Letters to the editor for Sunday, September 22, 2024

Letters to the editor should be 250 words or less. Include your name and city or community of residence. Guest opinions should be 600 words or less and include a brief summary of the author’s credentials relevant to the topic. Guest opinions may include a head shot of the author. For the Fort Myers News-Press, email submissions to mailbag@news-press.com and for the Naples Daily News to letters@naplesnews.com

Set a positive tone

As someone who enjoys shopping at Seed to Table and appreciates the community vibe and unique atmosphere, I’ve always admired Alfie Oakes' willingness to stand up for his beliefs. However, I think it’s worth reconsidering some of the messaging, like the photo of President Biden in the urinals and the “FJB” dumpster out front. While I understand many see this as just outlandish humor, it stops being funny when we see the current climate, with recent assassination attempts on President Trump.

I get that frustrations run high, and it’s important to express our views. But if the problem on the left is often about the messaging and lack of respect, maybe we should be careful to set a good example ourselves. As a community, we have the opportunity to model civility and show that it’s possible to disagree without being disrespectful.

Seed to Table is a popular spot for families, and kids pick up on what they see. We want them to learn that it’s okay to have strong opinions, but it’s also important to treat others with respect — even those we disagree with. By making a few small changes, Seed to Table can continue to be a welcoming place for everyone, while still standing true to its values. Let’s elevate the conversation and set a positive tone for our community.

D.A. Fisher, Naples

School starts too early

I’m writing because I believe we need to take a closer look at when our schools start in the morning. Many high schools in our area begin as early as 7:30 a.m., which forces students to wake up way too early. Teenagers are supposed to get 8-10 hours of sleep each night, but with this schedule, that’s nearly impossible.As a high school student myself, I’ve seen firsthand how tired and unfocused many of us are during the day. Sleep deprivation affects our grades, our mood, and even our health. Studies back this up, too. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. In schools that have made the switch to later start times, students have shown better focus, attendance, and even improvements in their overall well-being.I think it’s time our community considers making this change. Starting school just an hour later could really improve students' academic performance and help us feel better in general.Thank you for listening to my thoughts on this important issue.

Brent Hall, Bonita Springs

Denise Carlin for Lee schools

As a long-time resident of Lee County who has had five children and two grandchildren graduate from Lee County Public Schools and has worked as a both a teacher and administrator in the district, I endorse and support Dr. Denise Carlin for the position of elected superintendent. I have had the honor of knowing Denise for over 30 years as a parent and colleague. Denise’s commitment to children and their success is unwavering. Her integrity as a committed professional educator who has walked in the shoes of a teacher, parent and administrator provide her with the firsthand knowledge and skills essential to oversee a large school district of over 100,000 students and a billion-dollar operating budget. The issues facing the School District are complex and have been ongoing for a very long time. Teacher recruitment and retention is the foundation to student success and a successful school district. Denise is committed to doing whatever is necessary to ensure that every child has a high-quality effective teacher in every classroom who is valued and supported by parents and the community. School safety and appropriate student behavior is essential to ensuring student success. Denise is committed to building a culture of collaboration and mutual respect between parents and teachers. Please support the future of Lee County Public Schools and vote for Dr. Denise Carlin for Superintendent of Schools.

Dr. Tim Ferguson, Fort Myers

Kizzie Fowler for Lee Commission

Vote for Kizzie Fowler for Lee County commissioner. Kizzie is an environmentalist. She will prevent Lee County from being developed in rural areas. She will listen to the majority of people in Alva and southeast Lee County who wish to keep their land rural., to preserve their way of life, wildlife and water. Mike Greenwell wishes to pave Alva over with a huge housing and commercial development in Alva. He does not listen to the vast majority of the people in Alva who wish to keep it rural. Of course, he is running for commissioner against Kizzie Fowler. Well Mike, this is the very last rural area in Lee County, and you just took it away from us. Kizzie is dedicated to keeping the rural lands as they are.

Another reason not to vote for Mike Greenwell is his stance on Amendment 4. He is against what I call women's freedom. He would take away a woman's choice to do what should be completely her option to have a child or not. We are the land of the free. Should it have been discussed on a county level?

