Letters to the editor for Saturday, November 4, 2023
∙ Editor's note: Got a message you'd like to share in our Thanksgiving edition Nov. 22? The deadline is early so send it by Nov. 16. Letters to the editor should be 250 words or less. Include your name and city or community of residence. Guest opinions should be 600 words or less and include a brief summary of the author’s credentials relevant to the topic. Guest opinions may include a head shot of the author. For the Fort Myers News-Press, email submissions to mailbag@news-press.com and for the Naples Daily News to letters@naplesnews.com
Cape needs green space
The U.S. Census estimates that Cape Coral's population was 216,992 in July 2022. And the city keeps growing, meaning more housing, more schools, more traffic, and more development on empty lots. Add tourists and part-time residents, and our city is turning into a little metropolis. And with city living comes more stress.
Which makes our public green spaces even more necessary as places people can unwind, have a quiet picnic, play frisbee with their dog, or just sit and listen to the sound of waves and the wind in the trees. The Japanese use a therapy called "shinrin-yoku" (forest bathing) as a physiological and psychological antidote to modern life. Since the 1980s, the Japanese have measured how connecting with nature with a quiet walk or just sitting amidst natural flora and fauna improves sleep quality and reduces stress.
You don't need to go to a national park to reap the benefits. Any quiet, verdant, natural space, like Jaycee Park or Rotary Park or the Four Freedoms Park, can supply the serenity where people can consciously disconnect from the modern mechanical pace of life.
Unfortunately, the City Council supports the intrusion of housing, food trucks, shops, parking lots, new roads, music venues, and other private business ventures in our waterfront parks. It seems to me that the City Council is hostile to public green spaces that can't be monetized. Do we really need food trucks at Jaycee Park if there's going to be a food truck court at nearby Bernice Braden Park? Do we really need more shops and restaurants at Bimini Basin when the Cove and 47th will add shops and restaurants only a few blocks away? Do we really want to add a road at Rotary Park to allow a developer to destroy the mangroves? Where will people go to relax when all the parks become mini-Disneylands?
I think the council should think more about the health needs of the people over the profit needs of developers. Most cities fight to keep their community parks and try to expand greenways because they make city life more attractive. Cape Coral will certainly regret the loss of public waterfront parks as its population grows.
Elizabeth Rosenberg, Cape Coral
Sweet Halloween moment
The sweetest moment I have ever witnessed. Halloween in my neighborhood is bananas!I ran out of candy after the first hour.A 5-year-old named Benjamin was the next to grab into my empty bowl, when I told him how sorry I was that I had just run out. He reached into his bag and gave me a handful of what he had collected.I will remember that forever.Still good people raising great kids!Happy Halloween everyone!
LIsa Blazekovich, Marco Island
AR-15 giveaway appalling
I was appalled to see on WINK News Tuesday evening, Oct. 31, a news item regarding g a local roofing company giving away turkeys and AR-15 rifles to new roofing customers. First of all, shame on WINK News for giving free advertising to this company with a news story. Secondly, to this roofing company, what the hell were you thinking in light of the recent shootings in Maine, and the shootings before that, and the shootings before that ad infinitum? To say this promotion is in poor taste doesn’t even begin to describe the offensive nature of your company as well as the customers who might engage your services based on this giveaway.
Jon Pipkin, Naples
Gun control plan
Gun control, if seriously started now, will take decades to provide effective relief. Here's where we need to start.
1. Implement a national amnesty wherein any gun turned in will get a $250 incentive. Yes, a lot of folks with surplus arms will benefit but it could encourage family members who have worries about their household to take guns from relatives and turn them in. Keep this up in a multi-generational way. As gun owners age and die, their survivors can turn in their guns. This will prove less expensive than trying to root out and psychologically aid the unfit. This could perhaps be implemented with simplistic legislation like the COVID loan/grant programs that were put in place.
2. Stop the sale of semi-automatic weapons, their ammunition and their magazines. In spite of national outrage, this is clearly a path needing following. It can only be implemented at the national level. Perhaps a further amnesty for the turn in of certain kinds of ammunition.
3. Require that all guns be registered, confiscate those that are illegal, and begin to understand where these weapons are hiding. Naturally, the ungodly will continue to hide their guns, but there will be some families who manage to rat them out if the financial incentive is high enough. Possession of an unregistered gun should have an automatic jail sentence. Shooting facilities would be required to have a license presented by all shooters.
4. Require all elected officials to execute a pledge that they will support gun control programs. If they don't agree, don't elect them.
