No one is 'banning books' in Florida: Letters to the Editor, Oct. 15, 2023
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Let's save the live oaks
I'm writing in support of sustaining the live oaks along Rockledge Drive for all of the reasons others have already petitioned.
Please consider alternatives to destruction, including but not limited to:
1. Change the street to one-way traffic.
2. Turn some side streets into dead ends to limit through traffic.
3. Establish protected status, historical or natural.
4. Create a neighborhood HOA and access gates such that only residents/visitors can access the street after dark.
Please act with haste to halt all action that could destroy this uniquely beautiful natural treasure along our intracoastal.
There is no protecting careless and disrespecting humans from each other - they will simply continue to cause accidents along this drive and elsewhere. It is not the residential beauty, and these unique spectacular habitats, that should be destroyed.
Cathy Weller, Cocoa Beach
Short-term rentals erode sanctity
Excellent lead story by Dave Berman, Rick Neale and John McCarthy in the Sunday, Oct. 8, paper ("Explosion of vacation rentals in Cocoa Beach leaves residents frustrated and angry").
Having had to deal with Airbnb in our neighborhood for the past few years, when it comes to reining in unruly and loud guests, the majority of Airbnb owners are not as considerate and diligent as Zena Courtney.
Airbnb's are slowly eroding the sanctity of our neighborhoods and our quality of life. We specifically bought our home in a non-commercial area to avoid this. Our homes are not only our sanctuary, but our biggest investment.
On one side of the aisle you have homeowners who want to preserve the quality of their neighborhoods and their community; on the other, you have absent homeowners and corporations who just want to make a fast buck.
One way to fight this is to report these owners to the city, the Brevard County Tax Collector's Office, and to the Brevard County Property Appraiser. Most of these places are not registered with the city and county, are not paying registration fees and taxes, and are still claiming Homestead Exemption.
The bottom line is that short-term hotels do not belong in residential neighborhoods.
John Cielukowski, Cocoa Beach
Rep. Fine's objectionable actions
The article "Fine warns of escalating antisemitism after encounter" in FLORIDA TODAY on Oct. 6 describes Rep. Randy Fine's unhappiness over being approached by an antisemitic hate group member.
This consists of Fine experiencing hate such as he has delivered to groups he dislikes for political advantage. He has called drag queens groomers and supported laws against them. He worked to pass laws prohibiting gender transition for transgender persons. He bullied the Brevard County Commission to repeal tourist development funding for activities such as the Pridefest parade in Melbourne.
He falsely accused a Brevard County School Board member of child abuse for her support of a school mask mandate during the pandemic, which he opposed. He is reported to have said that anyone in public office should accept such charges as a part of serving in public office,
The actions of the hate group members and those of Fine are equally reprehensible.
James Beasom, Melbourne Village
More: Brevard Rep. Randy Fine says run-in with anti-Jewish extremist left him 'a little shaken'
Books are chosen, not banned
"Book banning" in Florida public schools? No one is “banning” books. School libraries are choosing books.
According to Google about 130 million books have been written since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Between 500,000 and a million new books are written every year. Almost all of these books are available somewhere. Millions are online.
But we can’t have all of them in a school library. Someone has to make a choice. In our representative democracy we select people who make the rules and guidelines governing these choices. Florida House Bill 1467, K-12 (available online) provides the procedure and guidelines. Section 847.012 (Florida Statutes), that has been the law for decades, makes it illegal to expose minors to material that includes “explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, or sexual conduct and that is harmful to minors."
Our schools use this procedure and guidance to select the small number of the millions of books available to include on their shelves.
Any parent who objects to or advocates a particular book can ask that the book be evaluated and either removed or left on the shelves. Books are not “banned," they are chosen. Notwithstanding, some isolated stupid choices have been made. If you have a better idea as to how this should be done or who should be doing it, let’s hear it. Otherwise knock it off.
Dave Riemondy, Indialantic
Sewage reports much appreciated
Other than FLORIDA TODAY's Jim Waymer reporting on the sewage overflows, no one else is covering this serious issue. Because of rain the sewage plants dumped millions of gallons of untreated sewage into our waterways. Neighborhoods in Sea Park and Tortoise Island are two of the 10 areas where sewage flowed. People need to be warned so they can take precautions after a release. Thank you, Jim Waymer, for the report.
Judy McGee, Melbourne
Words to the wise from Winston
A fairly large but fortunately a minority portion of voters in the U.S. seems to be leaning toward an autocratic form of government over the representative democracy we have enjoyed for over 200 years.
This, of course, is fueled by Trump and the MAGA cult. That is their right under our present form of government. However, the U.S. is and always has been, a representative democracy, not a dictatorship or monarchy or any of the other many types of autocratic regimes. If these people are so enamored with that sort of authoritarian form of government, there are a myriad of them throughout the world from which to choose. I suggest they move to Russia, North Korea, China; or closer to home if they prefer, Venezuela, Cuba, the list goes on. I invite them to try their turmoil and disruption and lies and deceit there and see how that works for them. I suspect they would find that the freedoms we take for granted in this country would not work out so well for them there.
I think the vast majority of people in this country prefer the relative stability of our current system. To quote Winston Churchill, “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
Ed Dean, Merritt Island
'They chose to hate'
And what did they think would happen?
Hamas goes into a country and kills children and noncombatants; infiltrates Israel with no warning. Then Hamas looks back and wails, "Oh, look what they are doing, they are destroying our country."
Hamas has to be eradicated. Gaza, all these years, had the chance to become a thriving Palestinian enclave. Instead, they have taught hate in schools and encouraged uncontrolled growth. They are dependent on Israel for electricity, food and medicine. They had a chance to thrive; they chose to hate. I abhor civilian deaths or any deaths but this has to stop and the hostages must be returned and some sort of peace negotiated through Egypt, Jordan and the UAE. Saudi relations must be still on the table.
The lowest common denominator must not win.
Laura Petruska, Melbourne
Using war for political points
Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel was horrific and unforgivable. There is no "both sides" equivalence to the murder, rape, and hostage-taking Hamas perpetrated on Israeli and American civilians. Two days later, some politicians couldn’t help themselves.
Welcome to "Family Feud: World Conflict Edition."
The question? “Should we come together to help Israel under attack and at war?”
GOP says:
• Marsha Blackburn: "Just weeks ago, the Biden administration handed over $6 billion to Iran, and today, innocent Israelis were murdered by Iran-backed terrorists.”
• Ted Cruz: “What is infuriating is this attack was paid for by billions of dollars that Joe Biden sent to Iran and sent to the Ayatollah.”
• J.D. Vance: “Americans must face a stark truth: our tax dollars funded this.”
• Tim Scott: The U.S. “didn’t just invite this aggression, we paid for it."
• Ronna McDaniel: Called the Hamas attack “a great opportunity” for Republican candidates.
On the other hand, Biden said, “The United States warns against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation." (Is he talking about enemies of Israel, or the GOP?)
At a time when we need to assure our allies that America could be counted on, Republicans have blocked the appointment of the U.S. ambassador to Israel and hundreds of military promotions, recalled the Speaker of the House, and left Congress with no way to approve additional military support of Israel. Then used their megaphones to perpetuate lies about the U.S. funding Iran and Hamas. Putin must be proud.
Vicky Dorman, Satellite Beach
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Don't use war for political gain: Letters to the Editor, Oct. 15, 2023
