Dear Editor,
I wish to applaud Bill Hunter of Key West for his open letter to Governor Crist, which was published in the Key West Citizen Oct. 29. As a former resident of the Southernmost City, I am very glad that the issue of the Australian pines at Fort Zachary Taylor has not been laid to rest while something very beautiful is being senselessly destroyed.
In his letter, Mr. Hunter said "we are not against progress, but we do not consider what is proposed to be an improvement." His words reminded me of a proposal by the author John Updike: "progress with an escape hatch."
I would also like to add to Mr. Hunter's comments my personal story. Why?
Is my story unique? Nope. I think it's going to sound pretty familiar.
I first saw Fort Zach on my first visit to Key West. Overwhelmed with its beauty, I knew that I would one day return to the island. I was right.
I lived in Key West for five years, yet each time I returned to the magical spot under the pines, the moment was as powerful as it was on my first visit. It was at Fort Zachary, five years ago, when the pines were thick, that I asked my future wife to move to the island and share my life. It was only feet away where we were married seven months later.
On our first visit back to Key West since moving, Anne, Sara, (our daughter, a Conch) and I did not visit Fort Zachary Taylor. True, we didn't have much time, but deep down, I think the real reason was because we didn't want to see the destruction of the uniqueness of the place where we had joined our lives.
At our wedding in 2003, we told everyone how the state government of Florida was planning to remove the pine trees from the park on the grounds that Australian pines are not indigenous to the Florida Keys. "That's funny," my brother said, "neither is concrete."
Jason Klein
Germantown, Md.
From Key West Citizen 2 November 2007
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