Letters to the editor for Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Keep culture wars out of school meetings

Keep so-called “culture war” issues out of the schools and out of School Board meetings! The sometimes hostile and angry behavior of some board meeting attendees isn’t useful or necessary.

It’s fine that parents have strong opinions on curriculum, books, values and attitudes. Everybody cares about kids. But decisions made about hot-button topics like “CRT,” “woke,” curriculum, and gender issues are not decided at the local school board level. The State Board of Education is where these opinions should be expressed. Decisions come down from Tallahassee. The local schools and board just implement the state mandates, regardless of their popularity.

Kathy Fanny is our candidate for Lee County School Board in District 1. After 38 years of experience in education, including being on an advisory school board, she knows the requirements of the local boards. As a teacher, she knows how to implement the regulations and mandates of federal, state, and local jurisdictions without tension or argument. She believes in keeping these controversies away from the environment where students are to learn. For the best educational results, schools should be safe and welcoming places conducive to educating our kids.

Vote for Kathy Fanny. Our kids deserve her leadership.

Leslee Salyers, Cape Coral

Taxpayers who question are attacked

"Collier Unites 4 Kids" is a liberal political group started Aug. 30, 2022. Logo at the top of their FB page is "Keep Politics out of our School Board." They are united around the incumbent school board members. Attacking taxpayers who are questioning how they are spending our tax dollars and attacking the candidates running for the board.

Calling anyone who questions, a hate fringe group. This is a Democrat tactic. If you don't agree with them you're dangerous. As a taxpayer with 50 percent of my taxes going to schools I have a right to answers, not the threats I got from them.

Proving that board needs cleaning out.

Shari Monetta, Naples

Drawbacks to nuclear power, desalination

Byron Daniels’ op-ed on using nuclear power to desalinate water fails to consider some drawbacks and other options for securing clean, potable water. Nuclear fuel requires uranium that is costly, finite, and polluting both in the mining process and disposal. Desalination plants create brine, a pollutant. Nuclear power plants are safe unless... Regrettable that Congressman Daniels fails to mention attacking pollution at its sources and conservation as the most cost effective ways to ensure clean, potable water. However, it is refreshing to hear from the congressman in the local newspaper on a subject of local interest rather than on Fox News complaining about the woke something or other.

Peter Fagan, Naples

Playground equipment sitting unused

The construction at Centennial Park had an anticipated completion date of January 2022. The playground equipment was installed months ago but remains closed to the public. It has almost been a year since the city broke ground on the improvements and it remains incomplete. I drive by twice a day and have not seen anyone in the playground area for months. How long will the playground have equipment sitting unused by the surrounding community?

Ashley Segal, Fort Myers

Will Ian contaminate water?

Will Naples have clean water after Hurricane Ian, or contaminated for days as after Irma?

Bruce Allen, Naples

Biden destroying what we stand for

News stories today are centered on Trump, the Mar-a-Largo raid and bashing Trump supporters. It’s a clever Democrat strategy to attract independents and to divert attention from Biden’s dismal leadership that’s an affront to Americans. Fueling this strategy is Republican leadership’s inability to focus on Biden’s mess that’s destroying our culture, economic stability and leadership in the world.

Biden has lost control of the southern border where illegal immigrants and drugs are entering at all-time high rates. Overdoses, violent crimes and soft crime policies by Democrats have created dangerous war zones in our communities. Biden’s catering to teacher unions and keeping schools closed during COVID have reduced test scores, further dumbing down America. Inflation is Biden’s hidden tax created by Congress’s reckless spending, it reduces families' purchasing power by $6,000 and causes interest rates, fuel, food and housing to reach new highs. His federal voting reform agenda will lead us into a fascist New World Order.

Our foreign policy influence has diminished. We’ve given the Taliban billions in weapons with our chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that motivated Putin to invade Ukraine and increase China’s influence in the Pacific. Biden is negotiating unfreezing billions in cash which will fund worldwide terrorists’ activities. His climate change agenda is creating power and food supply shortages around the world.

Yet, with all these failures, Biden is blaming those who want to Make America Great Again. He’s a divisive president who with congressional Democrats are destroying what we stand for with scary consequences.

