"Big Sugar", a successful meme and a letter to the Post by Jimmy Shirley, Jr.

Do you know what a "meme" is? The word is pronounced 'meem'. Here is how Wikipedia defines the word.

In the little City of Lake Worth you've heard meme's such as, "stealing our Beach", "greedy developers", and "keep the Beach public". These meme's, like "Big Sugar", have had various levels of success.

Think of a meme like this: it's a virus. Not a virus that gives you a cold, but a virus (a thought) that gets into your brain and changes the way you think. That 'virus', or thought, can then be transmitted to other people. And like a real virus it takes time to recover; in the case of a meme the cure is learning the facts. That process takes a very long time.

I was reminded of successful memes when I read a Letter to the Editor published in The Palm Beach Post by Jimmy L. Shirley, Jr., a resident of Palm Springs. How many times have you heard the meme, "Big Sugar"? The term is not used in a positive way is it? How many times have you heard stories about flooding or drought and heard the blame laid on "Big Sugar"? The meme "Big Sugar" is an easy answer to a very complex problem. Nevertheless, the meme "Big Sugar" has been highly successful and still effective as evidenced by an ad produced that Mr. Shirley references below.

Read the letter by Mr. Shirley as he challenges many 'facts' you've come to accept as 'truth' about "Big Sugar":

     I am appalled by the Everglades Trust group’s misleading advertisement on Tuesday. To read it over, one might believe that Big Sugar is directly responsible for the damming of Lake Okeechobee, leading to the draining of the “River of Grass” as well as the Kissimmee River Valley. And one would be wrong. [emphasis added]
     In 1928, a major hurricane caused a flood south of the lake and killed more than 3,000. This prompted the federal government, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to plan and build the Herbert Hoover Dike that encircles Lake O. “Big Sugar” did not exist when this project began.
     Mostly, what land was available was used for small farms — not big corporate farms like today. Yes, there were sugar growers back then. U.S. Sugar Corp. was founded on April 28, 1931, by industrialist Charles Stewart Mott, who had acquired the lands, mill and other assets from the bankrupt Southern Sugar Co.
     Moreover, vegetable farming and cattle ranching were the prevailing land users, even as recently as the late 1960s to early ’70s. Being born and reared there, I well recollect seeing the windmills that powered troughs to water the cattle. Belle Glade once even had its own livestock market.
     I also remember money flowing into the Glades communities, throughout the year, from vegetable farms. Whichever crop was in season provided employment to many of the pickers and pullers of the crops.
     It was the rise of communism and Fidel Castro in Cuba, along with the U.S. embargo against the island nation, that led to the sugar companies’ purchase of more and more land by which to grow ever more cane.
      Don’t misunderstand. Somehow, some way, the water problems that exist, including the polluted-water discharges from Lake Okeechobee, need to be addressed. The correct way to get this message across is by sticking to the facts, however, thus ensuring public integrity. 

Amen.