Letters to the Editor: June 3

Letter of the Day: Their own arrival

Editor, Daily News:

Letter writer Annette DiPaolo, among other readers such as Roberta Baird, complain about the loss of quality of life in Naples.

Among the stated offenses are overbuilding, traffic congestion, waiting in lines at restaurants, small homes being torn down for larger ones, deforestation, high gas prices and the closing of small farm stands.

The primary theme of this litany of gripes results from a growth in population.

The irony of the grievances enumerated by DiPaolo is that she, like all of us who live here, is the cause of our complaining.

People choose to visit and live in Naples because of all that the area has to offer: great weather, beaches, cultural amenities, clean air, low crime, etc.

These positive attributes are attractive to everyone and it is unreasonable to believe that only those who live here are entitled to enjoy what Naples has to provide.

People will continue to visit and move to Naples, and with the migration will come the impacts that DiPaolo objects to. To attempt to exclude newcomers and to complain about the impact they bring means that these naysayers must never look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own arrival.

As radical as it may sound, attempting to exclude people based on criteria such as the length of time living in an area is no different than racial or ethnic prejudice. Migration causes the growth and its inherent impact. However, Naples' growth results from the demand for people to live in Naples.

Kevin Juk , Naples

Letter of the Day: No thanks

Editor, Daily News:

I would like to set the record straight that Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah does not speak for all Bonita Springs residents, as he stated at the three major roads project groundbreaking: "This is a momentous day. To all the residents of Bonita Springs, this has been a long time coming."

Personally, I've been dreading it. This resident would rather endure the three months of heavy tourist traffic than be permanently scarred with more pavement, cars, traffic, pollution and the inevitable addition of housing developments and strip malls that will be built along these three major roads. It would have been better to use those golden shovels to dig holes to replant all the trees already destroyed for making traveling through Bonita Springs easier for the tourists.

I live here year-round and would much prefer natural beauty to concrete fabrication. Had this Bonita resident wanted to live amongst four- and six-lane roads to everywhere, I would be an east coast resident. Thanks, but no thanks.

Mr. Judah, you certainly have the right to voice your opinion, but please don't presume that you speak for everyone.

Julie Nitschke , Bonita Springs

Letter: Outrageous

Editor, Daily News:

I have read the various opinions regarding the misguided decision to allow grown men to attend Immokalee High School. I have no doubt that Principal Manny Touron is a compassionate and sincere educator. But compassion and sincerity do not trump reason and responsibility.

Unfamiliar as I am with school bureaucracy, I cannot fathom how these men got into high school in the first place. Once exposed, however, they should have been ejected immediately and directed to resources that can help them find appropriate adult-education programs.

This situation really is outrageous. It's another sad example of how alien residents with suspicious or no documentation apparently do not have to abide by any of the regulations, rules and laws that govern those of us who are here legally. Meanwhile, they soak up resources that taxpayers provide for the education of our children. And our compassionate educators are helping them cheat and flout the law.

Enough.

Janice R. Drummond , Marco Island

Letter: Not the time?

Editor, Daily News:

Columnist Brent Batten says Memorial Day is not the time to say our Iraq war has failed.

It turns out that it's never time to criticize the lies, crimes and incredible blunders that have plunged us into this needless, pointless, heartless, brainless war.

Batten isn't shocked by the conversion of this day for solemn remembrance into a "shopping sell-a-bration."

After all, elsewhere in the paper we were asked to interrupt our shopping for a moment at 3 p.m. on that day to remember the war dead.

Too many Americans spend Memorial Day and Veterans Day not honoring the victims of the war disease, but honoring the disease itself.

Dan Lyons , Fort Collins, Colo.

Letter: Could this help?

Editor, Daily News:

I am writing to support putting a moratorium on alligator hunts in Florida until more is known about the affect of the alligator's ability to control the invading python.

Given the fact that an established reptile invader has never been wiped out anywhere, the Everglades python could clearly tilt the natural balance in the Everglades ecosystem.

Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, stated that "the python is thriving in the wildest place in the state."

The state of Florida has been drawing up strategies to take out the python without much success for the past two years.

The unprecedented recent increase in alligator attacks on humans and pets in the state of Florida may not be due to the low water levels as being suggested, but instead, maybe due to alligators being forced to look for an alternate source of food as the increasing number of pythons compete with the alligators for survival.

If this is correct, as more large alligators are killed, we will have more attacks on humans by alligators in the state.

Juan R. Puerto, M.D. , Immokalee

Letter: Sink or swim

Editor, Daily News:

We should all know by now that the so-called immigration problem our congressmen are working on is simply to help them get more illegals in this country — not fewer — and that the border security is a farce.

Six thousand guardsmen are at the border without guns or able to do anything. What idiot thought of that? It didn't fool any of us, but our leaders think we are fooled by it.

Here is my solution: Dig a big moat from the beginning of the Mexican-United States border to the end. Take all the fill to New Orleans to shore up the levees. Have our alligator catchers put our Florida alligators in the moat.

Border secured!

And the next time that heel, Mexican President Vicente Fox, comes here, I will be the first one to push him in the moat.

Another problem solved.

Jeannette Maiale, Naples

Letter: Now or never

Editor, Daily News:

It's unnatural for progressives/liberals to continue to kick a defeated opponent once they are on the ground.

Many of you are probably feeling the urge to give the president and his party some latitude to recover out of patriotism. I think we need to remember we are in a battle for survival, and I'm not talking about the Democratic Party. Those in power have subjugated the future of us all for their goals, which always revolve around serving powerful corporations, e.g., the oil companies. If we let them up, it's their nature to destroy us if they can.

They've put us and our children in debt and sacrificed our soldiers to fund their war for control of the oil regions. They've been willing to gamble with the future of mankind by keeping us tied too long to this carbon dioxide-spewing, carbon-fueled energy source.

If there are any of you still in denial about global warming, you need to ask yourself when the last time was you heard of a gathering of the body of world scientists refuting it?

For the love of life, close your eyes, bite your tongue or whatever you need to do, but don't let them up until we get a new batch of (hopefully responsible) leaders.

Mike Bartley , Fort Myers Beach

Letter: Bashing Christians again

Editor, Daily News:

Over the last several months, when certain letter writers criticize another letter writer they feel has wronged a person or group, they say something like, "If they are Christians, how can they write such things?"

First of all, why the assumption these people are Christians? Couldn't they be of another religion or atheists? And if they are Christian, so what! Can't they have an opinion you may disagree with? More Christian-bashing, and not very subtle!

This leads me to the hype over "The Da Vinci Code." I have not read the book or seen the movie yet. But I have watched The History Channel on two occasions to see "Beyond the Da Vinci Code." I did so to get a perspective of the book by seeing enactments and hearing critics of the book give their insights. I found it very interesting as the program unraveled the book and its speculations.

Some critics would say some things are plausible, but there is no proof. Not once did anyone say that anything in the book was a fact.

So there you have it. Parts are plausible, but no facts! It is a book of fiction. But again, why all the media hype? I see it as another attempt to try to undermine the Christian faith.

With all the effort these people put into this, maybe if they had a little "Christianity" in their lives, life would be far better!

Michael G. Valente , Naples

Letter: Next?

Editor, Daily News:

Our lawmakers, in their infinite wisdom, have seen fit to invade what I consider a personal choice — our rights to live as we please, as long as it does not disturb the rights of others.

They have seen fit to write a law that forces us to wear seat belts in our automobiles. Their sole purpose in this is to save lives, and they are to be commended on this. I imagine they have researched this very thoroughly and have come to the conclusion that it is the right thing to do.

In the near-distant future I can only assume that they will write a law that prohibits the sale of cigarettes to save even more lives.

Bill Henry , Naples

Letter: This isn't working

Editor, Daily News:

I agree with columnist Ben Bova (May 28 Perspective section) that "if we're serious about alleviating global warming, we should move as swiftly as practicable away from burning petroleum and coal and natural gas." But the energy crisis is worse than Bova lets on.

