Letters to the editor for Saturday, December 24, 2022

Is there no room at the inn?

As we celebrate Christmas and retell the story of the Holy Family searching for lodging, we empathize with the sadness of being turned away. Have we lost that empathy when it comes to our borders? The Native Americans understood that we only borrow the land, it is not ours. However the concept has been forever lost. How many states are dying for lack of population? How many hotels are without service help? How much land in this great nation lies fallow? This country would have never achieved greatness without immigrants. Is there still no room at the inn?

Barbara Rohrer, Naples

Volunteers benefit from helping others

AARP reports that people's lives are truly improved by volunteering. Almost 100 percent of AARP volunteers said it helped their mental and physical fitness.

Collier Resource Center (CRC) knows that we could not support the number of clients we help without the tireless dedication of our volunteer force. These extraordinary men and women give generously of their time and are passionate about helping everyone who contacts us.

CRC connects people to resources that improve their quality of life. It could be a wheelchair ramp, an A/C unit, a ride to work, and much more. In 2022, CRC exceeded its goal of assisting 1,000 people, impossible without our volunteers. According to one longtime volunteer, “Volunteering at CRC gives me the opportunity to use my mind and heart while helping others. It benefits the volunteer as well as the person in need.”

Another CRC volunteer said, “Knowing I have a skill that could be shared and used to help someone else has evolved into a wonderful opportunity for personal growth. I may think that I am ‘giving’ of myself, when I receive much more than I give.”

We are grateful for the support we receive from our volunteers and donors, which enables us to be the ultimate connectors and case managers. Please consider joining us by giving your time and resources this coming year in service to our community.

Kari Lefort, Collier Resource Center CEO

Meaning of Christmas

May we pause and realize the true meaning of our celebrating Christmas!

We celebrate Christmas for the birth of the Son of God -- Jesus the Christ -- who was born over 2,000 years ago. He was born to die -- on a cross -- to pay the penalty for all mankind's sins. All who believe in and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord are promised eternal life -- Heaven -- when we leave this life on earth.

Oh, accept the gift of Jesus this Christmas! Don't believe this? Why not? What do you believe? Read the Gospels (Gospel means "good news"). Good news indeed! Read the numerous Old Testament accounts of prophecies regarding the birth of Jesus -- Immanuel -- God with us.

If a gift is not accepted, it is no longer a gift. The greatest gift ever presented to you is Savior Jesus. May you have a truly Merry Christmas having received this greatest gift ever -- the promise of eternal life -- which is only accomplished by believing in Savior Jesus.

Roger D. Hatfield, East Naples

Term limits needed

If ever elected officials' term limits need to be changed it is now. The $1.7 trillion bill contains some very necessary expenditures but many that are not and some even laughable. Congress wants to spend millions of dollars on a Michelle Obama hiking trail. In my opinion burning the money would be better as it would afford some warmth for the homeless on a freezing cold day.

They also want to appropriate billions of dollars for border security for other countries and not for our own problematic southern border.

This bill is over 4,100 pages long. The greatest speed reader in the world could not read and comprehend these documents, yet they think that our representatives and senators are capable of doing so within the two-day timeframe. That is beyond incomprehensible. The federal government has in the past approved stop gap spending come the end of year recess. They should have done the same at the end of 2022 and waited for the new Congress to read and then vote.

We the people elect these politicians and now more than ever need to demand term limits. Limits exist in every other profession. You fail you are fired and so should many of drones that are “working for us” in Washington.

Michael Zubrow, Naples

18 GOP senators violate principles

The Republicans voting for that $1.7 trillion, 1,400-page Omnibus bill is a betrayal of the 118th Congress and the precedent that all five times the majority changed, in each of those last five times, the new Congress was honored to craft a budget.

Republicans are supposed to be political party of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. The 18 Republican senators did violate those principles by supporting an Omnibus Spending Bill now while the Democrats are charge of both the Senate and House. Pass a (CR) Continuing Resolution and readdress federal spending in the next Congress when the Republicans will be charge of the House.

