Vero Beach traffic; IRSC slacks; Indian River Drive speed; Trump, Riverview Park | Letters

Indian River State College dissing needs of seniors in endowed program

The Fielden Institute for Lifelong Learning at Indian River State College is designed for men and women age 50 and better who are interested in exploring shared topics in a college atmosphere. The institute was endowed by Dr. Jean D. Fielden in memory of her late husband, Dr. John Fielden.

My wife has been a peer leader since 2014 and we have both enjoyed the classes, lectures and discussions offered as well as the foreign films and even mahjong classes.

When we first became involved, the program was well received and well supported by the college. However, lately the college seems to have abandoned this program. My wife has received complaints that classes are not advertised and when people try to call the office to get information, no one responds to their calls.

Technical support for the video and computer systems used to be readily available. Not anymore. The “coordinator” for this program was at first a full-time position and is now only an ancillary duty. Previous coordinators made sure the facilities were ready before classes and that the peer leaders had the resources they needed. Not anymore.

The Distinguished Lecture Series seems to get smaller each year. It appears that the new leadership of IRSC does not consider this program important enough to make it a focus anymore.

One should keep this example in mind when considering where to place one’s trust when memorializing a loved one or endowing a program. After you’re gone: fuggetaboutit!

Alan Madison, Vero Beach

Crosswalks needed on State Road A1A south of Beachland in Vero Beach

As a resident of Vero Beach, I am happy to see the installation of new sidewalks along the eastern side of State Road A1A between Beachland Boulevard and 17th Street. However, these sidewalks serve little purpose in the absence of at least one pedestrian-activated crosswalk to cross A1A and to serve the southern end of Central Beach.

There are two crosswalks on the north side of Central Beach (Greytwig and Jaycee Park; 0.4-mile intervals), but none between Beachland and 17th Street. There is an urgent need for crosswalk(s) in this area to provide safe access for pedestrians seeking to walk to vote (or pray) at Holy Cross Church, plus access to the south end of Riverside Park and to allow residents living west of A1A to walk into Central Beach village.

I have been nearly hit by speeding cars crossing A1A in this area and I've also noticed many children attempting to cross this section of A1A who were endangered. I hope that Indian River County and the Florida Department of Transportation will consider this concept to enable greater-safer pedestrian use of our lovely town.

David Moller, Vero Beach

25 on Drive overkill; could boost traffic on U.S. 1

25 on the Drive. Whose brilliant idea was this?

I am a longtime resident of Fort Pierce. Lowering the speed limit to 25 mph on Indian River Drive is not going to reduce speeding. Enforce the law that is already in existence: 35 mph on the drive.

Due to a change in my work routine, I have traveled IRD almost every day for the past five months and at different hours. Yes, I am that guy that travels at 35, along with most of the other drivers. 35 is the safe and prudent speed for that road.

I have encountered speeders who pass me across the double line and around curves. So there is a problem.

Lowering the speed limit just increases the number of people that violate the law. The answer is not lowering the present speed limit, but enforcing the one that is in effect now.

During the months I have driven IRD, I have only seen one time a speed trap was at the site of the old fort. If law enforcement enforced the law already on the books and hit the speeders in the wallet where it would hurt the most, the speeding problem would resolve itself.

Moving traffic off the drive and onto U.S.1 puts more people in jeopardy from the fanatic speeders and road rage on a road that has a higher speed limit. I use the drive for this very reason.

If speeding is such a problem, the revenue obtained from ticketing the offenders will more then pay for the enforcement costs.

Stephen Ribakoff, Fort Pierce

With 250 more homes, traffic signal needed

There should be a traffic light/signal placed at 58th Avenue and First Street Southwest in Indian River County. It is the only cross street beginning at State Road 60, heading south to Oslo Road, that doesn't have a traffic signal.

There will be about 250 new homes built on First Street Southwest. It took years to finally get a traffic light at 43rd Avenue and First Street Southwest, where many bad accidents had occurred. What will it take to have a traffic signal at 58th Avenue and First Street Southwest?

Who should be called or at least get this intersection studied? There was a crash on a recent Saturday at this intersection with a possible death.

Linda Bergeron, Vero Beach

Sebastian Earth Day celebration far more civil than on Fourth of July

Regarding Earth Day in Riverview Park:

Many informed, intelligent environmentalists shared their concerns in insightful conversations at our tent where we were providing voter registration forms and reminding voters about the new law requiring annual renewal of vote-by-mail requests from the supervisor of elections.

Then there were the ignorant, cowardly hit-and-run remarks such as: “Yeah, you must love high gas prices!” (Seems they never heard about the oil industry’s record profits.) and “I just want my country back.” When asked “What do you mean?” they kept walking. Do they even know what they are saying? Do they care who gets hurt?

Some stood 20 feet away, chanting “Trump 2024.” Clearly, they have not heard that Fox lies, perhaps because they only watch right-wing media.

We told them they need better information, but perhaps they have been brainwashed to distrust legitimate journalism.

The Earth Day crowd was mostly congenial, but the Fourth of July in the park drew vile political supporters of Donald Trump and Confederates who insulted and assaulted us, but activists for democracy do not cower from bullies.

Caryl Zook, Vero Beach

Rural lands proposal not in best interest of Martin County

Have Martin County commissioners been listening to what the residents of the county are saying?

They were elected because people understood they would be careful on how this treasure of our home could be violated. Growth is understandable, but since we have become “the place” for newcomers, the rural lifestyle proposal goes against all that we the citizens expect.

