Letters to the editor for Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Governor's stunning hypocrisy

I read last week about Gov. DeSantis’ boast that “We reject the biomedical security state that curtails liberty, ruins livelihoods and divides society. And we will protect the rights of individuals to live their lives free from the yoke of restrictions and mandates.”

How then to reconcile his statement as soon as a proposed 15-week abortion ban bill was released last week, that the ban “makes sense”?

Inserting the Florida Legislature into a doctor’s office is the epitome of a “biomedical security state” and a “yoke” on the bodies of Florida’s women and their ability to make intensely personal decisions based on their private circumstances.

The hypocrisy is simply stunning.

Karen Schmitt, Naples

Story selection showed bias

The election upset in Virginia that sent Glenn Youngkin to the governor’s office back in November was extraordinary. He was the first Republican to win statewide office in Virginia in over a decade. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, is the first black woman in Virginia’s 400-year history. Truly historic.

Jan. 15 they were sworn into office. Many media outlets covered the event, but not The News-Press. Unbelievably, in today’s paper you had a story about the former governor, Democrat Ralph Northam. The story was a puff piece to gloss over his racist past. Your editorial page constantly berates Republicans, and I am resigned to your pro-Democrat opinion but increasingly it is showing up in the news stories. I appreciate your local news coverage, but state and national news are getting worse. Leave the opinions on the opinion page and balance your news. This is a perfect example of why journalism is failing us.

William McKernan, Cape Coral

FWC action on manatees encouraging

It is encouraging to see how quickly the FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) is responding to the threatening situation with the manatees' shrinking food source. Realizing that they are doing this without being encumbered with the Florida Legislature and Corps of Engineers input, perhaps the FWC could take over the solution to the problem: water coming from Lake O.

Ron Ustruck, Fort Myers

Keep partisan politics out of Naples council

It is rare in our country today to pick up any source for news and not find at least one comment on divisiveness in our country today.

The City of Naples should be shielded from this kind of behavior in that the City of Naples Charter succinctly states that elections will be “nonpartisan in nature.” This clause guarantees that the citizens of the City of Naples and their elected officials will focus on the issues facing the city and not on those who have chosen to compete for that privilege.

There are those that live outside the city of Naples and one that is hoping to be elected this term that is new to the city. These folks are so clueless about the city that they are trying to make inroads where none exist.

We are two who had the good fortune to serve the residents of Naples on Naples City Council. We know Naples and know it well. Partisan politics is not allowed for all of the reasons stated above.

Doug Finlay and Linda Penniman, former Naples City Council members

Freedom to Vote Act a federal takeover

Joe Biden asked this week in his Georgia speech, “Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” as he stumped for The Freedom to Vote Act. If you don’t believe in a federal takeover of elections or that killing the filibuster is a bad idea, then you are apparently against Abraham Lincoln. He further said that in the 2020 elections, Republican actions led to voter suppression. If this were true, why are there no lawsuits over this supposed suppression? It could be it's just not true.

The bill known as The Freedom to Vote Act, if passed, allows the federal government to take over the election process. Currently, the states have the right to determine their own election laws. Some are stricter than others, but it is the states' right to formulate them as the state legislature sees fit. It should stay that way. Even though Biden will undermine it every chance he gets and refer to citizens as bigoted if they don’t agree with his position.

Biden's reckless speech on Tuesday in Atlanta was an attempt to prove to the progressives he is trying to get their priorities approved. It won’t help his party in 2022 as he tries to pass an election takeover through misrepresentation and exaggeration when the real concerns of Americans are COVID, inflation, border security, jobs, China and Russia to name a few.

Nick Blauwiekel, Naples

Opinion page a Democrat playground

Despite this paper actually printing a statement that they wanted to have the letters column avoid partisan politics and focus on local issues, it continues to be a playground for Democratic operatives. These same people (I will not name names!) get basically the same letters published and republished throughout the week. DeSantis-bashing letters of little substance. Trump-bashing letters of little substance. If Florida is so bad, why are people flocking here to live? We have had access to testing, we have had access to monoclonal antibody therapy, and we have unlimited access to vaccination. Our numbers are better than average for the U.S. as a whole without the illegal mandates of the Biden administration. My old home in Montgomery County, Maryland, a Democratic autocracy, has worse numbers than Collier County despite mandates galore and people who wear double masks while alone in their cars! I'm more terrified of our large numbers of crazy drivers who run red lights regularly than I am of COVID. Let's talk some more about that situation!

John A. Galotto, M.D., Naples

Somebody tell the governor

WOW! Earth-shattering development! Reported on NBC: "Florida scientists discover employment of masks reduce the spread of COVID"! Has to be worth the Nobel Prize. Wonder if Florida's surgeon general and Gov. DeathSantis have been notified?

Henry S. Kolesinski, Naples

WINK's outstanding tornado coverage

Kudos to WINK's "Gunsmoke" team of Matt and Dylan for their outstanding coverage of the tornado outbreak. Their real-time on-air analysis of developing twisters and their likely paths were not only accurately predictive, but outpaced the Weather Service, itself.

J.C. Bruce, Naples

False equivalence about protests

Fred Fiske wrote in his Your Turn column on Jan. 6, Vietnam and Black Lives Matter protests “how much sympathy I felt for the mob.” He diminished and dismissed the horrors of the Jan. 6 event by elevating the protesters to being equivalent to protesters against the Vietnam War and Black Lives Matter. Protesters against the war were enraged by the facts that we were involved in an illegitimate war, based on numerous reasons, that was wounding and killing our young men and women and protesters for BLM are adamantly against the factual disproportionate profiling, arrests, and illegal killing of Black men and women by law officers. Contrary to what Fiske writes, the Jan. 6 mob were acting upon a pack of lies that were perpetrated by Trump and allies for the expressed reason to overthrow our constitutionally fair election of Joe Biden. These seditious acts cannot sanely be compared to the righteous protests against the war and BLM.

Gerald Soslau, Naples

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Tuesday, January 18, 2022