Opinions on EndGame by Michael Grunwald

I felt that the excerpt was pretty bland and boring. It did talk about the history of the Everglades and how the year 2000 was a very important year for it, but besides that it did not keep my interest. I do not know if it had to do with my exhaustion with the Everglades or the fact that I am 'Evergladed' out. It probably was because I read Marjory Douglas' The Nature of the Everglades already and in her excerpt, she stated everything there was to know about the Everglades. I did feel that when he wrote this, it was specifically written for people who are well-educated with the Everglades. "Senator Chafee had promised to hold a field hearing on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan at the Naples conference, and Senator Smith agreed to respect his late predecessor's wishes." (Grunwald 79) I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

Photo by Nature: http://www.nature.org/cs/groups/webcontent/@web/@florida/documents/media/everglades.jpg

 In Marjory's reading, I found that she wrote it in such a beautiful way as if you were reading a book. While it was also a long excerpt, she was able to keep my attention. I have never been to the Everglades, but Marjory wrote so you can picture yourself there.  A lot of the terms that Grunwald used were not universal and by that I mean, not everyone would be able to understand his writing. The first section had a lot to do with the restoration, but besides that he completely lost me. Another example of this would be when he stated, "Defoor set up a meeting between Audubon activists and sugar growers at Paul Tudor Jones's estateon the Keys, and both sides agreed over stone crabs to support the governor's funding bill." (Endgame 80) I understand that this was kind of a history lesson, but no one said history had to be boring. His style of writing is not good in my opinion and a keeps throwing all these different people at us without really telling us who they are or their significance.

Photo by Cakex: http://www.cakex.org/sites/default/files/project/photos/Everglades_swamp.JPG

  As the new millennium dawned, the Everglades was not yet saved." (Grunwald 103) Maybe if he led with this sentence, the reading would have been more interesting, but I highly doubt it. If you want people to care about what you are writing, then you at least need to make the reading interesting or write it in a way that people have no other choice to care. While I am not all about the environment, Marjory made me want to be. You kind of fell in love with it because she was in love with it. This was the most  important lesson that I learned in Journalism and it has helped me to write very successful pieces. When you write, it is like an open canvas for a painter. You can spin what you write anyway you'd like and it can sound pretty interesting.