Letters to the editor for Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Pay to play?
Fort Myers has installed amazing new playground equipment in Centennial Park. The playground has many fun and challenging things to do for children of all ages. I walk by there sometimes when walking my dog in the morning and enjoy watching the little ones and the not-so-little ones playing and laughing, having a great time.The free two-hour parking under the bridge, right beside the playground, makes it easy for parents to bring their children to play.
But wait, yesterday there were no children and today only two.Something has changed. There is no longer any free parking under the bridge, not even on the weekends. There are now signs all over the parking area proclaiming that one must pay to park. And the parking edict requires that you download an app in order to pay. So, now if you want to take your child to the playground, you must have a smartphone, you must download and use the app each time, and you must pay $1 per hour.I wonder if this will also impact the Farmers Market which is held under the bridge each Thursday. Many people park there briefly in order to make their purchases at the market.Whose idea was this? Not a good one.
Judy Ripley, Fort Myers
Roadside trash
What is happening to Naples, Collier, and Lee counties? We just drove on I-75 from Miami to Bonita. The amount of trash on the roadside is astonishing. The medians are overgrown and unkempt. What is happening? How do we as communities resolve this? Please folks, think of others and our environment. Your refuse does not belong on our roadways!
Luanne Rogers, Bonita Springs
Survey on patriotism
While observing Memorial Day and what it means to me I kept thinking about an article I saw in the newspaper recently. According to a survey, only 38% of Americans consider themselves patriotic. This scares me. May God bless America.
James Reece, Naples
Smoking in multifamily building
Due to faulty design, smoke travels widely throughout our multifamily building. This is a serious problem for many people. Some states prohibit smoking inside the units of such homes and some allow it only if it is not bothering others. Florida appears to have no such laws.
My husband and I had lived in our unit for over 30 years with no problem. Recently that has changed. Others have tried to stop the smoking but have failed. We would like to hear from Floridians who have successfully solved this difficult situation.
Sylvia Richey, Fort Myers
Parental responsibility
A Few Responses to “How Life in Florida is changing.”
Article question. -- “A student may ask, why does so and so have two mommies? Some teachers feel they can’t even address the question without ramifications.”Correct response -- That is a question to discuss with your parents.Article question. -- But parents who welcome this discussion feel like “What about us? What happened to our right to have our children taught about these things?”Correct answer -- Teach your children about these things. It is your parental responsibility.How do theses responses hurt or favor either side of this area of controversy?
Terry Sternad, Cape Coral
VA treatment discontinued
Is there a day or weekend recognizing veterans sent home damaged? My husband was in the second D-Day wave on the beach when a German shell hit. He was behind a dragon tooth but he believes the rest of his platoon was wiped out. He woke up in Orly airport and from there to hospital in England with a severe concussion. Eventually, he was transferred to a VA hospital in Chicago -- the closest to his South Bend, Indiana hometown. He was treated for psychomotor, petit and grand mal seizures for five years BEFORE the VA informed him it was decided that he had a "latent condition" and was no longer eligible for VA treatment. In spite of documentation from his parents, South Bend doctor, pastor, he was on his own for further treatment. This member of “the greatest generation” died at age 60. It’s hard for me to do a lot of flag waving.
C.A. Farrington, South Fort Myers
Values hijacked?
As I was contemplating the real meaning of Memorial Day, I was a little concerned that your newspaper had listed venues to celebrate the memory of those who died preserving our freedom, our democracy and our republic (if we can keep it, to paraphrase Ben Franklin) for each of the surrounding areas, including Naples, Bonita and Fort Myers. The Naples venue was Seed to Table. The very values that our brave men and women fought and died for were being hijacked by the very man who chartered two buses to attend the Jan. 6 rally turned insurrection, bought three seats on our school board and is holding the contract negotiation for the chosen superintendent hostage with a frivolous lawsuit, all in the name of, help me out here, democracy, freedom or the survival of our fragile republic. We are at the precipice and need to join together to drown out the megaphones of those who wish to undermine the glory that our brave souls earned by fighting and dying for this great experiment.
Charles Freydberg, Naples
Congratulations commissioner
The Naples Daily News reported on May 26 that Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro had seconded an affordable housing initiative in North Naples. LoCastro saw the project as a step in the right direction as he stated: “You’ve got to start somewhere.”
