Port St Lucie taxes; Indian River book flap, ideology; tip jar woes; new slavery | Letters

Here's a tip to deal with questionable jars

Over the past 18 months, I have become aware of a tipping practice that seems to be becoming more prevalent.

Back then, I ordered a meal to go. On the counter next to the register was a tipping jar. Something prompted me to ask the following: Are the tips in the jar given to you or split with the staff?

The answer was: "No, the owners take the tips."

Since then, I have asked the same question in other eating establishments. By my count, in at least a third of these eateries, the manager or owner takes the tips.

Now I ask the service person who gets the tips. If they do not, then I hand a cash tip to that person.

Ronald D. Roberts, Sebastian

What's Port St. Lucie doing with all this new tax revenue?

Property owners in Port St Lucie should take a serious look at the proposed real estate tax for the city because it seems to be extremely high considering the taxable property value increase.

The city's own figures show that it had a total of 36% increase in taxable property over the past two years. That is about $30 million in increased revenue. Yet in most proposed bills for the city, there is about a 5% increase, just for the city.

That amounts to a 41% increase in taxes over the two years when, with the huge increase in property taxable properties, there should be a considerable decrease individually. What happened to the $30 million?

Edward Marasi, Port St. Lucie

Lots of questions for school board over why nasty books on shelves

Why doesn’t anyone writing about the Indian River County School Board meeting explain these books were all challenged two years ago by parents?

District staff met behind closed doors and sent recommendations to the school board. The board voted, 4-1, including three current members, to approve staff's decisions and 95% of the books remained in school libraries.

Why doesn’t anyone explain it’s against state law to provide pornographic material (all fit the law’s definition) to children? Everyone who reads these passages agrees this is totally inappropriate for any minor and is shocked school libraries have them.

So, the big questions: Why are they still there; why did the parents have to use the board meeting to get them out; and, better still, why were they there to begin with?

In a year’s time, the board members couldn’t bring themselves to review the original book challenges and direct their removal as they did so quickly that evening. In the meantime, the state Legislature provided a remedy for recalcitrant boards. If a resident reads a book at a public board meeting and is shut down because of pornography, the book automatically qualifies for removal.

Do you think the citizens wanted to do this or would they rather have a responsive board that corrects its past mistakes? Other groups have turned out en masse to dominate the public comment portion, so why is this group castigated? Because it was truthful and successful?

Looking beyond the handwringing, why do national book publishers and authors want young children and teens reading about highly sexual behavior? Is it harder to write novels like the traditional classics we used to read, or is there a more nefarious reason for wanting to expose children?

Whatever the reason, at least the books will be gone; that’s half the battle.

Melissa Kells Burdick, Vero Beach

Schools pushing ideology crux of problem TCPalm misses

The TCPalm editorial over the book drama misses the point.

For one thing, it’s remarkable if a kid is reading a book in preference to being glued to a mobile device. I'd bet 90% of the kids wouldn’t be aware of these so-called objectionable books if they weren’t programmed in that direction.

I am against banning any book. The problems lies in the administration pushing messages or ideology objectionable to parents.

Five years ago, this newspaper likely would have been outraged to even have a discussion of biological boys using the girls' bathroom. The real struggle centers around parental control of their children over school administrators. There wouldn’t be an issue if the radical society changes weren’t prevalent. There are several blue states that are allowing minors to have sex change operations without parental permission.

Much of the money behind this comes from Big Pharma, hospitals that perform these atrocities on minors and the manufacturers of the equipment used. Yet this newspaper ignores the reality of these threats.

TCPalm creates a false scenario of lack of decorum on the part of Mothers for Liberty. Yet the truth is, hardworking parents wouldn’t have gotten involved without a serious cultural threat to their beliefs.

No one should ever be physically threatened. Yet the real issue is not about a particular book. It’s about a radical society reset that undermines the values and beliefs of the majority of people. The fact is, TCPalm fails to see the seriousness of this outrageous affront. Perhaps the newspaper should be questioning why its positions consistently are contrary to the vast majority of its neighbors.

Peter Degen, Port St. Lucie

Stand up against modern-day slavery

All nations were inhuman at some point. Israelites were enslaved. Europeans indentured servants. Africans sold as chattel. Jews forced into concentration camps. Ignorance of history proliferates deception.

Archives reveal slavery was abolished in 1789 in federal territories. Congress abolished the slave trade in 1808. By 1820, Democrats won Congressional majority and passed the Missouri Compromise, Fugitive Slave Law and Kansas-Nebraska Act reversing previous accomplishments.

1860 brought the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, and a majority in the House and Senate. This shift to anti-slavery and pro-civil rights positions saw D.C. abolish slavery in 1862. The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation declares “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” 1860 also led to southern Democrats leaving Congress, forming the Confederate States of America, and civil war.

The 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. Congress passed the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees, providing food, shelter, clothing, medical services and land to displaced southerners, including freed slaves for a limited period to provide a hand up.

The 1800s saw the end of slavery. Several Black men succeeded in various positions. Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington achieved significant accomplishments. Hiram Rhodes Revels of Michigan became the first black U.S. senator. Republicans Benjamin Turner of Alabama, Jefferson Long of Georgia, Joseph Haye Rainey of South Carolina and Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina served in the U.S. Congress.

