Letters to the editor for Friday, May 6, 2022

Nurses hold medical profession together

Many of us became doctors in order to diagnose and treat illnesses and hopefully save lives. But when it comes to compassionate care, no one can compete with nurses.

This is Nurses Appreciation Week, and once again, I have to say that in the many years I practiced internal medicine, I could never have been able to carry out my duties without the resilience and bravery of the many nurses I interacted with.

Nurses often spend hours caring for patients before a diagnosis is established. This can expose them to serious infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and various fungal infections.

There was a time when only a physician could pronounce a patient dead. Nowadays, that’s a duty that usually falls on a nurse, who then has to deal with the grieving family. Nurses see people at their best as well as at their most vulnerable.

As if nursing care was not stressful enough, COVID-19 added to the physical and psychological toll on our precious nurses.

Here’s a quote by the “mother of nurses,” Florence Nightingale: “I attribute my success to this: never gave or took an excuse.”

She used her sanitation and hygiene knowledge to lower the death rate from infections during the Crimean War in 1855 from 42 percent to about 2 percent.

There’s a famous nurse definition: “Nurse – just another word to describe a person strong enough to tolerate everything and soft enough to understand everyone.”

To me, nurses will always be the Elmer’s Glue that holds the medical profession together.

Dr. Allen Malnak, M.D., Bonita Springs

Replace lawns with natural landscaping

Two recent news alerts overlapped yesterday. One concerned our dwindling drinking water supply, with future demand far outpacing our present supply. The other stated that there can be airborne transmission of toxins from affected red or blue green algae miles inland from the source.

Florida has finally begun a debate on finding a resolution to these contentious issues, but the final report may never be agreed upon. Therefore, I propose a simple measure that will mitigate the present rate of water usage and water degradation: Any new developments must have natural landscaping, not lawns. Same with golf courses. Older projects and developments can be phased in over time.

Lawns and green grass expanses are unneeded luxuries that waste our dwindling water supply and provide a source of unwanted nutrient runoff that fuels toxic growth in our precious public waters. My proposal will not be a cure, but it would slow the rate of destruction. We can continue to search for final solutions after putting this sensible stop gap into play.

Now that we've recognized the hole we dug for ourselves, let's stop digging it deeper!

Robert Savino, Fort Myers

Children in need of foster homes

It’s the most wonderful time of the year -- baseball season! Imagine our local stadium filled with adoring fans! Now, replace those fans with foster children. Then, refill that stadium three more times. That is how many children are in foster care in Florida. 22,000.

This is a call for action! Hundreds of children in our community are in need of a loving foster home. We need our community to be the difference, to be the change we need, to be the foster parent they are called to be. And maybe, just maybe, when you become a foster parent and give a child a loving home, wouldn’t it be great to catch a baseball game, too?

Anyone interested in learning more about the foster parent experience can find answers at www.nyap.org or by visiting our Facebook Page @NYAPFortMyers.

Melanie Brock, Cape Coral

Nuclear winter the gravest threat

Some would argue that climate change and its effects are the gravest threat to the survival of the planet; it is not, nuclear winter and its aftermath are.

The Doomsday clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists surprisingly still stands at 100 seconds to midnight despite Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons, tactical and otherwise, if it faces “existential threat.” The clock should be reset to five seconds to midnight.

In 1983 the late Carl Sagan wrote of a nuclear winter as toxic gases from a nuclear explosion created a climate that blocked the sun and cooling saw Earth’s temperature drop between 15-25 degrees Celsius. The failure of crops and famine followed and with it the death of millions.

How likely is that scenario? More than we would like to consider. On Feb. 22, Vladimir Putin put Russia’s strategic nuclear forces on high alert. The “hermit kingdom” -- North Korea -- has nuclear capability and has tested short- and long-range missiles capable of reaching Japan and beyond. Other rogue nations, such as Iran, will likely shortly join those nations with nuclear armaments.

Perhaps, the Doomsday clock should now be reset to one second to midnight — the threat is so immediate.

James F. Lally, Naples

Governor undermines free speech, voting

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis robs the fundamentals of our democracy like a cancer. Cancer robs the body of it’s energy, just as Ron DeSantis robs the threads that hold our society together when he punishes free speech and passes restrictive voting laws.

Juan Puerto M.D., Immokalee

Keep political agendas out of schools

I watch in disbelief as this culture war with our schools unfolds. I have been (and still teach part-time) a teacher/administrator for the last 47 years and it’s anathema to me how foolishly we adults are approaching schools, textbooks, children, curricula, etc.

Kids are our future. How or why would we subject our most precious citizens to adult political agendas? Of course schools of all kinds require some guidance, but really? Board meetings that feel hostile and uncomfortable? I’m old enough to recall when those same meetings were a time and showplace for hardworking kids and the adults to share success. Thoughtful and positive committee work was strictly to help the kids and families, not promote a single ideology or political position.

Why don’t we all take our rage down a notch? Let us try to make our students' lives less hostile by returning to a level of civility with our attitudes about schools, teaching and our very precious children.

Sylvia Wong Herscher, Naples

Proud Boy's words drip with irony

Christopher Worrell. Proud? To be an anarchist. Boy? Yes, no man would turn on his country as you have. Political? How can it be when a majority of Americans from both sides of the aisle condemn the insurrection? Prisoner? Yes, soon to be, but behind bars and not in the comfort of his own home. And slowly but surely, his compatriots will join him as justice is served. So deluded that he cannot see the irony that does not drip, but gushes from his words. Crying that federal agents raided his home and threatened he and his wife. Did not all of our congressmen and women and police feel the same when his gang stormed the Capitol? And the coup de grace. A pathetic “United We Stand.” Sorry, he stands alone. And he divides, not unites.

Equally disturbing that Commissioner LoCastro inexplicably bought into his pathetic plea by considering an inquiry.

I regret Mr. Worrell's health condition. But as the French would say, “honi soit qui mal y pense.” In English, “karma.”

Ted Crawford, Fort Myers

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Friday, May 6, 2022