Congratulations Commissioner LoCastro. It great to see you tackling Collier’s affordable housing crisis. Now get Chris Hall to acknowledge that his district needs to bear some affordable housing rather than allocating all of it to your district. After all, it’s not so bad having teachers and nurses and first responders living in your neighborhood. Those occupations comprise a significant portion of the folks needing affordable housing.
Joe Haack, Naples
Traffic calming needed
Washington Avenue and Becca Avenue. Unfortunately both are Bayshore and Tamiami Trail East shortcuts to avoid the traffic congestion. My question is to the city. Why has Washington Avenue been refused traffic signs, speed, bumps, and a simple stop sign after three years of asking? We have 65 residences on these two blocks and over 25 children that on numerous occasions have been almost struck by speeding cars. Yet Becca Avenue with the same dilemma has been given over 15 traffic signs and two speed bumps while they only have 15 homes on the block. The city is prioritizing their lives over ours. Is it possibly because their homes are more valuable on the water? It’s my feeling that all lives are equally precious. How about giving us some attention please thank you. Somebody help.
Christopher Barcia, Naples
Thank you to veterans
We attended the Memorial Day tribute presentation at Veterans’ Park yesterday and want to thank all who were involved in the organization of the event and those who participated in the service. It was very moving and made us once again remember and honor all service members who have lost their lives, as well as those family members and friends who have lost loved ones in the various wars in order to establish and maintain our free society and democracy. A huge thank you to all veterans and those currently serving in all branches of the armed forces helping to maintain these freedoms in the United States. Never forget!
Gwyn Steiner, Marco Island
DeSantis will get it done
The Republican primary is shaping up according to the liking of Trump, we are told. Trump has his base and more candidates will split the remaining votes.
The Trump candidacy is a hot air balloon supported by the liberal media.
Trump was tried as president and was fired by the voters in 2020. He was defeated by the weakest Democratic ticket imaginable, a 50-year hack politician who non-campaigned from his basement and an affirmative action VP. The election was a vote against Trump.
Those voters are still there.
Since the 2020 election Trump has been a disaster. Election denial, January 6th, endorsed candidates going down to defeat, found guilty in a civil trial of assault against a woman, other trials coming. In Ohio the Trump candidate for senator won by 6 points. The Republican governor won by 26 points.
The first coming election of any type where Trump is a candidate will bust his balloon and be the end of his second chance to be president. No one gets a second chance at that job.
The saga of his destructive ego trip will continue because of his actions and because the liberal media needs him.
Ron DeSantis is the dream Republican candidate. All American background, normal personal life with a wife and family, conservative, smart, successful. He gets good things done. He will get the Republican nomination for president. He will get it done.
Bob Stabile, Bonita Springs
What is the goal?
I am disheartened that one person can sweep books off the shelf with a few simple words. One woman found Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb," "hateful and indoctrination." No further explanation. She also labeled the book "The ABC's Of Black History" -- "CRT," again without explanation. I am disheartened that the Education Commissioner Manny Diaz saw this as proof that "the system works." If only one person finds hate, indoctrination and CRT in critically acclaimed works, how is that proof that the system works?
If that is success then what was the goal? On what basis was the decision that poems or books were inappropriate for a certain age level group? What is the process for challenging those decisions? Do people look for "buzz" words when reviewing reading material, taking the author's intent out of context?
Studying the history of the United States isn't just to learn what happened but to learn why it happened. What was the motivation behind the actions and behavior? Is the current conflict between what some want us to see and hear and what is actually going on? We do our children no favors shielding them from the depiction and visibility of others, their struggles, failures, triumphs and successes. Our children should not become a pawn in an adult power struggle.
Patricia Howard, Naples
Tilting at windmills
In the classic novel by Miguel De Cervantes the title character, Don Quixote, mistakes windmills for his enemies and rides full tilt on horseback to joust with them. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is tilting at windmills of his own making, mistaking diversity, inclusiveness, tolerance, free speech and higher education as imaginary “woke” ideology, enemy of the people. His people.
When “Don Quixote DeSantis” gets knocked off his horse by news coverage critical of his attacks, he denies everything. He claims the stories are lies or hoaxes and labels the free press as one more enemy. DeSantis claimed recently that banned books were simply relocated to a more appropriate setting. Yet he doubled down by claiming the books all contained pornographic images. Really? Recent DeSantis legislation allows a single parent with an agenda to complain and have a book, DVD or lesson removed from the classroom. He claims it empowers parents. The rights of the majority, both parents and teachers, are not part of the DeSantis agenda.