Kizzie will work to clean up our water and make it pure again. She will look for ways to get affordable housing for everyone who needs it and even bring down housing costs in general. Her work ethic is unequaled, bringing up five children while working in high end jobs where she learned to be a leader. She will bring in new thinking to the board with old issues and new that have not been covered in years.  Yes, she is a Democrat. Her new breath of air should only make our commission stronger and more creative for years to come. Make history. Vote for a well-qualified candidate: Kizzie Fowler for Lee County commissioner.

Carl Veaux, Cape Coral

Vote yes on Amendment 4

If you or I presented to the Emergency Room (ER) with sepsis, the body's reaction to an infection that may cause inflammation, fever, blood clots or leaky blood vessels, we would immediately receive care. Without immediate treatment sepsis can lead to tissue damage, organ failure or death. Sepsis can be caused by an infection due to burns, wounds, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, dental abscesses or an incomplete miscarriage or abortion. The goal of care would be to stop infection, support organ function and manage blood pressure. To refuse to treat any of the above conditions would be a deviation from standard medical care and ethics.Yet, Amber Thurman presented to a Georgia ER with signs of sepsis and failed to receive the medical care she was entitled to. Why? The vague rules for exceptions to managing emergency miscarriages or abortion and the severe penalties constrain action. Conflicting rules for determining the gravity of the crises cause hesitation. Care of pregnancy related complications will only worsen as doctors shun states with rigid bans creating pregnancy deserts. Interns will not be trained in responding to pregnancy complications raising the risk for an already high rate of maternal fatalities.Amber Thurman did not have to die nor should any woman because they are denied or delayed care they should receive to save their lives. Take the determination of maternal care out of the hands of politics and let the medical staff practice what they were trained for by voting YES on Amendment 4.

Patricia Howard, Naples

Inflammatory rhetoric

It is beyond comprehension that the two Republican candidates are blaming the assassination attempts on the rhetoric of the Democrats. I don’t recall any of them claiming that Haitian immigrants are dining on the pets of residents. I also don’t believe they have been calling in bomb threats forcing schools to close.

Also, the Haitians are in Springfield, Ohio legally because the city needed workers to do the labor required. The king of inflammatory rhetoric is the orange man as he makes all these outlandish statements and conspiracy theories. Why does he continually spout this crap? Because his followers actually believe whatever excrement exits his lips. One of the politicians up there is asking residents to report homes with Harris/Walz signs in their yards which is in line with their First Amendment rights. These citizens will subsequently be targeted by the hooligans which is tantamount to a conspiracy against them and their families.

So the next time you hear you-know-who uttering these baseless charges, consider the source and vote, vote, vote on November 5th and rid us of this scourge once and for all.

Glenn Chenot, Cape Coral

Cats and dogs

If you say something often enough, eventually people believe it even though it was never true. That’s what Trump is doing with Haitians eating cats and dogs. Trump constantly repeats the lie until it sticks as truth when there is absolutely no truth to it.

And Donald Trump purposely uses this repetition process. In an interview with Billy Bush, Trump confided: “Billy, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That’s it, you tell them and they believe. They just do.” At that time, Trump was claiming a Number 1 rating for his “The Apprentice” show, while Billy Bush reminded him that "The Apprentice" had been nowhere near Number 1 for 5 years. And again, according to Melania’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham: “He knows he’s lying. He used to tell me when I was press secretary, ‘Go out there and say this.’ And if it was false, he would say, ‘It doesn’t matter, Stephanie. Just say it over and over and over again, people will believe it.’”

Until people, until the press, until Republicans intensely call Trump’s statements lies, he will ravage humanity with those lies.

Listen to the words of one who experienced the lies of the Nazis at the beginning of WWII:“This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.

“A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.” Hannah Arendt, historian and philosopher (1906–1975)

Joe Haack, Naples

Inflaming bigotry

Perhaps it’s time we Americans face the disheartening fact that almost half of our fellow citizens are infected with an Us vs Them attitude toward folks with a different paint job than their white-washed selves, in other words, bigotry.Bigotry-infected brains are such dry tinder, that all it takes is a political arsonist like Mr. Trump to opportunistically set them ablaze with incendiary lies.It’s no wonder that, like many arsonists, Mr. Trump stood back watching TV for 187 minutes to admire, with narcissistic pride, the brains-on-fire blaze he ignited on 1/6.

