations serving the Entertainment Industry and over the weekend FREC held its 11th Annual Star Gala recognition ceremony at the Magic City Casino.

The Star Gala (link) recognizes industry professionals and organizations whose careers and bodies of work establish South Florida as a significant region for developing a career in this commercial sector.  There is a thriving community of people here in South Florida and it is important to note just who they are and what they have done.

The nature of entertainment necessarily highlights those on stage, or in front of the camera, or in the spotlight, and so the unique work of the Star Gala is to highlight the talent and expertise of those behind-the-scenes.  The types of categories that this event notes include the work of choreographers, lawyers, recording executives, producers, directors, make-up artists, casting directors, recording studios, up-and-coming talent, and so many more.

Love The Everglades Movement, like FREC, is a member-driven organization.  Our work is concerned with offering opportunities for people to connect with the Everglades and thereby inspiring positive change in the broader society so that we can achieve goals such as improved water quality in the Florida Everglades.  Many of us are artists, and so the methods that we’ve been using reflect our skills.  We understand how our artistic projects communicate complex messages across multiple dimensions, so we’ve been eager to invite influential people to participate in our excursions and events.  Our understanding of the influential embraces people such as teachers, event planners, spiritual leaders, political organizers, etc.

We also strive to cultivate a community of people concerned with Everglades matters using an approach that is respectful of local mores – which we are discovering is not an easy task.  This work has required us to learn new languages, to go outside of our comfort zones, and to confront obstacles of all types.

LTEM began with a vision that Jean Sarmiento (link) was blessed with as a result of his dedication to his spiritual and ceremonial work.  Since the fall of 2012, our work has evolved:  from Everglades excursions, to art exhibitions, inter-faith prayer rituals, benefit concerts, short films, interviews with print/radio/television/internet media, and an eclectic symposium.

Our Summer Symposium 2014 (link) was the culmination of all of the projects and community networking that we’ve been involved in since our efforts began.  Our program and attendance reflected that.  It was also an event that was free to attend so that there would be no barriers preventing people from getting engaged in Everglades advocacy – FREC took note.

At the Star Gala, event hosts such as Trina Robinson of NBC 6 and world-renowned artist Laurence Gartel took time to highlight my achievements in film, television and art, as well as my community work with the Love The Everglades Movement as a prime reason for the honor.

So, I would like to share this honor with everyone who has been involved with LTEM in one way or another since our work began, including all those who’ve been on our Everglades excursions, everyone who has prayed for the water, all the friends we’ve made in all the different communities that we’ve visited, our benefactors and sponsors, and all the members of the Coordination Circle (link).  Nuff Respect!

Another honoree that was noted for Best Film Festival was Filmgate Interactive (link).  Filmgate is an event that showcases and develops transmedia projects – projects that are expressed across multiple media platforms.  Diliana Alexander, Executive Director for Filmgate, invited LTEM to collaborate on their filmmaking workshop.  Diliana wanted to use her resources to express an environmental and humanitarian concern for the Everglades and the Miccosukee community while providing artists from around the world with an opportunity to hone their skills using cutting-edge technologies.  You can see the result of this collaboration by clicking THIS LINK.

The Star Gala was a blast!  Some of us from the Coordination Circle who attended had an opportunity to rub shoulders with the professionals of the South Florida entertainment industry.  And I had a great time, with Dudley Alexis of Epyllion Films (link), in putting together the tribute video honoring Irene Marie of modeling agency fame for her Lifetime Achievement Award.  Love The Everglades Movement was in great company.

By Jean Sarmiento,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement.

It was much nicer than I had envisioned, even more meaningful to me than I thought it would be.
        Last year in April we borrowed a few gallons of Water from a sacred island in the Everglades the area is known as "Water Conservation Area 3A" Homeland of the Miccosukee people.  One of big issues we face as Floridians is the unnatural water levels in the Glades and its detrimental effects on the land, where we now see too much Water in the North and not enough Water in the South reaching Florida Bay.
        Our intent is to pray with these waters, caring for them, they have been to many prayer circles, many sweat lodges, many ceremonies, have touched the hands of many different beautiful men, woman and children who each has bestowed their love and gratitude unto these Waters, these very same Waters each and everyone of us depend on everyday to survive.  These very same Waters that will determine our continuation here on Earth.
        So we set out to Florida Bay with love, gratitude, appreciation in our hearts and gently released the Waters in a symbolic gesture of "Water reaching the bay" to connect with the land and offer our love our forgiveness, to hear our pleas and assist us in dissolving the boundaries that hinder humanity's progress, maybe, just maybe, we won't have to learn this lesson the Hard way.
        Let's give this Water the Respect it deserves!  I don't care if you think you're cute or you're a Diva or a tough guy gangster, el guapo, Rick Ross or you work for the government, if you're an Army Corps guy, if you have Money or if you're black, blue, pink.  It doesn't matter:  Appreciate this Water while you have it in such abundance because I guarantee you -- not maybe, or If -- I Guarantee you'll be crying for this water if it wasn't around.
        Thank you to all the men and women and children, past and present, who labor to bring light unto this world. 