Expect a great deal of pushback from NRA, from politicians who are being greased, from individuals who scream that their rights are being violated. The Second Amendment was written when we were just a few years away from clubs and stones and swords. Maybe it's time to re-do that in concert with modern demands.
Totally unrealistic, many will say, but we have to start somewhere or this carnage will simply continue. To the naysayers, my advice is to present a better program
And how about the Cape Coral roofing company offering an AR-15 as an incentive to buyers? Does it get any crazier?
Charlie Berry, Naples
Traffic light issues
On Summerlin Road at the Bass Road intersection, there is only one traffic light. Pre-Ian there were two or three on the same wire. It's easily blocked from view if there is a truck in any of the three lanes and depending on which lane your car is in.
There was an accident there this morning (Wed/1 Nov.) and I'm sure there have been many more in the last two years.
The same problem applies at Summerlin and Pine Ridge, just north of the above mentioned intersection.
Both intersections need the full complement of traffic lights re-installed. Is this Lee County or an FDOT problem?
Secondly, both flyover bridges at Summerlin/Gladiolus and Summerlin/San Carlos have, I'm guessing, hundreds of lights embedded in the concrete walls on either side of the road. I would estimate at least half of all these lights, likely more, are inoperable and have been that way for years, long before Ian did its damage. There is no reason for all these lights to be burned out and not inspected and maintained. It certainly is becoming an unsafe situation.
Who's minding the store on Summerlin Road?
George Krumenacker, Fort Myers
Hamas is to blame
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 pogrom Israel announced a complete siege of Gaza. In a leap of propaganda fantasy worthy of an Orlando theme park, that has been interpreted to mean that Israel supplied and was cutting off all Gaza’s electricity, water, fuel and food.Gaza is an ancient oasis. It has the same aquifer as Tel Aviv and Ashdod. Hamas just over-pumped it so badly that seawater crept in. Israel only supplies water to flush the system Gazans have damaged, and it reopened the pipes after a few days.Gaza has one of the most advanced solar plants in the world. It has enough diesel fuel on hand to power all its civilian generators for weeks, but Hamas has confiscated it to ventilate their terror tunnels. Hamas, not Israel, cut the lines that supplied free electricity from Israel, (courtesy of Israeli taxpayers), and bombed the border crossing as part of its invasion.Gaza is a net exporter of food. Starvation is almost impossible, unless Hamas also confiscates it.Hamas is directly responsible for any “humanitarian crisis” that exists in Gaza and there are only two ways to end it. Hamas must lay down its arms, which it will never do, or the IDF must completely destroy it and its accomplices. Well intentioned calls for a “pause” or “ceasefire” only strengthen Hamas and prolong the war.
Allen Menkin, Naples
Playing politics in wartime
An overwhelming three-quarters of Americans view what’s going on at the southern border as a “crisis” of “serious concern,” according to a recent Gallup poll. In other words, border security measures can stand on their own, without the added bonus of Ukraine aid.
So why do Congressman Byron Donalds and Speaker Mike Johnson want to “bundle” Ukraine aid to border security, in spite of the fact that they both have publicly protested the process of “bundling” issues?
According to a Nov. 1 Forbes article titled “Border Bill’s Immigration Demands Would Likely Doom Aid To Ukraine,” Speaker Johnson plans to tie Ukraine aid to several controversial immigration measures, to kill the aid to Ukraine in the House.
One of these measures would be to cripple humanitarian programs which helped people flee their war-torn country and enter the U.S. legally. “The bill would also force Afghans and Ukrainians to leave the United States a year after their current parole expires.”
It’s a cynical message to Ukrainians in the U.S., which basically says, “we’ll only help your motherland, if you get out of ours.”
The congressmen also intend to offset Israel aid with precarious cuts to the IRS.
We cannot risk the military success of our American allies by prolonging and delaying critical foreign aid with asinine quid pro quos and “poison pills.”
Byron Donalds has desecrated his congressional seat and disgraced the entire district of Southwest Florida by playing politics during wartime. The same goes for Speaker Mike Johnson.
Alexandra Zakhvatayev, Cape Coral
Show us the money
Is Joe Biden corrupt? Let the evidence prove his family corruption. Simple accounting. Money in and money out. If Joe Biden was paid back twice from his brother Jim for $200,000 and $40,000 then where is the original date and time of the loan agreement? The IRS is clear about loaning money to family members. The IRS mandates that any loan between family members be made with a signed written agreement, a fixed repayment schedule, and a minimum interest rate. The IRS publishes Applicable Federal Rates. This is a simple answer that Joe Biden continues to use. Show me the money? Show us the money Joe! While state and federal continue to take down Trump Joe Biden laughs and says show me the money!
