Delicate Balance

As we were beginning our Saturday run, my friend Steve asked me, "Did you see the coke on the beach?" I had not. No, this is not a sugary caffeinated drink nor is it a drug of abuse. It's a black substance that looks a lot like coal. Coke is a main ingrediant in the steel-making process. Steve has worked at "the mills" for much of his adult life. As we ran on the beach and I observed the coke littering the shoreline, Steve provided me with a basic lesson on coke. At one point we passed where someone had spelled "COAL" out of the pieces of coke. "Wrong," he shouted, "It's coke!" Even running along the lakeshore, we're never far from reminders of how endangered this area really is. The Dunes State Park and Dunes National Lakeshore are surrounded by symbols of industry-the steel mills, interstates, and power plants. Information at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center details the compromise that was struck in 1966 in order to create the park in the first place. Industry got the Port of Indiana and money for the park was appropriated. As the coke on the shoreline and the recent push to build a hotel on state park property illustrates, this wonderful natural area is still not secure.