We don’t need another golf course and multimillionaire housing. Places for affordable housing are still available to be constructed.

Pay attention to the needs of real people and let our rural lands continue to be without more development. They are part of why Martin is the jewel of the Treasure Coast.Ellen Luz Ramil, Stuart

Hoping new owners keep Mr. Manatee's family friendly

I just read where Mr. Manatee’s has been sold and is going to be renovated into something else and re-opened.

This is the last family-type restaurant near the water that hasn’t been taken over by Quail Valley or some kind of a bar.  I hope that it remains a restaurant where anyone can go with a family and enjoy a nice meal.

Pat Stewart, Vero Beach

Don't like Costco? What's your alternate plan?

For the women who have recently written to the editor replies to my support of Costco, I have a couple of questions and comments.

If not Kanner Highway, then where would a good spot be for Costco? I expect a typical NIMBY reply: Anywhere but here.

And so these folks agree with and admire Robin Cartwright, who has opposed the project, but what have they done? Have they given her money to help defray her legal costs? Have they contacted her to show their support?

What effort have the women made to support their statements? Have they written any letters to anyone other than the editor? Have they attended any meetings? Have they contacted any members of the Stuart City Council, planners or Costco and expressed their concerns and opinion? Have they come up with any positive ideas for them?

I have supported Costco here in Palm City; the location was a good one, in my opinion. I wrote letters to the council and planners etc. I attended meetings. I did what I could to support my opinion.

We're never going to agree on this subject, and I suspect many others.

So hopefully I'll wave to them as I drive across the bridge to shop.

Jan Belwood, Palm City

'Radical intensity' jeopardizes nation's 'political center'

In his recent column, “Opinions from all sides matter,” Bruce Anderson suggests: “It is the undecideds who lack representation in the political narrative on college campuses.”

While these students might lack representation, they could be political moderates — kids from families that practice moderation and sensibility in many facets of life, avoiding restrictive political ideologies.

My wife and I raised four children in the middle-class neighborhood of Clintonville, which was its own small municipality until annexed into the city of Columbus, Ohio. Clintonville is known as a “neighborhood of porches” as most homes have front porches and sidewalks that knit the area together.

While living in Clintonville, neither of us had a single political argument with our neighbors — fair-minded, level-headed, family-oriented Midwesterners, most of whom were college-educated professionals. (Ohio State University is immediately south of Clintonville, making it home to students as well as adults with families.)

Thirty years ago, these were the normal, grounded families that exemplified moderate Midwestern values. They reflected Anderson’s idea that “colleges and universities are communities of scholars — people who rely on inquisitiveness, curiosity and questioning of basic assumptions as the basic tools of progress.”

However, narrow-minded political ideologies are, without question, the opposite kind of community: “radical factions (that) have the advantage of attracting the same attention as a flaming fuel truck.” Anderson recognizes the critical importance of reaching middle ground — that hallowed space where mature compromises are possible.

America has become a political dystopia as foreseen by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world … The best lack all conviction, while the worst; Are full of passionate intensity.”

Unwavering radical intensity is destroying America’s political center. Like a broken seesaw, both sides fall away from the center’s indispensable balance.

Cray Little, Vero Beach

Children are not born with clean slates

Cray Little often appears in your letters section demonstrating his unusual erudition in supporting progressive policy positions. But in his letter April 23, he let the cat out of the bag. He actually wrote that we human beings “must create our authentic selves from the blank slate we are at birth,” or as the Roman’s sophists termed, our “tabula rasa.”

Most progressive educators tend to agree with Little. Since we are born with a blank slate, the role of educators is to fill that slate with whatever the state considers best for the state. Karl Marx propounded such a belief as well.

The Bible that Little often cites when he is critical of Christians’ supposed intolerance toward other religions does not teach that we humans are born with a clean slate. In Jeremiah 1:5 in the Old Testament, God is quoted as saying this about the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart.”

The New Testament often points out that each person has individual unique talents that are useful to the community. (1 Corinthians 12:21-31) We bring meaning and purpose to our lives as we begin to understand God’s purpose for our lives.

In his letter, Little cites Michelangelo, who said: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

Good educators know there is an endowed, unique spiritual being in each of us. Like Michelangelo, it is the wonderful role of the educator to chip away the marble and release the unique child that is of God.

Stanford Erickson, Vero Beach

Patient: Proton therapy can help in prostate cancer fight

This letter is in response to the April 12 column by Dr. Keith Roach, “Proton Therapy Serves as Option for Prostate Cancer”.

The doctor wrote: “ To date, there is no evidence that proton beam leads to better outcomes then IMRT (Intensely Modulated Radiation Therapy), so I do not recommend it.”

I take strong exception to this statement.

I have just completed six weeks of proton therapy treatments at the University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute located in Jacksonville. The institute started treating cancer patients in August 2006. It has treated more than 10,000 patients. In addition, the institute is a leader in research on proton therapy and its research is a direct contradiction to the statement Dr. Roach published in his column.

I would highly recommend that Dr. Roach contact Dr. William Mendenhall at the institute. I know he can provide all the research necessary for Dr. Roach to retract his statement.

The American Cancer Society's estimates for prostate cancer in the United States for 2023 are about 288,300 new cases of prostate cancer. Please get the latest research and let these men know that proton therapy is a highly desirable option to Intensely Modulated Radiation Therapy.

Don L. Klein, Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach roads; IRSC woes; Indian River Drive; Trump & Fox | Letters