by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

The Everglades Caucus recently issued a letter to the US Department of the Interior, the US Department of the Army for the Army Corp of Engineers, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, bringing attention to an on-going and immediate environmental threat to the Everglades:  the L-28 Interceptor Canal -- a canal that brings "dirty water" with high levels of phosphorus onto Federal Reservation Lands.

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida maintain traditional villages -- which they use for a number of cultural practices -- in the area that is directly and negatively impacted by this farm runoff.  In fact, their access to sacred sites become impeded by the proliferation of flora spurred by the fertilizer runoff.

The image at the top of this document illustrates the impact of high and unnatural levels of Phosphorus on the Everglades terrain.  The green areas are the dense overgrowth of cattails and other plants.

The Miccosukee concerns surrounding the L-28 Interceptor Canal are coinciding with a broader discussion on Everglades Restoration, especially as it relates to current events surrounding the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP).

CEPP is concerned with delivering "New Water" through a series of projects that would bring water from Lake Okeechobee south to Everglades National Park.  As these projects come online over the next decade, there is still the glaring refusal to address the 40% of the total waters coming into the system brought by the L-28 Interceptor Canal.

Today, Miccosukee homelands are being sacrificed for the benefit of Everglades National Park -- as if the Everglades eco-system is limited to the boundaries of the National Park.  As the waters coming into Water Conservation Area 3A make their slow journey south, the high Phosphorus levels are filtered out significantly -- and what this means is that Miccosukee homelands are functioning as a de facto Stormwater Treatment Area.

The Everglades Caucus are not only honoring their Trust Responsibility to the Indigenous Sovereingty, but they are also honoring their commitment to the American Public by speaking up to protect these vital natural resources.

Signatories for the Everglades Caucus include:

• Mario Diaz-Balart
• Alcee Hastings
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz
• Patrick Murphy
• Ted Deutch
• Joe Garcia
• Lois Frankel
• Frederica Wilson

Read the letter in its entirety:

by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

One of our objectives for the Movement is to advocate for respect of Miccosukee Sovereignty.  This is because the Miccosukee Tribe is one of the few communities who actually live in the Florida Everglades -- so they witness, everyday, the effects of environmental degradation.

By listening to and incorporating the Miccosukee message into our Everglades Advocacy, we begin to do the work of Environmental Justice and express our solidarity with this indigenous community.

The Miccosukee community has a Way of Life that is intimately connected with the vitality of the natural world -- indeed, their philosophy is expressed in a beautiful symbol that is maintained in the heart of every village -- the Circle of Life.

The Miccosukee Tribe has also been an important catalyst for much of the progress achieved so far regarding Everglades Restoration.  This is due in large part to the greater legal framework and promises made by the US Federal Government to the indigenous sovereignties, known as the Federal Trust Responsibility.  Although the historical record reminds us that there has been much discord between the United States and the sovereign indigenous communities of this continent, we can also find evidence of great friendship and prosperity.  So we look forward to honoring our friendships with the Miccosukee community and how we can build on that to achieve environmental/Everglades goals that benefit everyone -- including the people that live there.

Recently, the Miccosukee Chairman, Hon. Colley Billie, addressed the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee during the Public Witness Hearing on Native American Issues.

Chairman Colley Billie's statement was concerned with Everglades matters, and it's such a revealing statement about Miccosukee concerns for the Everglades, that it's worth sharing in its entirety.

by Geovanny Perez
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

“True love is born from understanding” – Buddha

“The world isn’t all rainbows and ponies, but there are rainbows and ponies in the world” – Unknown

I think I can be way too idealistic, so much so that sometimes when I witness things that do not live up to my standards, I can become distraught.  So working in Everglades matters has been a nightmare at times, because it is easy to become overwhelmed with grief and pessimism for the future once you start to uncover the intractable politics, the barriers to progress, and the logistical holes in the process (lack of coordinated effort and leadership, for instance).

