Letters to the editor for Friday, December 3, 2021

Congressman in thrall to DeSantis, Trump

Congressman's Byron Donalds column in The News-Press should be a concern to all Floridians, especially those in his 19th Congressional District. Donalds does not believe in mandates from Washington, but dictates, fines and mandates from Tallahassee are acceptable. Sophism!... or as Florida Man (that would be me, registered independent voter born in the Everglades 1943) deceitful logic.

What's most concerning is the congressman's canine fealty to Gov. DeSantis... "America's governor standing tall."

We had a term in high school and the military and it wasn't sycophant.

People have a right to be anti-vaxxers and die. They do not have a right to give to me or my family, especially my 4- and 2-year-old grandchildren (which happened -- very scary! now healthy) COVID-19.

Now 61,548 Floridians dead from COVID-19. What would that number be if we Floridians would have followed strict mitigation protocols?

Congressman Donalds is unfit to serve. It is clear to us old Florida hands that have followed his short but mediocre career. Donalds is on a very short leash controlled by Gov. DeSantis and Ex-President Trump. Donalds still believes in the Big Lie and so voted.

Reread the Nov. 28 column. Embarrassing and not a single independent thought let alone cogent analysis.

We in the 19th can do better than this, Republican or Democrat.

Wright B. George, Fort Myers

Gratitude for lifeguards, security officer

My wife and I are seniors visiting in Southwest Florida. We swim in the Golfview municipal swimming pool in Fort Myers regularly. I have a major hearing deficiency and a cochlear implant in my left ear. It depends on a hearing aid in the right ear. After our swim at the pool Tuesday I was looking through the fence at an advanced competitive swimmer working out. I somehow lost the hearing aid and a careful search did not find it.

A security officer in the area joined in search. Before we drove away I gave my name and telephone number to a lifeguard. We had been underway only a few minutes when I got a call on my cell phone. It turned out that after we left the two young pool staff members had continued searching and found my hearing aid. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for recovery of my hearing aid.

Friendliness and caring is not limited to age groups. The gray-haired officer as well as the young lifeguards showed voluntary concern for my loss. This experience suggests that whereas we have somehow gotten into terrible problems at high official levels, ordinary Americans are wonderful people. I love them.

Frank T. Manheim, Fairfax, VA, and Fort Myers

Sen. Manchin protecting coal interests

Putting aside all the divisive and hostile nonsense that is tearing our country apart, I can’t help but question Sen. Joe Manchin’s agenda. The billionaires and corporations with more than $1 billion in profits will bear the burden of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. We haven’t heard any objections from those corporations or the billionaires that would be affected by it, but Sen. Manchin has taken this one-man stance against all these badly needed programs. I can’t help but think he is protecting the coal-producing millionaires in West Virginia, as the climate measures would affect them. What about “we the people” suffering the effects of the damage fossil fuels do to our planet? Given that Sen. Manchin is supposedly on the same “side” as the other Democrats, he obviously is in favor of what’s good for his wallet and not our country. On a side note, I wish news organizations would clarify the proposed corporate tax would only affect companies that earn more than one billion dollars in profit, so many people I know wrongly believe it will affect their small business when it clearly will not.

J. Karen, Naples

An exercise in vulgar relativism

In Mr. Thiessen’s opinion column, “Three Cheers for ‘Let’s Go Brandon,'“ he states that the phrase is merely a harmless, humorous mockery of President Biden and his presidency. Many of us can take a joke; just look at what we endured with the last president. Of course the damage to our democracy persists and that is no laughing matter.

What Mr. Thiessen is supporting in his argument is the idea of vulgar relativism. A term which indicates that everything is relative, there are no absolutes and the moral sphere has shattered boundaries. A perfect description of the Trump presidency.

President Biden has put honor back in the Oval Office, and is actually governing and passing bipartisan legislation supporting all the nation’s citizens. And because Americans know how to have the last laugh, let’s have three cheers for “integrity, competency and democracy”!

Manny Cacciola, Fort Myers

Pony up and offer to buy the parcel

I knew it wouldn't take long for the NIMBYs (Not in My Back Yard) from the Club at Rapallo to come out in force against Konova South, the developer of Coconut Point. After reading an article in The News-Press, it appears that this parcel has and always was zoned commercial with restaurants planned. I can only suggest to the homeowners to put your money where your mouth is. Pony up and offer to buy the parcel in question that has you so frustrated.

Frank Zigo, Cape Coral

Searching for socialists in the USA

According to the Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 13th Edition, socialism is “a political and economic theory of social organization based on collective or governmental ownership and democratic management of the essential means for the production and distribution of goods.”

And capitalism is “one in which the ownership of land and natural wealth, the production, distribution and exchange of goods, and operation of the system itself, are effected by private enterprise and control under competitive conditions.”

The key feature that distinguishes capitalism from socialism is that in capitalism the means of production and distribution are privately owned, whereas in socialism those are owned collectively (government). Obviously, in the USA, ownership of the means of production and distribution is partly private and partly governmental.

Annual production in each sector, private and government, is a measure of the size of that sector. Annual government expenditure as a percent of GDP measures the government share in the economy. For example, in 1980 the federal government share of the economy was 21 percent (Data Source: U.S. Office of Management and Budget).

During the last 40 years (1981-2020), federal government share of the economy is relatively stable from year to year. In that period, the average annual government share over the 24 years of Republican administrations and that over the 16 years of Democratic administrations were the same 21 percent. Thus, there is no shred of evidence to the constant Republican drumbeat that Democrats are on socialistic spending spree.

Mukhtar Ali, Marco Island

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Friday, December 3, 2021