Fast forward to 21st century bondage: human trafficking; financial debt; massive bureaucratic welfare and taxation systems; drug, alcohol, pornography addictions; technology — a modern-day shackle. These dependencies exhaust one’s ability to make reasoned decisions, take responsibility and maintain control over situations.

Elected officials forget they serve we the people. Reclaim your God-given rights, remove the shackles of government exploitation, stand up and shake off the remnants of bondage.

Karen Hiltz, Sebastian

Columnist off the mark on claims vs. Generation Z

Columnist Ingrid Jacques wants young people to be more proud of their country. But pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and we are a “nation under God.”

Patriotism means love and devotion to your country. And doing something for it, such as paying taxes, instead of constantly complaining about “Big Government.” Yes, we are big, having taken over almost all of this “most favored land,” as George Washington called it.

And to credit "capitalism” for America’s success, without being grateful for all the incredible natural resources that were available simply for the cutting down, pumping out, etc., seems just plain arrogant. Look at the topography, climate, etc., of so many other countries, and bless your lucky stars that you were born here.

That's not to mention all the capital created by the labor and sale of slaves from 1619 on. It's just not right. Two million slaves here in 1820 were worth more than $1 billion to their owners. By 1860, the United States had 3,953,762 slaves, now worth even more because of the boom created by the cotton gin; again, to their owners. Thomas Jefferson’s farm book is on the web, as is his ad for a runaway cobbler.

Jacques also does not mention the tremendous economic boost of “free land” handed out by Big Government after buying out or removing by force the Indian tribes: first, from all the land east of the Mississippi, and then from the Great Plains. Smallpox wiped out whole villages. So when Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to “ban the jab,” consider how lucky our country was that George Washington forced his troops to endure a cut in the arm, and a month of misery, to become immune to smallpox.

Read the preamble, Ingrid, please, and not the polls.

Helen Frigo, Jensen Beach

Looking for trouble? Then stereotype and generalize

What are generalizations and stereotypes?

"Generalizations" are defined as "the process of extending a given instance to a larger or universal collection."

"Stereotypes" are defined as "oversimplified generalizations about groups of people."

Both generalizations and stereotypes are terms defined in the subject of sociology. Generalizations and stereotypes can be completely ignorant.

For example: "She only needs help from the government paying for food because she is lazy." In fact, many single women work more than one job, need help paying for food and have to decide between paying rising rent/electricity bills or to buy food. Hence: She achieved help from the government.

Or, "She is only single/does things alone because she is looking for it (a problem)." In fact, many women choose to be single because they enjoy doing things alone. Some women could find group behavior to be far more problematic and antisocial than to do things alone.

It's important to not generalize nor stereotype individuals. Each could be dealing with something that you have no idea about.

Anna Santacroce, Fort Pierce

Stop bashing Trump, a role model, victim of false accusations

A few thoughts for the day.

1) Get teachers out of the medical business and back to the business of making sure our kids can read and do math at grade level and compete with Chinese students.

2) A face-lift, breast job, nose job or trans surgery is all done by choice. You choose to do it, it’s your business and no need for us to know an anything about it. Leave us alone and don’t fill our life with your wants. We’ve got a lot of good stuff to learn about.

3) Never thought we’d need a “Marking International Overdose Drug Awareness Day,” but here we are, marking overdoses with their day. How sad.

4) How about printing some good news about President Donald Trump for a change? As you watch your children overdose and die from drug use, lose your family to alcoholism, and smoke more and more carcinogens that keep your kids hooked, it’s well-known Trump has never done, and does not do, any of the above. That shows your kids they can be a success, and even be president, without following the crowd into unhealthy behavior. Learn to just say "no," and don’t let them trap you with their “well, it’s legal.”

5) Daily, the media and this newspaper have bullied Trump with everything blown into the wind of the day, only to find out years later accusations were untrue and made up.

So as your family and country disintegrate into a sad mess, think where your priorities are when casting your vote in 2024.

Joan Hall Vero Beach

Trump isn't a 'savior,' but he will be remembered

In response to Nancy Celano's letter about the "tyranny" Donald Trump will save us from, it is difficult to know where to begin responding to such fallacies and right-wing tripe.

She claims we are soon to be "'non-existent." Well, I got up this morning, had some breakfast, did some repairs around the house, planned for an upcoming trip and so on. In other words, my life is pretty normal.

I expect her life is about the same as it was four years ago and she does the same things every day, unimpeded by the "tyranny of Joe Biden." I expect she cannot name a single thing she cannot do today that she could do four years ago.

Remember, Trump is under 91 felony charges and may soon be a convicted felon. If this is the "savior"' of the United States (as if there are any real issues to worry about right now), that says more about folks who believe in him than it does about Trump.

We will be saved by supporting the rule of law. Biden has done little that is unconstitutional.

Trump tried to upset and overthrow an election, and that is, in fact, unconstitutional. Why do we call it seditious conspiracy? Because that is what it is and now some two dozen people have been convicted of that crime. I expect more to come.

Unfounded hatred comes from the extreme MAGA world that justifies violence by accusing others of doing exactly that it does and continues to do.

The historical truth will always come out. It might take some time, but in 20, 30 or 40 years, I think Donald Trump will be remembered as a criminal. Nothing more, nothing less.

David TK Hayes, Sebastian

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Spraying roofs unsafe, PSL spending; book attacks; tip woes | Letters