Letters to the editor for Saturday, December 17, 2022

Even more traffic on Immokalee Road

Once again our Collier County commissioners have approved the development of property adjacent to Immokalee Road, this time Brightshore with approximately 2,000 homes. It appears the only concern on traffic was access to Immokalee Road with no consideration to the additional traffic on Immokalee Road. These new residents will not be working in rural Immokalee and will be heading west on a daily basis.Today at rush hour if you are traveling east and turning north you often have to wait up to two minutes to turn and access to 75 can be backed up two to three miles. Approval for this development only compounds today's problem and it would appear there is absolutely no concern on the part of our commissioners.We need a solution to the existing problems on Immokalee Road, not rubber-stamping continued development!

Bill Mason, Naples

Welcome to the Dark Ages

Thursday's front page (Dec. 15) for the Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press was a trifecta of grim news.

-- We're on the verge of seeing development and mismanagement finally kill off our beloved wood storks;

-- A special session throws homeowners under the bus in favor of legislators' real constituents -- insurance companies;

-- And the radical new Collier School Board can't wait to ditch Kamela Patton, an intelligent woman who, as Florida's superintendent of the year, probably couldn't stomach them much either.

Turning to Page 3A doesn't offer any relief. There's DeSantis wanting to burn medical professionals at the stake for urging COVID safety measures (while deaths nationwide have increased 71 percent in the last 14 days).

Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Vicky Bowles, Fort Myers

Growing school administrator salaries

Reading your article regarding Kamala Patton leaving her $300,000 job as Collier County superintendent of schools started making me think more about our current education system. The Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education shows that from 2000 to 2019 the following: The number of students has grown by 7.6 percent. The number of teachers has grown by 8.7 percent which seems reasonable considering the attempt to reduce classroom student to teacher ratio. And then they show that the number of administrators has grown by 87.6 percent. This is 87.6 percent, not 8.6 percent to be real clear. You combine this growth in administrators and their salaries with the ever growing number of dysfunctional school boards and you have the perfect recipe for taxpayer-funded liberal foolishness. I would like to have someone tell me where the value of education to the students is increased by the large number of administrators and the money spent on this non-classroom group of individuals.

Don Rader, Naples

We deserve better from School Board

Dr. Patton is an outstanding superintendent of schools. I am writing about her departure from Collier County Public Schools because there is a major process issue not being addressed. I understand that Dr. Patton's attorney initiated the process that led to a "mutual transition agreement." Naturally Dr. Patton would move in that direction. Less than one week earlier she heard a majority of Board members — including two returning Board members — stating they did not feel the district could move forward with Dr. Patton leading it. They said they needed an interim. Although it was late, with few in attendance, the Board members' message was clear. They were not willing to work with Dr. Patton. That was their choice.

It appears the comments made on Dec. 7 led to the end to Dr. Patton's tenure on Dec. 13. The process problem is this: This was a shock. Six days. No communication. Immediate dismissal. Never once did a Board member discuss the impact on the community — on students, parents, staff, or others who support the school district. The Board is responsible to the community that elected them. The Board's decision may have met the letter of the law, but in my opinion, it did not meet the spirit of the law or the covenant that should exist between the Board and the community. I accept with sadness Dr. Patton's departure just months before her planned retirement. I do not accept the current Board members' lack of communication or concern for the community.Rev. Dr. Sharon Harris-Ewing, Naples

DeSantis charts autocratic course

Autocrats like control. Begin with a veto-proof legislative body. Extend your reach by challenging or influencing higher authorities in major institutional arenas: education, politics, media and public health. Call all of these actions ensuring freedom and brook no challengers. As Ron DeSantis prepares for his campaign to run for the U.S. presidency as the Republican candidate he has done all the right things to accomplish this goal. The path will be greased further by a sycophant Legislature eviscerating an existing law which requires sitting governors to relinquish their position so as not to conflate governing and campaigning. But wait. Hasn't Gov. DeSantis already accomplished this? In the Naples Daily News an article describes one more dog whistle activity our governor has conjured on his way to higher office: "DeSantis leads panel discussion questioning safety of COVID vaccines." I feel certain that he, his immunocompromised spouse as well as his children have all benefited from an mRNA vaccine. Can I prove that? No. Am I still reasonably certain of this conclusion? Yes. Yet, he is willing to use his considerable influence to challenge established scientific evidence. All this does is encourage his would-be electoral base while undermining the public health of members of our community and our state. This is disgraceful.

