The times where we forge along by taking as much as we can, believing that man is stronger than nature, are coming to an end.
A smell of blood, diesel fumes and sea salt was in the air. After what seemed an eternity at sea in the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, we pulled back to the harbor with two dozen bonito on board our lightweight sport fishing vessel. Bonitos are in the same family as tuna, but smaller. It was the summer of 1966. We proudly showed off our catch in the small village on the Italian Riviera, and because it was more fish than one family could eat, we gave away the rest, which was no easy feat since tuna, in the Mediterranean, was not regarded as a desirable seafood staple in those days.
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It is the ability to foresee what steps need to be taken today in order to be successful many, many years later. This is obviously not an easy task and hindsight is always 20/20.
Let’s agree that we live in a wonderful community and that many good things have been achieved in the last 20 years. Would it then not be best to assume that everything is fine and that we can continue to go down the same path as we have been?
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Imagine that you are invited to talk about the future of our community 20 years from now. That is exactly what 14 *civic leaders set out to do on a May afternoon at the Marriott. For your benefit, I’m providing a synopsis of the outcome and invite you to send me your own reflections:
It won’t surprise you that we concluded that the population shift to the Southeast will continue; life expectancy will increase significantly; geographic boundaries will blur; that everybody will be in the know; and that technological advances (such as bio-, nano-, genetics, robotics, Internet, renewable energy and sustainability) will be the big economic drivers of the future.
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Only a few months ago, economists and CEOs were troubled by the possibility of a “double dip” recession. Luckily, the general consensus among leading experts is now much more optimistic. This is by no means a sudden bonanza, and the return of “free wheeling and free dealing” rampant capitalism. But it is possibly the beginning of a more modest and more realistic emergence of “conscious capitalism.”
But enough of the philosophical observations. What in reality should we expect? Read More
What we should do as a nation is come together and work out solutions to the many challenges we are facing. Health care is merely one of them; others include a reform of Wall Street, education and immigration reform, and (my favorite) a commitment to becoming energy independent.
What we are getting instead is bipartisan bickering, a media frenzy that feeds on negative energy that in turn divides the nation. As a result, the majority of our leaders and the general public lose their way, their sanity and their dignity by focusing on single issues without putting them into perspective. We get into heated debates on who is right or who is wrong, and by doing so, we forget the real issues that desperately need to be addressed and which deserve well thought-out solutions that are not full of political and economic compromises. Read More
When Charles Fraser conceived Sea Pines a little over 50 years ago, the term “green” simply stood for the color green. Charles was way ahead of his time without knowing it. There are three major decisions he made that have stood the test of time and today symbolically represent being green:
• Creating the 605-acre Sea Pines Forest Preserve;
• Recognizing that natural beauty is a major asset;
• And creating a building code that ensures that man-made structures blend into the existing natural surroundings.
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Everything!
I remember when I was 15-years-old, I came across a sentence written by German philosopher and poet Friedrich Schiller that read, “Happiness is to love and to be loved.” This sentence stood out among an ocean of words and immediately stuck with me. For a few months I examined it’s meaning and tried to find a better definition of happiness, but I couldn’t. Hence I made it my “credo.”
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It is reassuring to know that the town’s resolution for the new year is to examine what lies ahead for us and what measures we can take today to meet the changing demands of the next 25 years.
To that end, the town has updated the comprehensive 10-year plan and the mayor has appointed a task force to formulate a vision and road map to address the question of how we can improve the quality of life for all citizens, how we can make the visitors’ experience more rewarding and how we can secure the economic viability of our community.
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Before we look forward, we must look back.
Before formulating a new vision we must capture the essence of what defines us.
What is the intangible essence of our island?
Maybe it helps to understand that its material existence relies on the force of nature itself. The land where we build our homes and businesses was under sea level for millions of years. In contrast, 15,000 years ago the sea level was 400 feet lower than it is today, and our land was miles from the ocean.
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Let me be clear: Keeping the only PGA Tour event in South Carolina here on Hilton Head Island is a very important matter. There are three main benefits to our community that come from hosting the event.
The first and possibly the most important is the exposure our brand gets all year, and especially during the event itself that helps us maintain a high profile as a desirable golf destination. The second is that the week of the event is always a big boost for tourist-related businesses. The third benefit is that the Heritage Foundation is able to award scholarships and provide considerable amounts of money every year to local nonprofit organizations.
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