J. Cant, Naples

Biased news reporting

When it comes to reporting news about what ex-President Trump says, the news media seems to always attach the words "unfounded," "untruthful," "unsupported" or other such words to quotes or statements by him. Without those words the reports are news, but with them it is editorializing, and demonstrates the reporters' damaging, vitriolic bias.  It also demonstrates the reporter's mistrust of the readers' or listeners' intelligence to make their own judgments.  Also, if the Democrat candidates say that a Trump win would be very dangerous for our country (possibly enabling crazy potential assassins), it is not considered hate speech.  But if the Republicans say the same thing about the Democrat candidates, it is considered by the media as inflammatory and dangerous. If Trump loses the election, I will blame it entirely on this obvious reporting bias.  Why can't reporters just report the news, and not try to inject their own feelings about it?  If they still want to, let them at least call it what its, an editorial comment.

Wayne Sherman, Naples

Trump support confounding

It is not normal for a real man to be going around grabbing women by their genitals and then even bragging about it. It is not normal to brag that one can shoot a person on Fifth Avenue and no one will care. It is not normal to convene a thousand goons to attack members of the U.S. Congress and to threaten hanging of Vice President Pence if he fails to commit a crime. In spite of Donald Trump having responsibility for each of these sociopathic malignancies, millions of people still support him, and amazingly, even women. Simply put, how could such evil behavior ever been normalized by one person in the USA?

William Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs

Paper shields Democrats

Your July 16, 2024, edition of The News-Press story on page two mentions this “In attempting to assign blame for the shooting, multiple Republicans have pointed fingers at Biden’s rhetoric.” No rhetoric examples were mentioned in your article. This news outlet omitted to mention the now iconic phrase that Joe Biden was caught on a private telephone call to his donors recently. Biden was caught telling donors on a private call recently: “'It is time to put Trump in a bullseye.'” Your readers must be aware of this. If the shoe were put on the other foot, that statement from a Republican would be first page news in bold! At the time of this writing there have been two attempted assassinations on Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was president, he was criminally charged with an incitement of insurrection for saying, “Peaceful protest!” We have a compromised news outlet and Department of Justice! A new news bulletin came out saying, “Biden eventually admitted he made a mistake regarding the bullseye!”

William Eggers, Cape Coral

Blaming the media

Predictably, former president Trump and many of his supporters attribute his abysmal performance in the debate against Kamala Harris to the biased left-leaning media.  In a recent letter, a reader complained that ABC TV "stepped over the fairness line in the Presidential Debate it telecasted."

Never mind that Trump spewed nothing but massive loads of bunk and drivel during his 90-minute confrontation with Harris. To wit:  In Springfield, Ohio, "the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there."  "Some states with Democratic governors favor being able to execute babies after they are born."  "She's a Marxist.  Everybody knows she's a Marxist."  "I have a concept of a plan."  "What's going on here, you're going to end up in World War III."  "She hates Israel, she also hates Arabs; if she is president, Israel would be gone in two years."

Mr. Trump, if you still wonder why you lost the debate, and why Kamala Harris will win the White House, all you need to do is look in the mirror.

Michael Rubner, Ph.D, North Naples

Trump divides us

I need to ask if anyone besides myself is getting tired of the division. We all have people we don’t understand, and some we differ with. But let me ask how many have family and friends that you are divided with. Not just a difference of opinion but arguing about the differences, taking sides and letting it get in the way of normal get along living, and for what?For what because a guy named Trump, a man who believes in division for his own gains.Please look around at your friends, coworkers, family, ask yourself, why are we so divided. There is one answer, and he’s not worth it.His mantra is you are with him or against him, not united in America and he is willing to promote violence for his gain.

Len Wassmer, Naples

America's greatness

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus, written 1883

This touchstone is what made, and makes, America great! End of discussion.

Clayton Jones, Isles of Capri

Unequal treatment

Then President Trump called for his supporters to peacefully march to the Capitol to protest the results of the 2020 election. As a result, he was impeached and criminally charged with inciting a riot. President Biden says that a bullseye should be put on Trump and called him a threat to democracy, a dictator and that he would destroy America. VP Harris said that Trump was unfit for office, must never occupy office and must be stopped. Following these comments from our president and vice president, the highest offices in the land, two attempts have been made to assassinate Trump. Will they be impeached and charged with a criminal act?