Frank Mazur, Fort Myers

Rubio's message is destructive

In a recent TV add, Marco Rubio claimed that teachers are “turning boys into girls.” Either Mr. Rubio knows that this statement is false and says it anyway, or he has not bothered to educate himself. In either case, he doesn’t deserve to be a senator.

I have a good friend whose daughter was a graceful ballerina as a young girl. But as she got older, she would cry after bathing because her body didn’t look like the gender she felt herself to be.

As a young teen, she attempted suicide. But with the help of supportive parents and a good therapist, she is now a graceful trans teenage boy — responsible, happy, and recently elected president of his high school.

No teacher, parent or adult of any kind made this change happen. She became a boy because that’s how he identifies; that’s his true self.

Do we really want to return to a time when 10 percent of the population hid “in the closet?" So let’s stop this crazy talk about teachers indoctrinating students.

To Marco Rubio: You’re wrong, your message is destructive, and I encourage you to find another line of work -- soon!

Melanie Chadwick, Naples

Divisive politicians should retire

Marco Rubio’s political ads make it clear he believes the United States of America is in danger only because citizens want to make life safer for people of diverse backgrounds and gender. He ignores the fact that America is in danger because we have dangerous men who are determined to rule as dictators. He states that his parents “lost their country;” yes, Cuba was lost because of one man, a dictator, much like the want-to-be-dictator we fortunately voted out of office in the United States.

Rubio casts ALL liberals as demons working on “turning boys into girls.” If this is truly his belief, he is perpetuating yet another lie that is putting children in danger by encouraging bullying and violence.

The United States of America is in danger, and both parties have contributed with lame duck policies. Our financial crisis is painful, but a constitutional crisis will cost more lives if human rights and representation are taken away from people by those in power. We need politicians who can work on both sides of the aisle. It’s time for representatives who are intent on dividing our nation to retire.

Marta Gibbons, Fort Myers

Living with liberal foolishness

I have waited until we have lost over 25 percent of the value of our retirement investment account to write this note. If this had transpired during a Republican administration you would be vilifying the leader of such an effort on a daily basis. Why do you give the current president and his team a pass? Is the fact that you can only get four abortions a year in Florida so important that you would starve before voting for a Republican? Is being a resident of the state and a citizen of the U.S. too much to overcome when it comes to voting in this country? I am not outraged as many of your liberal letter writers appear to be regarding anything conservative, just baffled as to why they would continue to live with this foolishness.

Don Rader, Naples

Beware of Republican plan

While DeSantis is busy pulling stunts to get national media coverage for his 2024 presidential run, I fear that Floridians have not noticed the plans that Republicans are promulgating to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits within the next five years. I urge you to do your homework here. Marco Rubio, among other Republicans, has signed on to this plan.

Republicans call these government obligations "entitlements" suggesting that we are all "entitled" brats that somehow don't deserve these payments which we have earned.

Google the Republican plan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare to see what they want to do to us. If you don't like it, vote them out!

Patricia Napier, Fort Myers

Transported migrants not 'illegal'

The "outrage" of the conservative entity at "the illegal immigration" situation, is a constant source of bewilderment to me. Apparently, they are new to Florida? Or they do not do the small amount of research it takes to understand the southern border issues?

For decades, both GOP and the Democratic parties have "kicked the Immigration can down the alley" (similar to what they did with the USPS for decades). The people who are being transported to other states are not "illegal," i.e. they have come over the border lawfully, been screened and put in a holding pattern until their time to proceed to citizenship comes up. These are not people who came sneaking over the border.

Since there actually is a difference, I believe we should look at the situation with an open mind and heart. None of us condone those that have come to us without registering. The others that did follow the basic rules of border crossing have done the right thing. Now, there is all kinds of chicanery coming along, with mysterious people telling these migrants that they have a wonderful world waiting for them "if they would just get on that bus or plane."

So, let your congressmen and women know of your outrage and maybe someday in the next 20 years they will actually DO something concrete about "the immigration issue!"

Finally, and with tongue in cheek, I wonder what on earth does Hunter Biden have to do with the price of eggs? Talk about a non sequitur! We are all better off if we actually read, research and look at both sides instead of mouthing off at perceived enemies!

Sarah Wilmarth, Fort Myers

Climate extremists dangerous

On Tuesday, Sept. 20, in the Nation and World section of The News-Press, a weatherman (climate scientist) named Rob Jackson was quoted as saying: “we already have enough extractable fossil fuels to cook the planet” and “we can’t afford to use any of them at this point.”