Joseph Curran, Naples

Probe why DeSantis undermines vaccine

Ron DeSantis has asked the Florida Supreme Court to convene a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” with respect to COVID-19 vaccines. I assume that the court will grant this request since it has gone along with almost all of his requests. However, I hope that the investigation includes an examination of why over 80,000 Floridians have died because DeSantis and his unqualified Surgeon General Ladapo have undermined and disparaged the value of COVID-19 vaccinations.The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines was one of the cardinal achievements of the Trump administration and it is a shame that so many Floridians have died (and are still dying) because DeSantis rejects the vaccine.David Goldstein, Naples

We were better off in 2020

Several intransigent donkeys continue to be allowed to regularly spew their venom in these pages, whether or not it is consistent with reality or honesty. All but the weakest minds among us are intuitively aware that we were better off in 2020 than we are in 2022.Sneaking out of Afghanistan and leaving American and allied citizens and $83 billion in modern military equipment behind for the Taliban was an unparalleled political, military and foreign affairs blunder, and perhaps treasonous by definition if found to be “giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”It’s ridiculous to pretend that the unimaginable rewarding of millions of unvetted aliens to invade our sovereign borders is constitutional or good for anyone but the donkeys.Wrecking the economy and causing record inflation is bad for every voter. The high cost of living is especially damaging to the poor, the very folks the donkeys have professed to champion.Throwing away our energy independence has created worldwide economic problems and reduced this donkey administration to begging unfriendly nations to sell us fuel.Obviously, draining the national petroleum reserves and inhibiting the production of American oil and natural gas are serious national security issues. Does anyone really believe we could defend our country or live our lives without fossil fuels?Lawlessness and this blatant two-tiered system of justice will hopefully be swept away along with one of the worst administrations in our history when a massive elephant herd stampedes across our country in 2024.Robert A. Strohaver, Naples

Biden's successes

Attention all you Biden haters take this! Inflation is down and dropping. Gas prices are down and dropping; we obviously did not need more drilling only the law of supply and demand. Shipping rates are down and supply chains are improving. Our relations with our allies are good and we are meeting with African nations instead of insulting them. I will agree the one fly in the ointment is the southern border, which is out of control. Maybe this is an area the new Republican House can solve with ideas, not criticism.

Albert King, Naples

COVID vaccine investigation

I'm glad Gov. DeSantis plans to investigate "any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID-19 vaccines." Will this investigation include the botched initial distribution of the vaccines, the misreporting of COVID cases and deaths in Florida, his opposition to common-sense vaccine and mask requirements and the role of an unqualified surgeon general? Bruce Beardsley, Naples

Stop the disinformation

I am hoping that all of the hate leaves the building after the election. Does that candidate represent we the people with truth and honesty? Does name-calling come out of their mouths with no remorse? Do they believe in proven lies and fantasy of always winning?

It has been proven through intense testimony by very close inner associates that the big lie exists. Do you believe the truth or preaching by narcissistic individuals for you to follow like sheep and carry out the demolition of our country?

By the way. Economics 101. Inflation is supply and demand. It is caused by corporate greed of the uber rich. If that is not you, then stop foolish waste. That does include gasoline.

Find your common sense and the real love for this country and its people of all nations. Vote for real education that encourages our kids to expand their thinking and ideas. Most importantly teach all truths. Stop the disinformation.

Christianne Murphy, Golden Gate

Florida needs a socialistic fix

What DeSantis did to to protect homeowners before Hurricane Ian amounted to putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. What he is working on today is much the same: curtailing legal costs, curtailing insurance fraud and trying to prevent insurance premium gouging. These costs pale in comparison to the billions and billions of dollars which Ian is costing homeowners. Insurers are leaving Florida in droves, not so much because of legal costs but more because the damage risks from hurricanes and rising sea levels are overwhelming. They dwarf legal, fraud and insurance costs which are the focus of the current DeSantis initiative.