How dreadful to start a blog post, no?  Well, I take this approach because my struggle in Everglades matters has mirrored my personal/spiritual growth.  Struggling with attachment, ignorance, anger, sadness, laziness, heart break etc. – in short, the human condition – is very much like struggling to restore the Everglades, because it feels like you’re ever-surrounded by hope, loss, gain, setbacks, contradictions, and opportunities.  As it turns out – and to the dismay of my idealistic-self—politics, even those that have to do with such a no-brainer issue, is not so straightforward.  But the sage in me can handle this at times, because, after all, it is what it is and it is what it can be: we can understand how things are and work within those parameters and even make parameters of our own.

The Everglades Coalition Conference can be properly understood if viewed through such lens and as part of a larger narrative (and not just an isolated weekend event).  That is, judging the conference as either “good” or “bad”, or giving a rating of X out of 10, can be fruitless because it does us, the movement, no good to see it in such simplistic terms.  Instead, we can see it as a multi-faceted event with problems and opportunities in a larger series of events geared toward fixing the Everglades.

Houston Cypress (on Left) and Geovanny Perez (on Right).

Photo by Stephan Wright.

The trip to the conference served as a reminder to what we’re struggling for.  Personally, traveling with Houston and Jean helps me keep focus, even if we tend to veer off into silliness and absurdity at times.  After all, Houston is deeply invested in this endeavor as a concerned member of the Miccosukee Tribe, and Jean is deeply invested as a very spiritual person unravelling his place in creation.  Furthermore, driving through the Everglades and then Big Cypress with such great company is cleansing and gets your mind right.  So when I listened to speakers or talked to folks about their endeavors, I felt properly oriented.

The conference was set at the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club in Naples, FL.  Immediately I was struck by the wasteful opulence of the setting:  resorts, strip malls, and golf courses.  This sort of juxtaposition seems to be typical for the conference which was set in the Biltmore Hotel last year.  Access to the conference is limited in part by the cost of the conference (it was $200 alone for all the meals available).  The third day we were there, I found out from a Sierra Club member that a group of activists were dissuaded from protesting the conference because of inaccessibility the cost creates.  As Laura Reynolds of Tropical Audubon and the Everglades Coalition explained, the resort is the sort of place that will be to the liking of high-profile politicians who have to take this issue seriously.  I could tell she wasn’t very comfortable with the place, but that she also thought it was necessary to get things done. 

Nonetheless, the conference did provide opportunities to understand the latest on the Everglades in the areas of ecology, economics, legal policy and litigation, and politics, and to meet wonderful people.  The second and third days began with breakfast hosted by an organization that was given the podium to address the topic of their choice (nothing like starting off the morning having the Army of Corps of Engineers and politicians scolded, but also heralded).  Afterward, there would be plenary sessions, covering large issues, such as the opportunities for land acquisition, followed by breakout sessions.  The hallways leading to the various rooms were circumscribed by booths from various government agencies and NGOs, each providing information on topics such as how to handle endangered species, what’s next for project construction, and considering light pollution as a serious problem for our Floridian ecosystems.  We would all take a break for lunch around 2 pm, again hosted by a speaker, and we would round out the day with dinner where a guest politician would speak about the latest endeavor they’re going to tackle and would provide motivational words for us.

While listening to the various speakers, there seemed to be a distinguishing factor in rhetoric.  I’m not quite sure what it indicates, but there certainly were some people that spoke in very optimistic, energetic, and accomplished terms while there were others that spoke in terms that alluded to a dire state of affairs, where urgency was necessary, and the process was problematic at times.  Anecdotally, if you’re in agriculture or project construction, you’ll say that things are going according to plan, and if you’re in activism, things aren’t looking so great.  I think this is a careful balance to maintain, because we want a sense of urgency to stoke action, but also want to maintain support from congress and the public. 

Being involved in Everglades restoration in any capacity means that you’re going to have to deal with really complicated issues on multiple levels.  Fortunately, there are people that have identified problems and are working on them, even if those orientations and priorities are disparate and conflicting at times.  We’re probably a big mess, but we’re a big mess getting things done.  Such is the human condition, I suppose.