Letters to the Editor: June 7

Letter of the Day: On topic

Editor, Daily News:

Guess which topic U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wants to put at the top of the senate's agenda? You might suppose that he would want to take up topics like how we can change our failed policies in Iraq and fashion an honorable pathway for withdrawal.

Or, how the U.S. Senate could legislate to help reduce our addiction to foreign oil, for example, by instituting tougher vehicular gas mileage requirements and focusing on energy-saving measures.

Or, he could think about passing the first minimum wage increase in a decade.

Or, perhaps move toward ensuring health care for every American.

But what does Frist want to do first? He wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to deprive gays and lesbians of equal rights under the law.

Gosh, aren't we all just desperate to have that taken care of before we deal with all this other stuff?

Think of the threat that the possibility of same-sex marriage poses to our nation! Frist is a little desperate all right; over the awful record of this administration and the failures of the Republican-led Congress to address the nation's real problems.

So, with the elections looming, a little distraction is called for. Some good old rabble-rousing demagoguery that appeals to biases and unfounded fears. Let's hope that Americans don't fall for this old trick.

Theodore L. Brown, Bonita Springs

Letter of the Day: Been there, done this

Editor, Daily News:

It seems that some people refuse to understand that making statements on various subjects, without making sure of the facts or having personal experience of said subject, makes the writer look kind of foolish.

I am a military veteran and a legal immigrant, so maybe my perspective will be useful to others.

I was raised in South Africa and lived under one of the most oppressive governments in Africa. After high school, I was required to serve in the Armed Forces from 1976 to 1987, not of my own free will.

After saving for years and going through all the grueling red tape, etc., my dream came true. I came to the United States to make a new life in a free country.

The average U.S. citizen has no idea how lucky they are and take their freedom for granted. How naive. People don't realize they can lose this by becoming complacent.

Hopefully, we will all come to understand that it is under threat right now by a large group of people who wouldn't think twice about strapping on a bomb and killing themselves and others, or cutting off the hand of a petty thief, or stoning someone to death in public for a moral infraction.

Stop for a moment and consider what our freedom means to us and to what lengths we should go to protect this, whatever that might be. Then think about what the alternative might be if we do not.

I hope this letter gives food for thought.

P.A. Brown , Naples

Letter: It's time

Editor, Daily News:

I want to publicly acknowledge an outstanding group of teenagers — the graduating seniors of this year's Naples High School band. There are too many to give their individual names but they and their parents know who they are.

In high school, the attitude and work ethic of the senior class greatly influences that of the underclassmen, and that holds true for school bands also. I can't recall a single day where these students exhibited signs of apathy, defiance or cynicism, generally referred to as "senoritis."

They were leaders in the purest sense of the word and their example paved the way for superior ratings at not only the district marching and concert festivals, but also the state band festival.

In fairness to the graduating band classes of the past, I've been blessed to have had many outstanding senior groups. I hope they'll forgive me for not writing about them and waiting to do it now. After many years of procrastination, however, I'm finally doing what I haven't done before.

They're all fine young people and I'm proud of them and proud to have been a part of their lives.

Melvin Maxwell , Band Director , Naples High School

Letter: Bottom line

Editor, Daily News:

One can only applaud Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter's statement in his Guest Commentary of May 22 relating to illegal immigration, to wit: "As a practicing criminologist, I recognize and subscribe to the concept of swift and certain punishment yielding deterrence. Failure to enforce existing law results in patterned evasion and the flaunting of the law."

Unfortunately, Mr. Hunter's actions and those of his deputies don't match his words.

Red light running in Collier County is epidemic. It has resulted in a number of fatalities, including recently a Hospice social worker and, earlier this year, one of my neighbors.

Mr. Hunter has done nothing to stop this, notwithstanding his above statements to the contrary.

How many more Collier residents need to die before Sheriff Hunter does his job?

John E. Ryan , Naples

Letter: Excellent reputation

Editor, Daily News:

As the executive director of Naples Day Surgery, LLC, I would like to comment about Dr. Wendy Humphrey, whose court case has been reported in your newspaper over the past several days.

Dr. Humphrey has been a member of the medical staff of Naples Day Surgery since 1998 and has established an excellent reputation among her patients and colleagues at Naples Day Surgery. She is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and has a consistent record of excellent patient outcomes at our surgery centers.

When Dr. Humphrey moved to Naples and joined our medical staff, her references praised her reputation for clinical excellence. Dr. Humphrey quickly validated these positive references from her former colleagues and has continued to perform as an outstanding surgeon at Naples Day Surgery. We are proud to have Dr. Humphrey as a member of our medical staff.