The world has passed peak production of petroleum. Supply is irrevocably declining while demand and population pressures go up. Both the White House and the petroleum industry know that no new exploration will make a difference.

As Richard Heinberg explains in his two books, "The Party's Over" and "Powerdown," net energy extracted will not be worth the net energy expended. The world's oil has been mapped. No magic elixir, whether ethanol or hydrogen or shale, will avert the energy crisis, and neither technology, the market, nor our corporate-controlled government will have the will (or the capital) to pursue a solution.

The obvious first step, as Bova notes, is to cut fuel consumption in vehicles, which burn over half of the 21 million barrels of oil used daily in the United States. Failing this, nothing can substitute for petroleum, which is also used for critical functions like aircraft, agribusiness, transportation and electricity production. Or will vital infrastructure be ignored, leading to blackouts like that of 2003 caused by peak demand? Will there be new "resource wars," as Michael Klare puts it: invasions of Iran, north and west Africa, South America?

We are on a slippery slope, distracted from the real problem, namely that the American lifestyle is simply not sustainable.

Noelia Rodriguez , Naples

Letter: That sinking feeling

Editor, Daily News:

Moderate Republicans are going to be the death of the Republican Party. The moderates who voted for this ridiculous, so-called immigration bill ought to be voted out of office. They just couldn't be that much out of touch with the wishes of the American people, so what is their motive? Even Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., voted against it because he is coming up for election and he knows the desires of his state's voters.

The biggest phony is Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who wouldn't be in office today if George Bush hadn't gone to Pennsylvania to help him defeat a very decent conservative man in the primaries. Why do you do things like that, George?

(Specter also just voted against Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination to be director of the CIA.)

And then there is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., another big phony, who is still so jealous of George Bush that he purposely does things to hurt him and in the process hurts his own country.

Any Republican, like McCain, who would vote with Sens. Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, is suspect to me.

This bill is not the answer to the problem. This is amnesty and citizenship in disguise for illegal and unappreciative people. It even states that Mexico has to approve fences, etc., on our own border, while they mightily defend their own southern border. Is this Bizarro World or what?

We are depending on you Republicans in the House to stop this nonsense. And George, your mother needs to have a long talk with you!

Mitzi Francis , Naples

Letter: Read the news today ... ?

Editor, Daily News:

I have one question for Joe Kiernan, whose letter to the editor published Tuesday faults your editors for their selection of headlines.

And one answer.

The question is, "Why should another recital by George Bush of his accomplishments in Iraq be considered headline news? The "Mission: Accomplished," the courage of the Iraqi people during the election and the adoption of a constitution were all headlines when they happened. Since then, the president has regularly assured us of the progress that is being made — in spite of some "setbacks" — in the preparation of Iraqi troops to take over the security of their own country, of his confidence in the new Iraqi government and of the ultimate victory over the "terrorists" who are trying to destroy it, provided we stay the course, as the Iraqis want us to do.

Does more of the same deserve headline status because Tony Blair was standing beside him?

But when he said he had made some "missteps" in Iraq, that is news! When the press had asked him about possible mistakes some time ago, he needed more time to think of one. And he finally thought of one: He shouldn't have said "Bring 'em on!"

Congratulations to your editors for putting the headlines where they belong.

And there is no need to pity those of us who depend on the Daily News for our news. We are quite aware of Bush's accomplishments in Iraq, even if we missed the news conference.

John F. Malley , Naples

Letter: Not even close

Editor, Daily News:

The factually incorrect letter of Martin J. Blied published on Tuesday is an example of why the Daily News should employ a fact checker.

Charles de Gaulle did not visit Quebec "a few years ago" unless you consider 1967 — some 39 years ago — to be a few years ago.

He did not utter "Viva la France" but "Vive le Quebec," followed by "Vive le Quebec libre."

Martin Klingenberg , Naples