Brightline a bust? Vero Beach renewal; Martin tax hypocrisy; St. Lucie schools | Letters

Pros, cons, but Brightline still looks like a business bust

I’ve had many discussions with people about Brightline and a potential station in Martin County.

When the idea of a high-speed train was first introduced, almost everyone I spoke to was against it. Despite the will of most citizens, that endeavor has come to fruition, and the tide is turning toward the idea that since the train is here, we may as well utilize it in the most advantageous ways possible. The classic cycle of defeat turns into acceptance, turns into support.

As with most debates, there are solid arguments for both sides. The rate of deaths is undoubtedly alarming. Nobody likes the idea of increased traffic jams and additional noise pollution. I am not convinced there will be criminals traveling from other counties, but some tout the probability. The bridge debacle seems to be an eternal problem for boaters. Then there is the fundamental dilemma of delayed emergency vehicles preventing lifesaving care for those in immediate need. A slowing train approaching the station will exacerbate all traffic issues.

As an avid traveler, I would appreciate having the ability to hop on a train and effortlessly arrive at a destination without the hazards and headaches of road travel. Having access to more airports gives us more efficient travel options. An increase in tourism dollars will surely arouse many. Fewer vehicles will pass through as a result of people flying into Miami heading to Disney. (I’m not sure if this will have any significant impact.) And my favorite, not having to go to the airport to pick up family.

With all things considered, it still doesn’t add up. We can’t even fill a bus in Martin County. The cost factor is the most concerning. Passenger trains are never profitable. I wonder how much it will cost the taxpayers to subsidize big business once again.

Nick Gulotta, Stuart

St. Lucie County residents must carefully watch school board

Civic engagement can range from the excitement of watching paint dry to the fireworks of fist fights with tempers flaring and imminent violence.

Attending the Oct. 10 St. Lucie County School Board meeting registered somewhere between those two extremes. Sparsely attended, there was nothing controversial on the agenda. That did not preclude the development of something the public should learn more about.

The presence of a new law firm, a letter of resignation by the district's law firm of record and an apparent procedural violation by a board member, Troy Ingersoll (an experienced chair and who should have known better), combined for intrigue and speculation.

Making unilateral decisions without consulting other board members is a violation of protocol. When it happens more than once, a concerning pattern emerges. That important point was lost on the oldest (but newest) board member, Jack Kelly.

Transparency is a requirement of democracy. True leaders lead by example because they know that the appearance of back-room deals or wrongdoing can be more damaging to the public trust than actual misdeeds.

St. Lucie County residents need to become more engaged in civic discourse at public meetings. Two school board seats will be on the ballot in August 2024. Every citizen should be diligent. An informed citizenry and an educated population are essential to a functioning democracy.

Felicia Bruce, Fort Pierce

Vero Beach Riverside Park features 'new' salt marsh

The Clean Water Coalition of Indian River County is pleased to invite the public to view a recently completed salt marsh revegetation project at Riverside Park in Vero Beach.

The CWC partnered with the Vero Beach Rotary Club, Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, Sunrise Rotary Club and the city of Vero Beach to fund and complete this project.

In order to maintain flood control, the city removed all the vegetation, including mangrove trees that were impeding flow in the drainage canal along the north side of the park that connects to the Indian River Lagoon.

Four species of salt marsh vegetation were planted along the perimeter of the almost 2,000-linear-foot shoreline. Valuable salt marshes in this area of the lagoon have all but disappeared due to mosquito impoundment creation and sea level rise, allowing mangroves to dominate. Educational signage has been installed, describing the filtering and habitat benefits of this restored salt marsh.

Jean Catchpole, Vero Beach

Martin County Commission fiscal hypocrisy on full display

Over the course of 14 days, our Martin County commissioners went from threatening to cut $800,000 in grants and aid to spending $4 million (plus 10-year mortgage interest) on a plot of land in Palm City with no planned usage and questionable public benefit.

They threatened to close parks and withhold funding to homeless services, veterans' services and medical support, yet spent millions of unplanned tax dollars on a piece of land with no immediate benefit.

How much land could have been bought for $4 million on Salerno Road to prevent catastrophic flooding? How many houses could have been converted from septic to sewer? How many potholes could have been filled or how many parks could have their facilities updated?

We could have chipped away at debt, socked something away for an emergency, or — gasp! — even prepared for a possible tax reduction to an already fiscally strained community.

People are hungry. People are sleeping in the parks. People are going without — just to pay their taxes and bills — yet Tuesday's land purchase was somehow a fiscal priority.

Remember this when it comes time to vote next year.

Michael Syrkus, Palm City

Support Israel, Ukraine; use votes to do so

Let's call Hamas and Vladimir Putin what they are: savages. And as Rep. Dan Goldman of New York noted, Hamas is not the Palestinian people.

Hamas does not want Jews to exist. Putin does not want Ukraine to exist.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. Both Hamas and Putin target the vulnerable: the elderly, children. One of their savage weapons of war is rape. Young Israelites are brutalized by Hamas as they seek their victories at a music festival. As in Ukraine, seniors are shot and killed; some waiting at a bus stop.

I wept watching parents beg for the return of their children. Women begging for the return of their husbands. Husbands begging for the return of their wives. An 88-year-old woman with dementia was abducted and taken across the border to Gaza.

The U.S. government is doing what it can to help Israel and Ukraine, whose people want to live in peace and freedom. The ability of the U.S. government putting its full strength to help Israel and Ukraine is hampered by wrongheaded congressmen and senators.