Wow. This statement sets us up for the harsh reality already being faced by much of Europe and California: should our leaders allow humans to freeze to death this winter in order to not “cook the planet?”

Or, on a personal level, should Grandma and Grandpa, who live in Buffalo and cannot afford to fill the fuel oil tank because of Joe Biden’s war on fossil fuels, be allowed to break up the furniture and burn it in the fireplace to stay alive this winter? According to Rob Jackson, and Joe Biden, apparently not, because they will be “cooking the planet.” This is the reality of climate extremist theory.

These people are extremely dangerous. They are and will continue to cancel the lifeblood of our civilization, electricity and heat through fossil fuels, before any reasonable alternative is in place. Windmills and solar panels are a joke, a novelty at best, and the idea that NYC could rum off of them is ludicrous. China controls 80 percent or more of the supply chain and rare earth minerals required to build out the infrastructure of a wind and solar U.S., so if you want to make the Chinese Communist Party, along with Russia, the richest, most dominant force in the world, go ahead with this plan.

Now, if the fossil fuel haters designed a plan to build 100 nuclear power plants in the U.S. by 2050, along with a plan to rocket nuclear waste into deep space using existing, proven technology, we might have a solution to keep Grandma and Grandpa alive, because we are all going to be grandparents someday.

Jeffrey Naslund. M. Ed., Fort Myers

Measuring success of Gov. DeSantis

It’s hard to argue that there’s a better measurement of success for American governors than whether people are moving into or out of your state. According to U.S. Census data between 2020 and 2021 Florida had more population growth than any other state with four out of 10 of the nation’s metro areas with the highest population growth. California and New York had eight of the top 10 counties with the largest reductions. Even Gov. Newsom’s own in-laws left California for Florida during the pandemic and donated to DeSantis.

And what Florida Republican doesn’t love how DeSantis handles the left? He shut down Biden’s criticism of Florida’s comparative openness during the pandemic by pointing out that "He's imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border.” Having graduated with honors from both Yale and Harvard Law School he’s adept at dealing with anyone on any issue. His opponent, Charlie Crist, took three tries to pass the bar and can’t make up his mind regarding his political affiliation. He was a Republican in 1998 an Independent in 2010 and then a Democrat in 2012. Anyone with strong convictions shouldn’t struggle with that decision.

Ben Furleigh, Port Charlotte

No thanks, Gov. DeSantis

Thank you, Gov. DeSantis: For continuing to burn sugarcane and protecting Big Sugar; For not doing anything to control septic tank runoff in our polluted waterways; For putting gays back in the closet and making it harder for anyone different from you; For telling teachers what they can teach because you know best; For telling doctors that you know what is best for us; For making it harder to vote; For treating helpless immigrants like criminals; For telling cities and counties what you know is best and they better please you or they will suffer; For firing our consumer watchdog on FPL and allowing a huge rate increase; For taking credit for the millions received from the U.S. government while criticizing our president and the Democrats that gave it to you; For not letting people who served their sentence vote after we voted for it; For banning books and dumbing down our children; For not fixing our home insurance issues; For not building any new major highways to accommodate all these people; For starting a war with Disney because Disney was sticking up for people who are different; For making guns easier for haters to get and for not banning assault weapons.

William Ochiltree, Cape Coral

Why Venezuelans are migrating here

Two key points are totally ignored in the story of why Venezuelans are migrating here. Venezuela became a socialist country when Hugo Chavez won the presidency in December of 1998. At the time of his election inflation was at 20 percent. Venezuela's inflation rate as of August of this year was 114.10 percent. Secondly, Chavez passed a gun control law and eventually took all firearms away from it’s citizens.

Since that time Venezuela has gone from the strongest economy in South America to the train wreck it is now where people are looking to get out at all costs.

Everyone in this country that thinks socialism and gun control are so great needs to take a good hard at what happened there. Joe Biden and his administration have already started this process. (Credit card companies informing government of gun and ammo sales).

For all those who think, “Oh we’re smarter than that, that won’t happen here.” That’s exactly what the people of Venezuela thought.

Michael Graback, Bonita Springs

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, September 28, 2022