Thomas C. Buckley , Naples

Letter: And yet it's happening

Editor, Daily News:

I have read the two recent stories on development here in Collier County (the Parklands project by The Ronto Group and the Toll Brothers project near Rattlesnake Hammock Road and Collier Boulevard).

I've read the blogs after those stories too.

People, don't vent. Write — to your state representatives and senators, Gov. Jeb Bush, Collier's Environmental Advisory Council, the country commissioners, the federal government agencies and everyone you can think of who is responsible for protecting our environment.

Support with your letters and funds the National Audubon Society, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and other groups trying to protect our native flora and fauna.

This isn't just about wetlands to feed woodstorks; it's about protecting the quality of our water supply. Wetlands and their plants filter our water and purify it as it enters our aquafiers.

Since pinelands for building have disappeared, developers now want to fill in wetlands in order to bring more golf courses and more people to Southwest Florida.

Golf courses are searching for members already; we don't need more of them. There are already so many construction projects and so much existing housing that it hardly seems to make sense to build more. And yet it's happening.

Paradise is disappearing! Each new development that is permitted, leaves less habitat for the birds and wildlife that grace our beautiful section of this planet. And yes, I am a transplanted northerner. I am part of the problem as are many of you. Let's try to be part of the solution.

Dianne Shanley , Naples

Letter: Power plays

Editor, Daily News:

Edward Weilhoefer's May 29 response to James Burrows' electric car proposal (which I'm sorry I missed) reminded me of my proposing the same idea — that of a self-sustaining energy source consisting of an electric motor, powered by a generator which it drives — to my patent-attorney father when I was 10 years old!

He pointed out the problem with this notion just as Weilhoefer does, for it violates some basic physics.

The first law of thermodynamics states that the total amount of energy in the universe is constant and can neither be created or destroyed, although, according to the second law, it can be made unavailable.

Burrows proposes to violate this law by having a system that not only keeps running all by itself, but apparently also provides power for an electric car. In short, he proposes to create a steady stream of energy out of nothing.

Weilhoefer correctly points out that even after you started such a motor-generator setup, the energy you put in would be quickly dissipated as heat. That's the making of energy unavailable that the second law talks about. Heat is the so-called disordered form of energy, and the chance of its ever going back to an ordered form (such as electrical energy or mechanical motion) is microscopic.

Energy gets made unavailable every day through friction, electrical resistance and the mixing of hot and cold substances without using the temperature difference; and one can conceive of a time when all energy has been made unavailable so that nothing is moving and everything is at the same temperature. This situation is called "the heat of the universe," but we needn't worry about it, as it is not imminent.

But then, neither is the "self-sustaining energy" mentioned by Victor Nittolo in a subsequent letter.

Dean S. Edmonds Jr. , Naples

Letter: News — or same old?

Editor, Daily News:

Slowly and surely the truth is emerging regarding the lies and coverups of the Bush administration.

First it was WMDs that were hidden so well they couldn't be found. But we were assured that they were there and would be found eventually.

We were told Osama and Saddam were involved in 9/11. A fabrication.

And on and on.

Now comes the news (which the Marines were hiding) that Marines purposely murdered 24 innocent Iraqis by shooting them in the back of the head or the backs.

Cold-blooded murder of men, women and children. Remember the wounded Iraqi shot by a soldier as he lay dying on the floor?

Remember the Dubai harbor fiasco.

Unfortunately we still have the Bush fiasco.

Jim Reith , Naples

Letter: Pombo mumbo-jumbo

Editor, Daily News:

Re: Editor Phil Lewis' Sunday column about congressional dealings on offshore oil exploration.

For those who think U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo is a true believer on states' rights and that he would never betray that position and endanger Florida's coast, consider this: His own amendments to the energy bill in 2005 contained a provision to strip states of permitting authority over LNG ports — despite their danger as terrorism targets — in favor of having the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission make all siting decisions. This provision is now law.

He has a similar take on powerline rights of way. Pombo is a states' rights hypocrite.

He believes in states' rights only when it is convenient to him.

And beware of making deals with him. His proposal to let states opt out of the national offshore oil drilling moratorium also allows the Secretary of the Interior to overrule states, and allows oil producing states to ignore their neighbor's concerns about oil spills.

As every major oil spill has shown, including those in the Gulf of Mexico, state boundaries mean little to oil traveling on currents or blown by the wind. Florida's $50 billion-plus coastal economy means absolutely nothing to Richard Pombo.

When it comes to protecting our coasts, the only good Pombo proposal is a dead Pombo proposal.

Carl Zichella , Sacramento, CA , Regional Staff Director , Sierra Club

Letter: Stop the press

Editor, Daily News:

Letters to the editor are often complaints, and I thought itwould be novel to send a complimentary letter.