They include Sen. Ted Cruz, who is holding up the ambassador to Israel because he doesn't like President Joe Biden's foreign policy; Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is using his religious beliefs to hold up promotions in the military. And then there the Republicans in the House who stop the wheels of government from running smoothly because they can't elect a speaker quickly enough.

Hamas, Putin and other terrorists must be held accountable for their savagery. Their innocent targets and victims deserve that justice.

It is important for the leaders of our countries to make sure that they do. It is important that those of us who believe in the dignity of our brothers and sisters in the human family to exist and live in peace and freedom use our vote to make our voices heard.

Joan Fox, Vero Beach

Taking books off school shelves to get students to read them?

Kudos to Laurie McFayden and her recent letter to the editor: It was spot on.

In my opinion, banning books in school libraries is totally senseless. Unless things have changed drastically since I was a student, and later a teacher, I don't think students are exactly rushing to library shelves to take out books they don't have to read for a class.

Now, at least here in Florida, one single parent potentially can have a book removed from the shelves because they think it shouldn't be there ― books like Anne Frank's diary or "To Kill a Mockingbird." Really?

With so much sex and other "stuff" on television, computers, in magazines and even on the regular nightly news these days, what is their point?

By the way, it goes without saying that the best way to get a someone to read a book is to tell them they can't: Even worse, tell them it's been banned.

You can take the books off the library shelves, but students will find them somewhere else.

There's so much wrong with our politics today.

Roger Carroll, Vero Beach

Trump gets top ranking in book not yet published

In researching my yet-to-be-written and still-unpublished book, “Ranking American’s Rankest Presidents,” I found many fine candidates.

I considered Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and George W. Bush as possible candidates. However, my exhausting research found that none of those or any other of America’s former presidents come close to outranking Donald J. Trump as the rankest American president of all time.

As I discuss in my book that I haven’t written, many historians evaluated and found Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, coupled with his failure to stop the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, his endorsement of fake electors and his targeting of Vice President Mike Pence as making him the most qualified candidate for rankest American president.

To sum it up, Trump made America great for some people who live in Florida.

Chris Christensen, Palm City

Picking a president: We're way better off than many other places

There is no confirmation of a requirement for our president or presidential candidates be members of Mensa. Maybe this is obvious to some, but also consider that there are no criteria for limitation on the other end of the IQ bracket.

That leaves us pretty much stuck in the middle, but a lot better off than so many other countries where candidates are dictated and selected for office by the powers-to-be.

So, when things look bad for us on the political front, think of how much better off that we are and that things could be worse. There are no  Putins or Xis on our candidate list. Kinda gives you a warm feeling, doesn’t it?

Ray Grochowski, Vero Beach

Advice for the folks who call themselves Republican leaders nowadays

I believe I have the solution for those conservatives who meet with rough receptions at various colleges and universities.

I suggest a change of venue, rather than go to a place where the people read books and have an educated background. Maybe go somewhere where their message is better received, whatever that message may be: I’m thinking MAGA rallies or Mothers for Liberty meetings, perhaps a white supremacist gathering or a Ron DeSantis rally.

Of course, this approach would rob them of the propaganda that conservatives aren’t loved on campuses. But it’s not like there’s any “there” to their message, which seems to be “we hate America as it is and we want to change it or we’re taking our ball and going home.”

Adorable, but not helpful.

I realize that some readers might take offense at this, but if they support today’s Republican Party, they should understand that whatever it is they believe politically, today’s Republican Party is not, in any way, conservative or Republican. It’s anarchic absolutism, where things should just stop being the way they are regardless of the damage done.

I doubt that these “conservatives” will take this advice, as “conservatives” rarely listen to others or learn from the past.

Joseph Desmond, Vero Beach

Want to keep healthy? Eat fruits, vegetables

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 9% of the American population eat enough vegetables. Just 12% of the American population consumes enough fruit.

Results from the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System found consumption of fruits and vegetables is lower among men, young adults and adults with lower incomes.

Eating enough fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of cardiovascular illnesses, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Adult women need at least 1 1/2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables each day. Adult men need at least 2 cups of fruit and 3 1/2 cups of vegetables each day.

Whole grain foods, light dairy and lean, protein-enriched foods are good to eat along with healthy servings of fruit and vegetables.

Filling up on fruits like apples, oranges, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapples, plums and peaches can help a person to feel full without overeating. Filling up on vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, bell peppers and corn on the cob can keep the mind and body healthy, also,

Anna Santacroce, Fort Pierce

Could Treasure Coast be known as morbid tourist destination?

We need to learn to celebrate, rather than criticize, our Treasure Coast relationship with Brightline. Now that the trains will be increasing the number of runs through our area, we have an excellent chance to cash in on this opportunity.

New York is known as the live theater capital of our country. Las Vegas is the gambling epicenter. Hollywood is the entertainment hub of the USA. Why can’t the Treasure Coast be the suicide capital of America?

Come visit and step in front of a train. All your problems will be solved. No mess to clean up like with a gun. No ropes and complicated knots like with hanging. No awful-tasting poisons. Just step up, blink twice and it’s over. How about this for a company slogan: Brightline: Still not as bloody as the Chicago stockyards.

Thomas Schram, Stuart

Help for anyone contemplating suicide is available 24/7 at the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Brightline boondoggle? Israel, Ukraine; school book bans; | Letters