Letters to the editor: Nov. 24, 2003

Letter of the Day: Suitable pursuits

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Suggested local lawsuits for needy Neopolitans:

Defendant - Charge

Coastland - MALLpractice

Publix - EGGregious behavior

Dog track - Aiding and aBETTING

Daily News - imPAPER advances

Auto dealers - defaMOTION

of CARacter Developers - unEARTHical practices

Mobil, Chevron, etc. - GAS action suit

Book stores - pAGE discrimination

Fred Tobias - GAGravated assault

What was he thinking?

Editor, Naples Daily News:

"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked. Then, the pacifists are denounced for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." This statement was made by Hermann Goering (1893-1945).

"We should not march into Baghdad ... to occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero ... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely-entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable, urban guerrilla war." This was written by George Bush, the elder, in 1998.

President George W. Bush is making the United States the most detested nation in the world. He displays what is seen by many countries as an arrogance that transfers to all of us. He has won no friends at the United Nations and we need friends.

We are not all-powerful and we should stop acting as if we were. It's no longer possible for us to impose our idea of how people ought to govern themselves in a Muslim country -- or any country, for that matter. "There aren't weapons enough on Earth for us to make everyone else like us," said Andy Rooney recently.

I, like millions of Americans, think that going into Iraq without U.N. approval was wrong.

Good for city, good for county?

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Citizens in the city of Naples have the right to referendum on decisions made by their elected representatives, the most current regarding growth within the 41-10 area of the city. Citizens will ultimately make a decision on this by popular majority vote.

Collier County Commissioner Fred Coyle, whose district is based there, does not think the citizens of the county deserve the same rights.

He believes petition rights are enough for the county. This means you may petition your elected county representatives, who can deny it, change it or approve it.

A petition was presented by the Taxpayer Action Group asking for concurrency to alleviate congested roadways. It was denied because Commissioner Coyle sponsored "checkbook concurrency," which has yet to be implemented and will not relieve roadways when it is.

Commissioner Coyle again was in the forefront Nov. 18 in denying the rights of citizens who presented a petition asking the county commissioners to adopt a study of the charter form of government. This study would simply allow a commission with a membership of 15 citizens to study and write a charter for the county which if passed by a majority of citizens would allow the same privileges the city of Naples now has.

The draft charter document written for the county by citizens has a strong ethics clause which would deny elected officials from accepting campaign donations from development or related special-interest groups. In a review of past donor lists of campaign donations this could have a detrimental affect.

Troubled waters

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Staff writer Eric Staats had better get his facts straight before reporting on the Naples Sailing & Yacht Club's petition.

In the first place, it was not the residents of Royal Harbor who opposed our plans in December 2002. In fact only one resident of Royal Harbor testified in opposition to the plan. It was the residents of Oyster Bay, including the former mayor, who testified in opposition to our plans, and it was the expansion of the marina that they objected to. The marina expansion was the objection of Mayor Bonnie MacKenzie.

In fact everyone who testified, with one exception, all said that they were pleased with the design of the proposed new clubhouse, and that includes the former mayor, who according to Mr. Staats now wants the club to go through another lengthy set of hearings. The only person who opposed the clubhouse was a resident of the nearby condominiums, who objected to the height of the building, which was necessitated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines.

Now the hang-up is merely a change in the faade of the clubhouse. As Vice Mayor Gary Galleberg stated, the proposed changes do not affect the proposed marina, and they do not make any significant changes to the floor plans or the lot coverage and especially the building height, which remains within the building codes and ordinances.

That's the spirit

Editor, Naples Daily News:

I have been reading with interest the recent letters discussing the lack of good spirit between our high schools. Now, maybe it is time, as Paul Harvey would say, "to tell the rest of the story."

On Thursday evening, Nov. 6, the combined book clubs of Naples High School and Barron Collier High School met at Barnes and Noble for their first-ever joint meeting.

The clubs have almost 30 members between them and are partially sponsored by the Friends of the Collier County Public Library. This group of young readers is "reading for the fun of it" to promote their own maturity and development.

The club sponsor at Naples High is KT Brill and at Barron Collier High it is Jami Jones. Harriet Protos from the Collier County Public Library meets with each club to lead book discussions.

