A little bit about the Edge of America
It's an interesting place, the peninsula on which I have chosen to live. It's a vacation paradise. It's a retirement haven. It's a place where your vote really counts, sometimes. But there's a lot more to Florida than theme parks and bluehairs.

It really is a beautiful place, but not in the way that the Ozarks or the Hill Country of Texas is beautiful. Florida is, first and foremost, a swamp. Much of the land has been drained and dredged in a decades-long effort to make it inhabitable. It's probably more environmentally fragile than the Alaska oil fields, but little has stood in the way of developers trying to concrete over as much as possible. But go back into what remains of the swamp, and you'll see a unique and amazing ecosystem thriving on the black water and sawgrass.

In my part of the peninsula, it can be 85 degrees any day of the year. Hurricanes menace my city, but rarely do they harm it.

For a state that was largely uninhabited until the 1950s, there's a deep, rich history. St. Augustine is the oldest continously settled European city in the United States, and is incredibly well-preserved. It's one of my favorite places on the planet, and well worth the time of any tourist. It's a good reminder that there was life before Walt Disney.

Then there are the people -- vacationers and tourists, yes, but also rednecks and immigrants. Remember that Key West is only 90 miles from Havana. Remember also that Florida is south of both Georgia and Alabama, and I mean "South" with all that entails. There's a line that roughly follows Interstate 4 from Tampa through Orlando to Daytona Beach. North of that line is the Unreconstructed crowd, and south of that line are the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free. To say they don't always get along would be sort of an understatement.

Florida is also one of America's great hiding places. Many from the fringes of society choose the state to hide from bad weather and other unfriendly elements of the world. For many years in the mid-20th century, many carnival and circus workers maintained residences in Florida during the off-season, and the communities they formed remain colorful and, well, um, different from the places you and I are used to living.

It's a great place to visit, but it's a better -- and cheaper -- place to live. A Florida driver's license also acts as a discount card to many of the state's tourist traps. Property taxes are insanely low (and so, unfortunately, is the quality of many of the state's schools.) Sales taxes are low. The state's budget is built around one philosophy: "Soak the tourist." Hotel taxes, airport taxes, rental car taxes and expressway tolls build the roads and provide the services I use. The politically powerful retirees routinely vote down tax increases. It doesn't matter to them; their kids are out of school.

It's a special place, Florida, and it's largely unappreciated by many who visit or live here. It's a shame, because there's much to appreciate.