Letters to the editor for Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Roadside litter increases

When my wife and I moved to Naples over ten years ago, one of the things we noticed was that there was virtually no roadside litter. Earlier this week we drove to Fort Myers and all we saw was litter. It was everywhere -- from local roads to 75.What happened? I know there used to be crews from local prisons working to clean it all up and they did an excellent job. Are they not used anymore? What is becoming of our beautiful environment?

Chuck Bainbridge, Naples

Lee Civic Center valued

I would urge the county commissioners to simply push the pause button on the matters of shutting down the Lee Civic Center and Fairgrounds. Claims are being made of "Life Safety Hazard."

However, upon reviewing the report from Weston & Sampson, it clearly reflects that 2% of the total Deficiency Types are Life Safety. In fact, page 4 and 5 of this report "Priority 1 - Life Safety" for the Lee Civic Center reflects that the renovation to correct this "Life Safety" is only $144,000. That's a drop in the bucket for a repair. The repair to the Fair Office is $240. Why would the leaders that we elect, close down property that is one of the few multi-use facilities in the area, and especially in the north side of our county, and is home to not only our agriculture community and exhibitors, but also to small businesses trying to make a start at the various shows housed at this venue. County leaders should read this evaluation for themselves instead of relying on recommendations of staff and the staff liaison. Who's calling the shots here and why the big hurry? What's waiting in the wings?

Fran Crone, Fort Myers

What has Disney done?

It seems Disney has outmaneuvered, at least for now, our thin-skinned, revenge-seeking, knee-jerk governor. My question from the beginning of this absurd saga, governor, is just what is it that Disney has done to warrant the costly taxpayer funded litigation against them that you continue to pursue? This is especially pertinent when one considers that you have attempted to deny the same opportunity to every other group in the state that wanted to sue an entity that provides political support to you. Secondly, where is the quantitative evidence that supports those accusations against Disney? Every one-sided press conference you have held to explain this has shown no “evidence” but can be summed up as “I will show them who is boss.” I, as a Florida taxpayer, have paid for migrants in the U.S. legally to fly from Texas to Massachusetts, lawsuits to defend you against attempts to intimidate educators into teaching your whitewashed version of history and to deny the existence of an entire community of people, just to name two of your quixotic, culture war, taxpayer-funded crusades. I want facts and quantitative data, governor, presented to the public with opportunities for debate, before any more of my, as my Republicans friends like to say, “hard earned money” is spent on what appears to be you establishing your MAGA bona fides, which to me is looking more and more like an anti-Constitution gang initiation.

Thomas Minor, Bonita Springs

Disturbance from corner store

The convenience store on Hart Road offers a quick stop for people grabbing a pack of cigarettes or a six-pack of pop or beer or a gallon of milk. Unfortunately some of the patrons stopping at that store give little or no thought to the families living nearby.

From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. or later, seven days a week, delivery trucks slamming doors and banging carts of products, cars and trucks pulling in, honking horns, shouting to others, radios blaring from vehicles with doors and windows left open. The disturbance to the neighborhood is constant when the store is open. Then there’s the liter thrown in the parking lot or along the road left for others to clean up. This is not a police matter but instead a plea to the store owners.

N. Cooper, North Fort Myers

What can go wrong?

Now you can buy a gun. No training. No permit. No problem. What can possibly go wrong?

Joseph Piet, Marco Island

Gov shows us who he is

I was truly amazed when Ron DeSantis jumped right up and announced he would not uphold the Extradition Clause of the Constitution when Trump was indicted. No one had asked him anything, but his gut reaction was to do something illegal. I am not sure that Floridians need to know anything else about DeSantis to form an opinion of what he actually is.

Patricia Napier, Fort Myers

Gun permit effectiveness

I read in today’s paper that the progressive stance is that the elimination of a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Florida will dramatically increase the number of shooting deaths. Do you really think that a bad actor cares if they have a gun permit prior to shooting someone? Do you think that they care that there is a law against murder? Liberal gun controls and gun laws will be as effective as the 70 mph speed limit is on I-75.Don Rader, Naples

Students will read banned books

Well, our governor has done it again. With his new agenda, he is getting more students to start reading books again. Publishing a list of banned books was the right thing to do. Our students are now visiting libraries again and on Amazon purchasing banned books. Reading them, students are looking for the “good stuff” and then maybe underling or noting the page numbers for their friends.