The book clubs are a wonderful example of students and adults working together to make a difference in Naples, both in their schools and in the community.

What is so silly?

Editor, Naples Daily News:

With the defeat of the squirrel monkey protection ordinance, once again Naples has shown its complete disregard for any living thing that does not qualify as either a golfer or a voter. Naples City Council member Tamela Wiseman claimed the ordinance was "silly." I guess the ridiculous hullabaloo over the lemonade stand wasn't.

Further demonstrating her ignorance, Wiseman said she was afraid the monkeys would spread a virus. It must be a slow-growing virus that's still incubating since the monkeys have been here for 50 years.

Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security could use her infectious disease expertise.

Her complete disregard for the fact that these sentient animals have been, and now will continue to be, subject to poisoning, drowning and, worse yet, being sold to labs can do no less than outrage those of us who possess a conscience.

How can she be so cavalier about the suffering of these animals?

What the city of Naples really needs is an ordinance to protect residents from Homo sapiens like Ms. Wiseman.

What are we doing?

Editor, Naples Daily News:

The new strategy we are now using in Iraq is the same Israel has used for 40 years and it hasn't worked. That is bomb and attack any target when you are targeted, even though you have no evidence they are the responsible party.

Gen. John Abizaid says we only have 5,000 opposition forces against us out of 23 million Iraqis. Where does he get this figure? A "crystal ball"?

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are starting to remind me of Laurel and Hardy when it comes to this conflict with Iraq, and if you throw in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, it's Larry, Moe and Curly -- and I am a Republican.

P.S. -- How long is it going to take before we build a wall?

Learn from history

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Iraq dialogue: Let's murder another U.S. soldier, or a British soldier, or let's murder an Iraqi official. If we keep doing that the U.S. and British governments will withdraw their troops and there will be no democracy. Also no Iraqi who wants to live will work for the Iraqi government.

What promotes these actions? One of the sure answers is the highly publicized protests to the war. When this is brought to the attention of the organizers or participants of such protests the cry is "freedom of speech." There are a lot of ways to exercise freedom of speech without promoting killing soldiers and officials.

One way is letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines. It is hard to promote the success of a killing policy by quoting to the actors that there were 10 letters to the editor against the war.

For those of you who are old enough to remember the time before World War II, and the very few who have an interest in history, the people in the United States were very anti-war. This included much of the military. Large rallies, many of them sponsored by the communists because of the non-aggression pact signed by Germany and Russia, were staged in the United States to keep America out of the European "civil" war.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, to his everlasting credit, ignored such protests and did everything he could to help the British. How many of the protesters in the United Kingdom know this history?

Amassing a legacy

Editor, Naples Daily News:

It is arguable that our war in Iraq is no more about "freedom" in the United States than was the "war" in Vietnam. Both have demonstrated America's vulnerability in such adventures, no matter how well-intentioned.

Our experience in Iraq cannot be summed up in President Bush's words: the more successful we are, the more we are attacked. That's one way of admitting we don't really know how to win, whatever that might mean, in Iraq. The only weapons of mass destruction we have found are those which have killed or maimed our troops and several civilian facilities.

We have deposed Saddam Hussein, presumably, but here at home at least we have yet to be convinced that a premature turnover of governance to the Iraqi Governing Council, challenged to write a constitution and hold "free" elections by mid-2004 (in time for our own elections), can be counted as "victory." Democracy? That's still up to the Iraqis in the mid- to long-term future.

We have not had enough language-capable personnel in country to eavesdrop on Iraqi street talk about democracy or anything else. We probably don't have a clue as to what the Iraqi man in the street is thinking or talking about over his morning coffee.

Meanwhile, we appear, at this writing, to be seeking desperately a way out, one hopes with honor, not by helicopter off the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters roof. Whatever we leave behind, however we leave it, what's left in Iraq will be a Bush/Rumsfeld legacy. We can look forward to this Defense secretary's mea culpa.

Peace and wisdom be with us all

Editor, Naples Daily News:

This is in regards to a gross contradiction which appeared in Skip Kent's recent letter to the editor on the Ten Commandments that merits attention and clarification.