The omnibus bill includes $773 billion in non-defense domestic spending with $5 billion worth of earmarks and $45 billion for Ukraine’s border defense. It excludes funding for our Border Patrol, wall, border defense for our southern border.

Republican voters are tired of politicians who do not put America first. If politicians are concerned with humanitarian crises and protecting borders spending billions of taxpayer dollars, they should start with everyone living in the U.S.

Republicans will win when they get back to being the party of fiscal responsibility. Until then they will keep losing to Democrats and Republican voters not supporting them, because there's no clear difference between the two.

Lou Walker, Cape Coral

Florida's political stuntman

Ron DeSantis -- Nero fiddles while Rome burns.

Ron focused on political stunts to conquer the Trump base and attract independents. In the process of doing that for the past four years, Ron has ignored the big picture -- the welfare of Florida.

The three largest industries in Florida are (1) Tourism (Worldwide Florida is a major travel destination because of its beaches and weather, (2) Agriculture (citrus, vegetables and fruit employ well over 2 million people) and (3) Life Sciences (Florida is a hub for life science research, development and education). Countering these assets are the liabilities of hurricanes, sea rise, disease and the elderly and red tide as they affect people, beaches, homes and resorts.

And how has Ron spent the past four years? He has taken over as the Florida stuntman. Stunt is defined as hindering the normal growth, development, or progress of some thing of substance while one attempts to gain attention and publicity. Ron, the stuntman, fiddles while Florida goes under. Here is where the stuntman has placed his priorities:

-patching Florida’s hurricane damage with ineffectual legislation;-failing to protect from red tide by protecting farmers and industry;-transporting immigrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard;-suspending a prosecutor who was following Florida law;

-ordering the mandating of COVID masks as unlawful;-ordering the mandating of vaccines as unlawful;-regulating folks with “don’t say gay” and attacking Disney;-outlawing racial history which rightly criticizes white racism;-making peaceful demonstrations unlawful;-grandstanding by arresting 20 voters;-going to Pennsylvania to support an antisemite candidate;-attacking COVID vaccines by convening a grand jury when vaccines have prevented over 3 million deaths.

Ron DeSantis is dangerous. Not only is he a deconstructionist like Trump, he is a white male supremacist with a distrust for science as he denies climate change, pandemics and the vaccines which control pandemics.

Joe Haack, Naples

Pelosi's actions disgusting

I just watched Zelensky's speech to Congress. I have to admit that the actions of Nancy Pelosi really turned me off. First, she introduced him as "His Excellency." Multiple times during his speech she led Congress to stand up and applaud. More than once she blew kisses to him.

Contrast that with how she treated a president of the United States, our own country. She refused to applaud or stand up and then made a big production of tearing up the president's speech. No matter what she may have thought of our president, her actions towards him versus her actions to a foreign official were disgusting and an insult to the people here in the USA. We have now provided somewhere north of $100 billion to Ukraine. We should be demanding answers to where that money is going instead of sending more money and blowing kisses as we do so.

Here is a typical example of the "news" from CNN, which just shows why they are struggling:During Monday's final Jan. 6 committee hearing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren claimed an unnamed witness had been advised by someone close to Trump to make statements in an attempt to deceive the committee. And in the executive summary of the Jan. 6 hearings, the committee wrote that an unnamed lawyer had advised their client to "tell the committee that she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them."Note that Lofgren "claimed" an "unnamed" witness advised by someone "close" to Trump. The committee goes on to say "unnamed" lawyer advised "client." How can anyone say this is news and a serious investigation? If you tried this language in court, the judge would throw you out and the opposition would just laugh.

So Bankman-Fried has been released from jail after posting $250 million bail, the largest bail in U.S. history. This is the guy who has bilked people out of billions of dollars yet is released after posting bail. You would have to wonder how he came up with $250 million. Well, he didn't. Really he came up with no actual cash. He pledged his parents' home and "promised" to return to court. In effect, he was simply released on home confinement. The so called $250 million bail was a joke just to cover their tracks and make it appear substantial. Compare that to idiots who broke into the Capitol who were not allowed bail at all. It seems that if you are against the establishment, you will rot in jail, but if you get $40 million that you have stolen from U.S. citizens and give that money to the Democrats, you will be taken care of by the Left. Is this what we now call justice?

