1. I went to the beach, which was being eaten by the ocean.
2. For some reason, the owner of the house we rented -- despite providing a three-ring binder full of rules and regulations -- forgot to mention that the nearest beach was inaccessible.
3. It was probably easier just to pretend it wasn't happening.
4. Up and down the coastline, towns have been spending countless dollars dredging sand from the bottom of the ocean and transporting it to the beaches. The idea is to make the beaches accessible to touri$t$ and to protect the multi-million dollar properties at risk of falling into the sea.
5. There's one problem with this plan: it doesn't work. The rising ocean has no regard for expensive beachfront property. It tastes just as good as anything else.
6. Being from New York City, I couldn't help but wonder if public money might be better spent on, say, fixing a subway system used by millions of people every single day instead of throwing money into the sea in the futile attempt to protect a negligible number of property owners.
7. Unfortunately our country has never been very realistic or practical.
8. Or fair, as we've seen over the past few days.
9. We are ruled by beachfront property owners.
10. Ignoring the inevitable, they're taking as much money as possible to build a fortress they like to think is impenetrable.
11. Whereas anyone can see it's made of sand.
12. And knows that water eats the sand.
13. Then there's the rest of us. More and more, we're not only aware of the water; we're praying for it to come.