Arthur Maranian, Naples
Senior dental care
This, the most powerful and richest country in the world, cannot even provide dental care to our retired seniors. Medicare has but a scant discount which amounts to nothing really and dental insurance costs a fortune and doesn’t cover much anyway. Many of the retirees may have had some help from employers when they worked but, post employment, when their aging teeth begin to decay or fall into disrepair, they have to choose between eating broth and smoothies or going into tremendous debt at a time when they can least afford it. In their golden years, when quality of life means so very much as their time is so short, it is unattainable to so many due to the shortcoming of the most compassionate country on earth -- supposedly.
As Bernie Sanders said, we Americans can and must do better.
Glenn Chenot, Cape Coral
Man and climate change
Two items appeared this week in the paper. The first one was a Bill Gates article and the second was an ABC News article. Both were about climate change, and both caused me to ask several questions. The first is a change in Bill Gates' message about saving the Earth. Now it has been printed many times how Bill Gates claimed if climate change is not arrested right now, the Earth would not survive. However, he has changed either his mind or his message, I think it may be both. He has changed his tune and now states that no matter what happens with our warm world, the Earth will survive. The new message takes the sting out of the "End of the World" proclamation.
ABC News article claiming a 1.5 Celsius warming will cause irreversible damage to the planet, but also stated there is no way to actually predict what the effects will be. It went on to discuss two phenomena, the first is warm oceans will intensify hurricanes and will make living near the ocean a dangerous endeavor. The warming oceans need to be cooled by reducing CO2, it's our only chance. The second is the melting of the ice caps due to climate change. These phenomena will create flooding by raising the level of the oceans. Wouldn't the melting ice and the warm waters create rain which would reduce our severe drought? Wouldn't the evaporating water reduce the rise of sea levels? Seems without additional data, are we to accept these prognostications without challenging the results? My mom was a very practical person. She used common sense to overcome problems where the solution was right in front of her.
If my hot cocoa was too hot, she would drop an ice cube into the hot liquid, and it cooled rapidly and was drinkable in a minute or two. So, could my mom's solution be nature's solution? If the world is warming and the ice caps are melting, could this be nature's way of cooling the planet naturally? Adding cold water to a warm ocean seems to be a natural cure for what ails the Earth. Now the immediate pushback would be, no, that won't work. Why, because man believes he is powerful enough to save the Earth through efforts that have no chance of meeting the climate change goals. Man is the problem, not the Earth. Every time man tries to solve a problem caused by nature, man believes he is all powerful, all knowing and omnificent. And we only need one example living here in Southwest Florida, developers and barrier islands / protected mangroves. We, through the greed of our elected officials, continue to allow the destruction of mangroves, yes, those mangroves that are nature's way to mitigate hurricane and flooding damage. Our hubris allows us to destroy Earth's natural protection, build structures on these protected lands and then cry for help when the next Hurricane Ian visits us. And it will happen. Bill Gates will be OK, but you won't.
Jack Holt, Cape Coral
Embrace kindness
As I got up to leave the Lake Park Diner the other evening, three women sitting behind me wanted to know what I had been reading. Conversation ensued, then one asked my age, when I replied, another asked, What advice would I give them, looking back on my life.
Spontaneously, I replied, Know yourself. Really. Know yourself. Later I wished that I had added, and cherish the people who help you do that.
Reflecting on the kindness of those women, against the backdrop of recent news, here and abroad, I thought, at least, we can still be kind to those we meet in public places, whether it’s a smile, nod, or small act that says, I see you as a person.
Let us all embrace kindness to others, for in the words of philosopher Martin Buber: The world is not comprehensible but embraceable through another human being.
Maureen Trerice, Naples
Right to work
From time to time federal laws affecting persons with disabilities are passed by the U.S. Congress. In 1990 Congress "tailored" the definition of disability to be "a person who has a medically approved impairment that substantially limits the person to do substantial gainful activities (work)." If the individual is permanently or totally disabled that person cannot work and receive disability payments.
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress power "to regulate commerce (goods and services) with foreign nations, among states, and with the Indian tribes" (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) and power to "tax" the goods and services within the states (Amendment 16).
The Constitution does not give the Congress power to regulate how much or how little a person makes from legitimate employment inside a state. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people" (Amendment 10).
The "right to work" and earn a decent living has been culturally accepted and universally encouraged since the Protestant Reformation (1517) whether a person is disabled or not.
Robert Green, Fort Myers
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Saturday, November 4, 2023