Florida needs a socialistic fix. After the Great Depression, we chose a socialistic fix by implementing Social Security -- a retirement insurance. Subsequently, we chose Medicare as a socialistic fix for health insurance. In addition, we created a socialistic fix for the unemployed with unemployment insurance, a socialistic fix for injuries at work with Workers Compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance. All of these involve the intrusion of government to fill a gap abandoned by business; they exist of necessity by filling significant vacuums. Social insurance differs from public assistance based on funding sources. Social insurance is funded by contributions of each citizen who benefits from the services.

And that is what we have in Florida at this moment: a significant vacuum -- a lack of protection from the costs of hurricanes and sea level rises. Private business and insurance companies offer no solution to filling this vacuum; the risks are too great. Only government can come to the rescue with a state-operated insurance program funded by tax dollars and maybe some contribution from homeowners.

So if Ron wants to run for president, he is going to have to design and implement a state insurance program which is affordable and which protects the citizens of Florida whom he represents. Having done that, he can then run for president of the United States as a socialist who denies climate change.Joe Haack, Naples

Source of political division

Will our divided nation ever heal? Both political parties distrust each other. Democrats view Republicans as a threat to democracy and Republicans view Democrats as socialists destroying our Constitution. This division is a threat to our freedoms and liberty.The greatest political scandal in our history was confirmed when Elon Musk showed Twitter’s bias by releasing censored documents that showed Twitter's bias for Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Musk also documented how federal agencies were involved influencing Biden’s victory. Major networks and Democrats consider this election tampering as “nothing burgers” but if Republican candidates were influenced positively by social media censorship and Justice/FBI departments, it would be front page news and scourged for weeks. That’s why there’s a division in voter suspicion and mistrust of any election results.President Biden has been in politics for 50 years and knows how to play the system by manipulating elections. His college loan-forgiveness declaration was a gimmick hoodwinking 20,000,000 students to vote for Democrats in the mid-terms and it worked. Speaker Pelosi indicated months before that Biden didn’t have the authority to forgive student loans, but he violated the Constitution anyway knowing a court strike-down would be after the election. He accomplished what he wanted without any repercussion. If a Republican did this the press and political attacks would be relentless.A corrupt political and social media energizes the division in our country. We must be vigilant and stop letting them destroy our future and work to preserve freedom and liberty for the next generation.Frank Mazur, Fort Myers

Why country is in debt

Page 2's headline of The Fort Myers News-Press Dec. 14 edition is an example of how a journalistic bent of a newspaper can color a particular view. The headline "Free rides on public transit to be offered this summer" refers to something the District of Columbia is considering. The free rides can help sway voters to a particular party or candidate. Who doesn't like free stuff? However, Truth in Lending practices demand a more realistic headline replacing "free rides" with "taxpayer funded rides." Perhaps if we use the correct phraseology this country wouldn't be $31 trillion in debt.

Larry Boggio, North Fort Myers

Biden record of accomplishment

On Dec. 11 one Republican wrote that President Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell were all stupid idiots, and had ruined America. I think most knowledgeable and sane Americans know it was the Trump administration that left a broken economy to Biden. Trump lost some 10 million jobs in his last year in office, which is an all-time record. Biden, Yellen, and Powell are capable and honest public servants. Compare them to Donald Trump, who never tells the truth, except when he tells the public of the many crimes he committed; that’s what you call complete stupidity.

The Biden administration has passed more significant legislation in just two years than all the Republican administrations since Reagan. Republicans only know how to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

1. The American Rescue Plan of 2021 (1.9 trillion) for Veterans / Small-Businesses / Education / COVID-19 funding housing, health care and cybersecurity -- with NO Republican votes. 2. The Infrastructure Bill (1.2 trillion) Money for new roads, bridges, broadband, water, energy systems, public transit, rail and bus fleets, with some support from Republicans. 3. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — Billions for energy and climate change — reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Medicare patients will pay no more than $2,000 out-of-pocket expenses per year. Insulin patients will pay only $35 per month. There are also tax credits for solar and wind electric generation. NO support from Republicans. 4. The Chips & Science Act -- Boosting domestic manufacturing of semiconductors in America. 5. Veterans Burn Pit Exposure Act -- Improving veterans' care from contaminant exposures.

This is a record that very few presidents can claim, certainly not the Trump administration.

E. L. “Bud” Ruff, Naples

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Saturday, December 17, 2022