Parental rights extremists, racism, excessive government control: Letters, Oct. 23, 2022

FDOT A1A project fixes real problems

I am writing in my capacity as the volunteer director of safety and education for Bike Walk Indian River County, Inc., a non-profit community coalition focused on making our county safer for bicycle riders and pedestrians.  I am responding to a recent letter to the editor regarding the current FDOT project to improve A1A in Vero Beach.

The writer complained that the A1A project was unnecessary because “too few sidewalks” and “narrow bike lanes” are a non existent problems. We disagree. There are many people in our community who highly value walking and bicycle riding. Sidewalks and seven-foot-wide bike lanes make our community a safer and more pleasant place to live. FDOT could have simply resurfaced A1A without adding sidewalks or seven-foot bike lanes. However, in accordance with their “Target Zero” philosophy FDOT has elected to make A1A safer for all users, not just motor vehicle drivers.We applaud that effort.

Unfortunately, the A1A project will result in the loss of some trees along A1A. That is unfortunate as trees also make our community a more pleasant place to live. There are 130 trees in the project corridor.  Of those, 12 palms and six oaks will need to be removed. FDOT is preserving the remaining 112 trees.  FDOT also committed to have a certified arborist on site during all tree trimming and removal activity.  While it is a shame to lose any trees, I am confident, based on my communications with FDOT, that they take this concern seriously and are doing their best to preserve as many trees as possible.

Rather than criticizing FDOT for adding sidewalks and seven foot bike lanes on state managed road projects such as A1A we should all be asking the Indian River County commissioners why they (other than Commissioner Moss) refuse to add seven-foot bike lanes on county-managed road projects such as Indian River Boulevard despite continuing requests that they do so.

Hugh Aaron, Vero Beach

These 'parental rights extremists' don't speak for all

Parental rights extremists have dragged down our school district for years.

They grab attention but don’t help our students and schools. They rush to break the system so they can "fix it."

But the problem is them. They have long outstayed their welcome.

Parents like me want to focus on serious issues — school facilities, school funding, teacher support, mental health, meaningful school safety, and embarrassingly low national academic achievement.

Parental rights extremists, like Moms for Liberty, remain stuck on misguided crusades. More childish than any middle schooler, they show up to school board meetings with sticky notes marking book pages. They angrily list how many curse words or explicit scenes are in each book.

During their red-faced rants they never say what the book is about or why it was written. We just hear a laundry list of supposed offenses.

Books are doors to other worlds and experiences. Why do we need books that disturb, shock or even disgust us? These books have hard lessons to teach the reader. Maybe the book shows the horror of being trafficked or abused. Maybe it shows a twisted, bleak future is much closer than we think. Maybe it shows how someone falls prey to a cult.

There are all kinds of books in the world — happy, inspiring, shocking, depressing. No book is for everyone, but every book is for someone. Parental rights extremists don’t care about other parent’s rights. They want to decide what every child reads, learns and thinks, not just their own. That is the opposite of liberty.

Push back and tell them to keep their parenting to themselves. Do not co-parent with parental rights extremists, like Moms for Liberty.

David Dinan, Vero Beach

COVID is not over: We must continue to take precautions

Your Oct. 17 headline, "COVID numbers down 76 percent" is accurate but probably misleading.

My wife and I and many friends have recently had COVID. We know this from home antigen tests that were either free or inexpensive, depending on age. We are mostly fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, not severe enough to seek medical care. Of the couple of dozen people I know who have had COVID since the beginning of the summer, not one has seen a doctor or had a lab test. In other words, we have evaded counting. If our collective experience can be generalized, it seems that until we get a really nasty strain that sends people to doctors, all estimates of prevalence will be unreliable.

We are thankful for apparently "kinder and gentler" COVID strains and vaccines that mitigate but do not completely prevent infections. But the idea that infections are down 76% seems ludicrous. COVID is not over and we need to continue to take precautions and, most importantly, monitor the news for information on new strains, new vaccines, and new treatments.

Marc Renzema, Vero Beach

We shouldn't have to die to get fair treatment on home sales

For the moment I will use a simple example to help explain a great unfairness that exists today.

In 1965 I buy a house for $20,000. Twenty years later I sell that house for $200,000.  Not using the funds to buy another house, I have $180,000 in long term capital gains and am taxed on that "income." The unfairness is that the increase in price was entirely due to inflation. The buying power of my $20,000 in 1965 was the same as my buying power in 1985. The tax laws should be changed to take inflation into account.