We were worried for awhile that students may have given up book reading. However, the gov has changed all this with his published list of banned books.

Michael K. Lenihan, Bonita Springs

We're all on the same team

Hey, my dear fellow Americans who are seething with anger for what you believe is a blatant partisan attack by Democrats against Donald Trump.

Please take a deep breath and calm your anger for a second as I share with you a humble fact:

If Barack Obama had committed just a few of the errors in judgment that Donald Trump committed while in office, the vast majority of Democrats would have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Republicans to impeach, convict and remove him from office after just one impeachment trial.

Let’s remember. We are all on the same team here of Americans who love our democracy and its commitment that no person is above the law, even those we love.

J. Cant, Naples

Open, inclusive education

I am distressed about what DeSantis is doing to Florida schools and worried about book banning in classrooms and libraries. I am concerned about what’s happening with the Lee County School System. Only an open, inclusive education in Lee County with help our kids be ready to enter the world at large with success.

Karyn Edison, Fort Myers

A bad precedent?

The concerns expressed from certain quarters, primarily but not exclusively Republican acolytes of former President Trump, that prosecuting him in the “hush money” case in New York City or the three pending criminal investigations elsewhere creates a bad precedent for future presidents and other rival political figures has some validity.

But not very much, and whatever prudence exists for refraining from the proceedings is vastly counterbalanced by a pair of other precedents stemming from not investigating or pursuing charges that may be warranted against the prior president for those offenses.

One is that it would be a basis for eschewing prosecution for criminal behavior by other high-placed or prominent individuals, who could point to the Trump template for diluting or disregarding inquires into their misbehavior.

The second and, perhaps, even more nefarious repercussion is the ex-president's threats of “death and destruction” and other bellicosity directed to the New York prosecution, along with not-so-veiled racist and personalized assaults on the prosecutors there. That type of attempted intimidation could be a model for powerful personages in the future to use similar antics to fend off criminal accountability.

Incidentally, the veneration of precedent from the GOP Trump Support Group clashes with the plaudits from those of that ilk for the disregard of that principle by the Supreme Court in some of its recent rulings, including the decision last June in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health cavalierly overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent of a constitutional right to abortion. They didn’t care much for precedent in that matter, but now cling to it as a basis to place the ex-president above the law.

The poor precedents stemming from refraining from prosecution would seem to outweigh the consequences of proceeding to apply the rule of law to the former president.

Marshall H. Tanick, Naples

Get your priorities straight

In response to the article printed about the banning the Disney movie (the historical event) about Ruby Bridges.

I taught the book. I showed the movie. It encouraged great thoughts. Great conversations. The students were so thoughtful with their comments. I admit it was 5th and 6th grade, not 2nd grade. This article brought two thoughts. First why does one parent rule school curriculum? Why is there not more outrage about that?

Secondly, back in my teaching days, maybe 2nd grade was a bit young. But back then we did not have our primary students quake in their shoes worrying that their school will be involved in the next school shooting. Younger children are much more aware of their world. They have no choice, the news is everywhere, always.

Really parents. You are more concerned about your kids seeing the true story of how a first grader was treated, but you won’t support background checks for gun ownership. Won’t ban weapons of war.

Maybe by teaching acceptance. Showing adults acting badly towards an innocent child. Discussing love over hate. Peace over violence. Maybe we can change our world with this generation.

Please get your priorities straight.

Please read this book. Show the movie. Talk and discuss it with your kids.

We need the youth to grow up with a different way to deal with differences. Let us adults guide them.

Jeri Heap, Fort Myers

Chicken Little telling the truth

While the Biden administration is pushing forward with an elevated time table to change the world via renewable energy, the world away from the NYT and WAPO is experiencing an underwater tidal wave that will bring a new world order to the global economy not experienced in our lifetime. Xi and the Saudi's have agreed to trade oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar or "petro dollars." Petro dollars is the term used when trading partners buy fossil fuels and all transactions are in U.S. dollars. This single move threatens the global dominance of the U.S. and its partners.