Ron Wobbeking, Naples

Purveyors of hate

“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”, recently shouted the Republican MAGA nominated candidate for president of the United States to his millions of MAGA followers, solidifying himself as the only 5-year-old parading around in a 78-year-old body who heads up a major political party in these United States. Mr. Trump, the MAGA godfather, has now clearly shown himself to be the purveyor of hate most of us already were aware of and as someone who should have been run out of this country on a rail after January 6 and deposited in one of the despotic countries that he so admires. Because Mr. Trump is a rich white man in America with politically and financially powerful backers who share his racist, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-democratic ideology, he has been able to stave off the long arm of the law, for now. November gives voters an ideal opportunity to usher Mr. Trump and MAGA off into political oblivion and allow them to be consumed by their own hate in isolation, without contaminating the entire country. Voters need to take full advantage of this opportunity. The rest of us can then get on with the business of working together, rather than against one another, to make this great nation even greater. Voting has never been more critical to the survival of this country as a democracy.

Thomas Minor, Bonita Springs

Harris, Trump policy positions

It’s both disturbing and amazing that so many in the mainstream media have fallen prey to the Republican talking point that Vice President Harris has not been sufficiently specific about her policies and positions.

While candidates cannot be expected — nor would it be strategically prudent — to put out blueprints of everything they intend to do if elected, she has specified positions on a number of key issues. They include abortion and other reproductive rights, maintenance and extension of Obamacare, childcare tax relief for parents, stipends for small business start-ups, aid for first-time homeowners, support for Ukraine, and urging a ceasefire in Gaza, among other matters.

Meanwhile, the specificity from her rival, former President Trump, has spotlighted harmful and bizarre issues like across-the-board tariffs and immigrants “eating the dogs and the cats” of their neighbors, among other banalities.

Indeed, his lack of specificity on key issues was highlighted in the debate the other night when he punted on whom he favored in the Russia-Ukraine war and the prospect of a national abortion ban, among other dodges.But perhaps his most telling lack of specificity was his treatment of health care. After railing about Obamacare for nearly a decade and repeatedly promising to “repeal and replace” it, all he could come up with was some gibberish about having unspecified “concepts of a plan.”His vagaries reflect that as with Russia-Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, and much else, he hasn’t given the matters any thought, content instead to denigrate immigrants, insult his opponents, engage in misogyny and racism, pledge to jail his adversaries while pardoning criminal January 6th rioters, and exact vengeance on anyone who crosses him. Compared to that kind of campaign, Harris is a beacon clarity and precision on policy positions.

Marshall H. Tanick, Naples

Party line

I just watched a talk show monitor three groups electronically for their reaction to answers by the debaters. The monitored groups were in different rooms and had some kind of lever to move of their approval or disapproval of a response to good questions. Republicans vote Republican, Democrats vote Democrat. The independents voted on quality and relevance of the answers. And, they tracked the Republican responses. I still maintain that honest independents will swing this election. If I had a magic wand I would have forced Kamala to answer why she and Biden didn’t do what they preach at the start of their term including increasing our oil production and an executive order to close the border.

John Piccolo, Estero

Support Amendment 4

I am not a gung ho supporter for all abortions all the time. But this country and this state have gone way too extreme in abortion laws. First, no abortions after six weeks is entirely too short of time. Most women don’t even know they are pregnant during this time. Then abortions related to rape, incest, health of the mother and viability of the child should always readily be allowed. To stop such abortions is callous and cruel.

For these reasons I support Amendment 4 so we can get back on track for reasonable restrictions on abortion.

For abortions other than the ones indicated above, I would suggest that they must get the approval of a psychiatrist, a social worker or a pastor stating that the mother and/or the family is mentally or socially unstable and therefore incapable of raising a new healthy (in all aspects) child.

I also make this suggestion in hopes that those who are stridently “pro-life” and those who are stridently “pro-choice” will come together and compromise.

Herman C. Lawson, Naples

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Sunday, September 22, 2024