And I will add one more ironic twist. Instead of selling the house while I was alive in 1985, should I have died in that year, and the house was then sold by my executor, there would be no capital gain —  so I needed to die to get fair treatment.

David Valdina, Barefoot Bay

Mast's vote on Electoral Count Act will tell us what he thinks of his duty

I will be carefully watching Rep. Mast's vote on the Electoral Count Reform Act. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution when he entered the service and again when he entered Congress.

Rep. Mast knows that what occurred on Jan. 6 was a violent attempt to void the will of the people and keep a wannabe autocrat in power. He also knows that the vice president does not have the authority to change the electoral count. The proposed bill simply clarifies what he already knows to be true. A vote against it is a clear abdication of his duty to the people he serves. I hope Rep. Mast shows the courage to do what he knows is right.

Jeanne Gibson, Jensen Beach

Government seems to be deciding who is, isn't breaking the law

In his Oct. 18 opinion piece, Bill Cottrell spoke of the presidential pardoning of those incarcerated for marijuana possession and his urging of governors to do the same. Mr. Cottrell also suggested that Republican governors stand for the party of law and order, but look the other way when it came to a government insurrection on Jan. 6, which was a perceived threat to democracy. His opinion leaps to the supposition that all Republicans agree that Jan. 6 was not a violation of law.

With that in mind, I will now leap to the supposition that the BLM protests that took place throughout our country were sanctioned by all Democrats even when they lead to violence, death, looting, and destruction. The Democrats have been nauseating in their denunciation of the events of Jan. 6, but not one Democrat, from our illustrious president on down the food chain, has spoken against or demanded that the looters or others who violated the law during those extensive "protests" be incarcerated. There was no committee of supposedly "bipartisan" senators chosen to investigate the head of the BLM organization or its members, or even look into prosecuting the numerous individuals whose faces were captured on cell phones and news media. Didn't the Jan 6 committee use those forms of media, in addition to social media to identify the persons who broke into the Capitol? Also, didn't Kamala Harris support an organization that provided funds to help bail out anyone who was incarcerated for their illegal activities during the BLM "protests"?

I fear our government now picks and chooses who violates the law and who does not. Unfortunately, Mr. Cottrell's opinion has exemplified this premise.

Christine Ben, Stuart

Where are the GOP's answers to questions about their views, plans?

Am I the only one who noticed the complete lack of response from all of the Republican candidates? I am referring to the 2022 Nonpartisan Voter Guide that was recently inserted a recent Sunday paper.

It was compiled by the League of Women Voters of Florida. It contained a wealth of information including the changes in Florida law, a section titled "Redistricting & the Sunshine State," a guide to the proposed constitutional amendments and to me the vital part called "Getting to Know the Candidates."

Here’s why I am writing. Not one Republican responded to the pertinent questions. Not the GOP candidate for senator, governor, CFO, attorney general or commissioner of agriculture. What do they stand for? What do they plan to do for the voters? Have they all decided together to simply run on the GOP brand? Are they afraid of being held accountable? They should embrace every opportunity to to get the word out but instead we are met with arrogant silence.

By the way, all of the Democratic candidates responded thoughtfully, thoroughly and respectfully.

Jan Drygulski, Vero Beach

Voters need facts on candidates, not political attack ads

The current political attack ads are worse than ever, especially Sen. Rubio's.

Teachers are trying to change little boys into girls? Really? President Biden and the Democrats are causing inflation? How dumb do the politicians think we are? Are the Democrats so powerful that they have created inflation all over the world — France, Germany, Australia, Egypt, England are in really bad shape. Does anyone suppose that COVID, worldwide drought or transportation issues might have anything to do with inflation?

And, by the way, is the U.S. still exporting more petroleum than we import? Look it up. Is it too much to ask that the American voting public rely on factual information to make decisions rather than being swayed by political propaganda?

I hope not.

Walter Fulton, Fort Pierce

We've created 'a mess' with racism — how can we work toward healing?

Most of my ancestors were English and probably thought of themselves as Christian, but bringing slaves from Africa was not Christian , and it laid the groundwork for many of our current problems.

Now we are told that before long, the country will no longer have a white majority. This will distress many white people, because their beliefs in white superiority are so intense.

Is there any way to create a more harmonious society? I’m skeptical. We have created a mess, and we have no one to blame except ourselves.

Shirley Morrison, Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Parental rights extremists; government control: Letters, Oct. 23, 2022