He is ignorant of the fact that, fundamentally, all of the 10 oblige and apply only to the human element of society, wherever they be, regardless of race, color or creed. No one (human) is dispensed because we are all created beings in the image and likeness of God.

He stated in his letter, "several of the commandments do not actually apply to Americans"-- after claiming that the Ten Commandments are vital to our society. His contradiction would be righted if Americans were not human, but primates or another form of animality.

In summary, the Decalogue is the path of life and is summed up in the concepts "Love of God" and "Love of Neighbor" as part of the Eternal Law, engraved in our hearts, by God at conception -- without our knowledge or consent, to do good and avoid evil.

It's not peace that we want -- it's love that we need by observing all Ten Commandments, especially, love and trust in God.

What's up with that?

Editor, Naples Daily News:

On Nov. 12, at mid-forenoon, hundreds of wild ducks landed on Lake Futuna in our IslandWalk development. Almost simultaneously, hundreds of egrets and some blue herons arrived to line up on the shore of the lake, ostensibly watching the ducks.

After some time, the ducks all took off in one direction and the egrets and herons in the opposite direction.

What's the explanation of this behavior?

Look at it this way

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Re: Leonard Becker's letter of Nov. 10.

I dare say that anyone, anywhere can echo the claim of "anti-Jewish" attitudes in their community no matter the city, state or country.

The Naples Daily News' printing of hate letters can be used to clearly see who or what lives among us.

Hopefully, good people reading this "spewed venom" can teach their children and grandchildren how ugly and self destructive this is.

Why not focus on the coming together of the Catholic Bishop John J. Nevins and Jewish leaders and get into their mind-set, that of recognition for past atrocities and their desire to go forward, together in peace.

Finally, why not apply my Russian grandmother's recipe: From lemons, make lemonade -- refreshing in every way!

Slur applied too broadly

Editor, Naples Daily News:

Richard Vlassic writes about the relationship of Israel and the United States, bringing up some critical points in the "thrust and parry" spirit of debate, and he is viciously stifled by the insidious slur "anti-Semitism."

Who are these readers who will smear any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic? This subject is so taboo that any logical debate on Israel is considered a provocation?

Every time I read that slur "anti-Semitic" by those who think they are championing Israel, I think that by overusing it, they are actually devaluing the term and reducing its worth.

Why not save it for those who deserve it!

Animal care revs up

Editor, Naples Daily News:

I was surprised by Marilou Corrigan's letter of Nov. 18 discussing the spaying and neutering of animals in Collier County, especially feral cats. Her last sentence says, "We desperately need a county-wide spay/neuter program!"

Volunteer Services for Animals Inc. has had a spay/neuter program since 1984, now called "Fix-Your-Pet." They issue certificates to people who cannot afford the normal surgical procedure at a minimal cost, especially for cats ($10 for a neuter, $20 for a spay). Feral cat trappers pay nothing. Last year 500 animals benefited from the program.

Further, we now have the Spay/Neuter Coalition supported by Domestic Animal Services, the Humane Society of Collier County, Siberian Husky Rescue of Florida and Volunteer Services for Animals. This coalition has received its tax-exempt status and will be raising money to buy a mobile spay/neuter bus or trailer that will travel to remote eastern areas including Immokalee, Corkscrew, Lee Cypress, Copeland, Everglades City, the easternmost Golden Gates Estates area and the southeastern section of Naples.

The stray pet population seems to be concentrated in these areas where, for the most part, there are no veterinary clinics within 15 to 20 miles or more.

If anyone would like to make a contribution to this project, they can send it to Spay/Neuter Coalition, 7610 Davis Boulevard, Naples, 34104.

The Fix-Your-Pet program will continue and always needs money! To contribute to that you can send a check to Volunteer Services for Animals, Box 110727, Naples, 34108.

And all of us will thank you very much!

Military and money

Editor, Naples Daily News:

To someone like myself who opposed the United States invading Iraq, the accusation of "if you're not for the war, you're not supporting the troops" is one that I find particularly interesting.

I find it incredible that Mr. Bush is the first wartime president in history not to have attended a single funeral of a U.S. serviceman or woman. It is interesting to note, however, that Mr. Bush has not missed a single fund-raising event.

So much for supporting the troops. It seems evident where the administration's priorities are.