Ron Wobbeking, Naples

Don't overlook North Fort Myers

After reviewing the article on hurricane pick-ups in today’s paper, I found that once again you had omitted mention of the North Fort Myers area.This area seems to be overlooked unless violence is being reported. It is a large, diverse area and deserves the same attention paid to the rest of the unincorporated county.Please educate yourself and your reporters about the importance to be inclusive. It might get you more readers!Bonnie Dewar, North Fort Myers

Why God is relevant in schools

I accept the challenge of Dr. Pettinger: What is the definition of God? What function would God have in our schools? In replying, out of respect for our Founding Fathers, I have used the capital G.Simplistically, God in general represents a singular or plural power that recognizes good and abhors evil. Another term is Creator because everything could not come from nothing and therefore a “Creator” must exist.

Our Founding Fathers used the terms in the Declaration of Independence which is or should be taught in our schools.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them … Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should … impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

If “Man” is the source of these rights then “Man” can deny them.Hopefully the function of God in our schools would be the same function it had for our Founding Fathers in pursuing our independence and creating a government built on these principles. Teaching the absence of God, is in itself, a religion and therefor a violation of the First Amendment.In closing I want the readers to note that the dollar bills in your pocket all state “In God We Trust” on the back.Col. (Ret.) Ted Raia, M.D, USA, Naples

Silence of Republican leaders shameful

Donald Trump issued a threat for U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. Shame on you Florida Republican leaders Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Gov. DeSantis for your silence. By your silence you are complicit in Trump’s statement that McConnell “has a death wish” and referred to his wife, Taiwan-born Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s Transportation secretary, as his China-loving wife, with an ugly racist slur.Yes Marco, Rick and Ron, you are complicit by your silence in the threat to McConnell and also for supporting Trump’s triple attacks on our democracy (Jan. 6 riot, potential reversal of voting results and his promotion of substitute voters for the 2020 election). Have you no spine, no ethics, no morality, no respect for your oath to protect our Constitution? How about you the voter who support the potential dictator Donald Trump? Think carefully about your wish for a fascist dictator because you might just get your wish fulfilled.

William Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs

Rebuttal to the Democrats

I gotta jump in here. A letter writer provided a rebuttal to a letter previously written. The letter was based on the following criteria: cruelty, nihilism, violence, and lies. She responded with more of her fact-based emotions and it is hard to dismiss her deep rooted hate for the Republicans and the former president. Everyone is allowed an opinion but not emotion-based facts that fall flat when measured as an absolute. She leaves no room for conversation and instead cuts off conversation based on her emotional response.

So, in the fairness of a rebuttal, lets get right to it.Cruelty -- does she not remember that Obama and Biden built the cages for migrants? And in those cages were men, women and children and the crimes committed in those "cages" include rape, drug abuse and human trafficking. And cruelty is paying $4 for gas and making heating oils so expensive her Northeast constituency must chose between staying warm, feeding the family or going hungry.Nihilism: the definition is a rejection of all religions. Does the Democrats' demonization of religion not fit into this definition? Either reclassify your argument or restate your intentions. And by the way, Dems cannot have religion because their religion is climate change.

Violence: This is a good one. Do you happen to know what happened in Democratic cities in 2020? And beyond? Can you say Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, and many, many more. You say five people died during the Jan. 6 riots but you will not admit to hundreds who died in the riots of the 2020's. And violence still reigns in our largest cities including New York, Philly, and LA. under Democratic rule.Lies! Let's see -- Obama stated you can keep your doctors. Joe Biden says so many goofy and inaccurate statements that his White House staff has to walk back, almost weekly, his blunders. Nuclear Armageddon? Transition to clean energy when it is clearly not ready for prime time. And if we stay on subject, let's throw in Schiff, Pelosi, Schumer, AOC, the Squad and Bennie Thompson. And of course let's not forget the infamous Harry Reid who used the sanctity of the Senate floor to smear many opponents like Mitt Romney.Jack Holt, Cape Coral

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Saturday, December 24, 2022