Dollars need to be purchased from the U.S. Treasury in the form of T-bills and other financial instruments. So, in a very discreet way, the U.S. made the dollar the "world currency" and most global transactions were traded in U.S. dollars. Now the BRIC countries including South Africa have determined a new currency to trade oil is appropriate. The weakening of the U.S. economy, the debt load and the unrest inside of America has led the next wave of world dominance tilted toward China and Russia. Once the world adopts a new trading currency, the U.S. will be left with debt no one willing to purchase and will lead to extreme interest rates. No borrowing, high debt, and economic insecurity will lead to a very profound shift in world power and leadership.

The bottom line is the very natural resource that has powered our growth from an agricultural economy to an economy powered by abundant and cheap energy. The cheap energy powered our manufacturing, energized our intellectual prowess, ushered in mobility and freedom and allowed for export to help our neighbors and friends across the pond. This very cheap energy is part of your life whether you know it or not. Your medicines, your food, and your beauty products are made with cheap energy. And we have hundreds of years of cheap energy right here on our shores.

So, with a tsunami coming, what does our fearless leader do, move away from the very source of American power, fossil fuels. With the help of the U.N. and its socialist backbone, the U.S. will become the equivalent of the British Empire in the early 1900's, reduced to a second tier world power. We will become a second tier country, broke and soulless.

Watch the business papers, listen for key words like "alternate" payment methods. It may end up being the Chinese currency, it may be crypto-currency or it may be another currency but they will move away from the U.S. dollar. This time Chicken Little is telling the truth, the end is near.

Jack Holt, Cape Coral

Republican majority in Naples

Media outlets that proclaim to represent Naples and Collier County, and want the revenue from those residents to continue, should constantly be aware of the predominate views and opinions of those clients, rather than constantly reporting opposing opinions from outside, especially those with no evidence of validity.If representing the City of Naples is an honest goal, one must remember that registered Republicans outnumber Democrats roughly 2:1; and this majority is largely provoked by constant doses of the failed “progressive” agenda.Please also be aware that Governor Ron DeSantis has a much better resume than the vast majority of his critics, and he won re-election by one of the largest margins in Florida history with over 1.5 million votes. The reward for voters is one of the best governed states in the union, with thousands from failing states flocking to live here. Naples hopes they never forget why they came.Robert A. Strohaver, Naples

We were the militia

To the gentleman who parsed the Second Amendment ad nauseam using words few of us have ever heard and came to the conclusion that the Framers of our Constitution only empowered the militia to keep and bear arms, I have a succinct reply:

Horsefeathers!

We were farmers and laborers, tradesmen and shopkeepers, and all of us subjects of King George III. WE were the militia, ordinary colonists with our own weapons rising up in revolt against our own government. And the prescient Framers saw to it in the Second Amendment that if ordinary Americans ever need to rise up against tyranny in our own government again, we will always have our own weapons to do so. We ordinary American civilians are the once and future militia.

Gary Marsh, Estero

We’ve had enough!

Active shooting with high-velocity automatic weapons (of war) using large-capacity ammunition packs has left us feeling unsafe in almost all communities -- churches, schools, supermarkets, movie theaters, concert halls, courts, government offices, our homes, and our cars, just to name a few. More school children died from guns in 2021 than in car accidents!

We’ve had enough! The shooters are all different with different motives and gripes. The common denominator is they were able to acquire high-velocity automatic rifles and large-capacity ammunition packs. Due to the high velocity, these weapons cause lethal damage to human beings in a short period of time, much worse than a handgun. These high-velocity automatic rifles were designed and intended for use by soldiers at war, not by citizens at home.

We have had enough mass shootings of children, adults, and senior citizens by shooters wielding high-velocity automatic weapons.

It is time to stop selling high-velocity automatic rifles and large-capacity ammunition packs to ordinary people. Ban these weapons. I will not be voting for anyone who supports high-velocity automatic rifles.

Put safety regulations in place for anyone who already owns these high-velocity automatic rifles.Keep them locked at home; make open carry in streets and public buildings a crime; make any use of these weapons that results in death a felony crime; make a background check mandatory for anyone who purchases or owns these weapons.

We’ve had enough! Return safety to our communities and the people of the United States.

Linda Lindquist, North Fort Myers

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, April 5, 2023