DeSantis proudly boasts “Florida is where woke goes to die.” For those not riding with Florida's Don Quixote on his foolish quest to destroy all that is “woke' it has become increasingly clear “Florida is where freedom goes to die.”
Ken Warner, North Fort Myers
No surprise here
The mainstream media is feigning apoplexy in reaction to the reports that much of the $8.2 million raised by Governor DeSantis upon his Twitter-bungled entry into the presidential race a couple of weeks ago came from Florida lobbyists.
Their astonishment is reminiscent of the remark by Claude Rains, portraying the corrupt but benign police chief in the movie classic "Casablanca,” sarcastically expressing that he is “shocked” to be told that there is illegal gambling occurring in his notorious city.
Whom did they expect to be contributing to the DeSantis campaign coffers: Medicaid recipients whose aid he has cut; librarians whose books he has banned; teachers whose curriculums he has distorted; racial and ethnic minorities whose electoral status he has diluted; doctors whose medical practices he has interfered with; pregnant women whose reproductive decisions he has restricted?
The lobbyists offering their largesse are in a win-win situation. If the governor succeeds at the national level, they’ll be able to transfer their influence from Tallahassee to the nation’s capital; if he falters and doesn’t make it to the Oval Office, they have at least a couple more years to reap the benefits and gratuities here of their financial contributions.
So, don’t fret that lobbyists are bankrolling the DeSantis campaign; it’s as natural as gambling in Casablanca.
Marshall H. Tanick, Naples
DeSantis and the rainbow
So yesterday I was on the back porch looking to the south and spied a rainbow off in the distance in all its splendid colors. Now, a rainbow is caused by sunlight scattered from raindrops, into the eyes of an observer, known as a prism effect. Really a quite lovely sight to see, regardless of your orientation in life. A natural phenomenon that happens all around the world where it rains and the sun shines. Note the word natural, it’s important.My question is this: With all that our great and glorious governor/president to be has done to Florida, sorry, should have said all he has done for Florida, to save everyone from the tragedy of the “I Am Gay” crowd, what is he going to do about this rainbow thing. The rainbow is a natural reminder to everyone concerned about this issue that nature takes its own course and really doesn’t give a whit what any one man says.
So, governor/president to be, what are you going to do to eliminate these rainbows that just show up arbitrarily and actually brighten up most people’s lives?I’m a little concerned about Ron's “Make America Florida” campaign. Trump, whoever he was, had MAGA, make America great again, well guess what, America has always been great and unless we screw everything up, WE will continue to be a great country. Make America Florida, well, that’s a big bunch of scary.Going to have to look online and go to the bookstore to get what I want to read before it becomes a banned book too. Can you say “Bad People” who did the same thing, can you say, and believe in, burn the books? Yeah, well not me, and I’m not even gay, I just like seeing a rainbow after a nice rain.
Keith Rifenburg, Fort Myers
It ends at voting booth
How ironic. Just as Speaker McCarthy and his MAGA controllers are threatening our credit rating, we learn that one of their demands is to claw back the $10 billion funding recently given the IRS to rebuild their defunct audit function that enforces tax law.
Why must we continue to borrow to pay the spending already authorized by the very same Congress threatening default? In 2016, Trump campaigned on reduction of the national debt; yet it surged by $7.7 trillion in his four years, the third largest increase in history, as he and Mitch McConnell forged a $1.1 trillion tax reduction for the super rich. How ironic indeed.
According to WSJ, there are now a dozen individuals in the USA worth more than $100,000,000,000; that’s 100 billion. Whether from brilliance, inheritance, luck, or illegal activity, their wealth grows exponentially because most of them pay very little tax, if any. That wealth financed the MAGA campaigns of legislators who gave us judges and justices resulting in Citizens United, huge tax loopholes, and suppression of minority voting rights that could restore some equality for average Americans. Therefore, MAGA wants to un-fund the IRS yet again, perpetuating their hold on power through PACs and political donations of the super wealthy.
Where does this end? Only at the voting booth, for those who can still claim the right and actually cast a ballot in spite of outrageous voter suppression attempts in red states like Florida.
We are all in this together. Focus, focus.
Cliff Welles, Bonita Springs
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, May 31, 2023
