Travel Blog

The Beauty of West Palm Beach

I was fortunate enough to be in West Palm Beach this weekend to receive the Samizdat Prize for Free Speech from RealClearPolitics. Leaving the cold and snow of Washington, the break from winter was rejuvenating. I wanted to share a few pictures of Florida sunrises from this uniquely beautiful place.

The RealClearPolitics event was itself equally rejuvenating as a gathering of so many people from business, media, legal, and other fields who share a deep love for free speech. RealClearPolitics has been one of the most important and stalwart defenders of free speech in the industry.  The event began with powerful remarks from David DesRosiers, President of RealClearFoundation, Publisher of RealClear, and Carl M. Cannon, Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics and Executive Editor of RealClear Media Group. The event reminded us that we are not alone in this struggle for The Indispensable Right.

I was particularly honored to receive the award with fellow recipients Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, and Abigail Shrier, Manhattan Institute senior fellow and author of “Irreversible Damage.” They are both inspiring figures who have been unflinching in their fight against censorship and groupthink.

Now back to the sunrises. With snow scheduled in Washington, I expect to be staring wistfully at these images for a few more weeks:

 

Thanks again to RealClearPolitics for this honor and the chance to spend time with so many kindred spirits in such a lovely place.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

39 thoughts on “The Beauty of West Palm Beach”

  4. Congratulations, Professor. 😊 Well deserved. Thank you for your knowledge, objectivity, and courage.

  7. Professor– First, congratulations on the well-deserved award! Second, I grew up in West Palm Beach in the 1960s at a time when it still was a small town compared to today. A friend had a boat and we fished on the Palm Beach Canal on the way to and from Forest Hill High School. Shoes were an unnecessary inconvenience. The Atlantic usually was calm due to the nearness of the Gulf Stream off shore, and the weather usually was mild. When we drove across the bridge to Palm Beach, we marveled at the beauty of Mar-a-Lago– at least the part you could see from outside the gate– wondering what it was like to live in such a spectacular place. President Kennedy was a regular, and my girl friend and her sister actually got to sit on the Presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz, talking with Jackie while the President borrowed and then sailed their Sun Fish around Lake Worth. The last time I was there some years ago West Palm had changed radically and many of the old landmarks had been torn down. Still, it is hard to beat the beauty of the sun rising over the Atlantic.

    1. I was born in PBC Hospital and Lake Worth was home.

      I too remember when many of the streets in WPB were sand.

      1. What is PBC hospital? You are either a real old-timer or younger than a lot. The major hospital in your area is JFK and they don’t have an obstetrical service., Doctors hospital opened and closed after a short stint. There was or is a Lake Hospital that might be dealing with psychiatric problems. North in the WPB area is St. Mary’s and Good Samaritan.

          1. Yes, JFK was built in 1966. You are an old-timer. Was that in the vicinity of Ave. East of I-95? I remember talking about a hospital that existed fifty years ago as a general hospital. A second hospital to JFK was opened a couple of decades later, called Doctors Hospital, but it disappeared after several decades. I originated from NY but spent most of my life in Florida. I was told that not long before, alligators were crawling over the grounds of JFK. Now, they seem to remain in the lake of the city.

    2. Honest, West Palm Beach is growing into a major metropolis. But Professor Turley spoke at the Four Seasons, slightly south of WPB and on the barrier Island of Palm Beach (I think). This area on the coast is one of the best areas to live. Mar a Lago remains beautiful, but with all the attempts on Trump’s life, they sealed off A1A with concrete barriers so that a drive north exits at Southern Blvd, and those in the area needing to go south have to exit over one of the northern bridges.

      I congratulate Professor Turley and wish I realized he was speaking there. I want to thank the northerners, mainly from NY and a few from California, for settling in the area. They boosted real estate prices tremendously. However, I wish they would stop or at least not come if they have left-wing ideas. Florida is beautiful and well-run. We don’t need more leftists to make Florida into a shite-hole, which is what they do everywhere. Classical liberals are welcome.

      1. S. Meyer– In my high school, we had some students who lived in Palm Beach and occasionally they would have parties. I noticed that a close friend who was Jewish never attended those parties– he usually made up some excuse– and I was too self-centered and interested in fishing and camping to ask about it. Many years later he came out to Texas (he was then a highly successful expert on election law, among other accomplishments) and we met for dinner. He told me for the first time that back then Jews were “not allowed” in Palm Beach (same was true of Blacks after sundown) and that his father had survived the Holocaust but never talked about it. Ironically, our “xenophobic” and “racist” President had a lot to do with breaking the Jew/Black barrier in Palm Beach when he opened the Mar-a-Lago club to anyone who could pay the freight.

        1. “Ironically, our “xenophobic” and “racist” President had a lot to do with breaking the Jew/Black barrier in Palm Beach when he opened the Mar-a-Lago club to anyone who could pay the freight.”

          People forget that and a lot of other things when they call Trump a xenophobe. They seldom look at themselves. Ted Kennedy, the prominent liberal, was always talking about ending racism by having other people do things to end it. What he didn’t do was start at home and fight racism (typical leftist). Blacks had to carry a work permit to travel to Palm Beach Island, but I never heard Kennedy say anything about it. There are private clubs I cannot go to, but I do go to Mar a Lago. Alan Dershowitz refused an invitation to speak at one of them because they had a no-Jew policy allowing him only because they wanted to hear him.

          1. S. Meyer…..wow….I had no idea you’re a Floridian as well as New Yorker. What a life you lead!
            But I am saddened and furious that there are private clubs you cannot join in PB? !!!

            1. I rarely return to NYC; the Democrats ruined it. Since months before COVID until now, I’ve only been there twice, totaling two weeks. We’re considering whether to go back. Still, I love my home in Florida, even in the summer.

              Don’t feel sorry for me, save your sympathy for the narrow-minded antisemite. They’re the ones with the real problem. They’re not trying to kill me, so I love them and wish them well.

                1. I thank you for what you say, but your praise should be directed toward the Torah which provides guidance for all those in need.

    3. Native Miami residents now have a New Yawk accent, the once beautiful Florida Keys is wall to wall condos and $50 in/out ramps, water quality is shit and over fished. North Florida is now subdivision after subdivision, massive apartment complexes and high cube commercial warehouses sitting vacant. Thank God for hurricanes or the west coast would follow same, they keep trying but the storms keep knocking them down. Thanks Rick Scott, Florida doesn’t want you here.

  11. Excellent , well deserved !. Now I can not wait until your treatise on the USAID HUGE SCANDAL unwrapped before us all.

  18. Prof. Turley.. that Free Speech Award looks Great in Your Hands… so well deserved.. your Courageous and Brilliant writings have been a large part of the Fire keeping the Founding Fathers’ Torch burning.. especially during the last 4 years, against the winds of tyranny… Great Appreciation for sharing your Beautiful Beach moments of Supreme Joy & Peace… God Bless You.. I feel privileged reading your daily analysis, esp. as a GWU grad…

  19. You would love the beauty and history of St. Augustine. If you come back, I will introduce you to a woman who walked with Dr. King. By the way..I am loving your book. I am happy to be you guide. I was a 63 year old history graduate from Flagler.

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