I would like to tell Daily News readers that the newspaper has become our friend. I am a teacher at Corkscrew Middle School, and I sponsor the school student newspaper. The purpose of the school news is to promote writing among young adolescents by giving them a venue for their work.

Last year two staff writers, Janine Zeitlin and Dianna Smith, came to the school to meet with my students. These women spent quite some time explaining their jobs and the journalism profession, as well as answering lots of students' questions.

This year I took the students on a field trip to visit the Daily News. The staff was just wonderful.

Nancy Evans arranged the trip for us, and she escorted us on our tour. She introduced the students to key personnel at the newspaper.

Each person went out of their way to explain their job and show students examples of their work at various stages.

Evans described the daily routine and the processes involved in publishing the newspaper. The presses were stopped so students could get a closer look, and they even got to see giant rolls of paper. They thought that was pretty cool.

Motivation is so important at this age, and our friends at the Daily News have certainly helped encourage these young people to continue writing. My warm regards go out to Evans and all the members of the staff.

Judy Gray, Teacher, computer applications , Corkscrew Middle School

Letter: Could — but won't — happen

Editor, Daily News:

The need for a change for in our government has existed for quite a few years. We are caught in a mode where the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government are not in concert with the majority of the views of the citizens of our country.

There are big, influential (money) entities that drive our system. They make use of the evangelicals, left wingers, right wingers or anyone else to influence elections. Our nation is so deeply engrained in a culture of corruption and influence we may never get out of it, unless, short of violent revolution, a distinct, strong message gets across.

My hot button issue happens to be "illegal immigration," but this is just a manifestation of all the other stupid things this administration and others have done. One would suspect if a new political entity — let's call it the American Party — were established that represented the attitudes of the American people versus the international business and money folks, it would be well supported.

With a few good candidates who reflect the wishes of the majority of U.S. citizens and the proper support, we could get rid of these bums currently representing us.

Ah, wishful thinking!

It will not happen in my lifetime but the young folks better wake up or you will continue in political slavery.

Henry S. Kolesinski , Naples

Letter: It's about killing. Period.

Editor, Daily News:

Thank you, Mary Stuller ("Rest of the Story," May 29) for finding a way to respond to the newest bizarre brainchild of the abortion industry.

The first brainchild substituted "pro-choice" for pro-abortion. Now we read that even though, as Fred Yarrington writes, there are 1.3 million surgical abortions a year, and statistics show that Planned Parenthood now does over 250,000 thousand surgical abortions a year, they are really trying to reduce so many abortions.

Locally, we have seen this idea promoted in a full-page Planned Parenthood ad on Mother's Day. Later it was promoted in letters from Kim Slote of Planned Parenthood and Yarrington. Hillary Clinton promotes it on the national level.

It seems that those who oppose birth control access and education are the real abortion promoters.

Who are they kidding?

Alan Guttmacher talks about billions, not millions spent on public birth control programs such as the Planned Parenthood teen clinics mentioned by Slote. After 30 years of this spending, statistics show, besides a staggering number of abortions, sexually transmitted epidemics are replacing earlier, smaller problems. In New York City high school nurses' offices you can get candy-flavored condoms. Yet New York City has almost double the national abortion rate.

Many recent letters against the war in Iraq focus on the killing. All that killing isn't right, they say. Where are the letters that should be speaking out against all those innocent babies killed by abortion!?

Eileen and Joe Hennessy, Naples

Letter: Shaping up

Editor, Daily News:

Because of our Collier County commissioner, Donna Fiala, our entire East Naples neighborhood is beginning to shape up.

Fiala was instrumental and effective in bringing together 25 concerned citizens and county government employees for a meeting. Changes began to happen almost immediately. We truly are amazed at the genuine effort these employees have made to work on our issues in East Naples.

I would like to publicly thank these individuals who have put forth not only an honest endeavor but a quick response: Patti Petrulli, supervisor, Code Enforcement; Eddie Ybaceta, investigator, Code Enforcement; Mike Sheffield, assistant to the county manager; Travis Gossard, supervisor, Vegetation Management; Jamie French, manager, Regulation & Operations; Kendra Hastings, executive aide to Fiala.

We understand correction of all the issues will take time. We look forward to working with our county employees on a continuing basis. With their help, we will make East Naples a great place to live.

A side note, does the county or state have a litter law, a no loitering law or a vagrancy law in effect?

If not, why not?

Connie Chaffee , East Naples

Letter: She has heart

Editor, Daily News:

I am saddened that you chose to have a letter about a birdhouse as your letter of the day on June 2 rather than Sara Billings' extraordinary letter.

No longer with NCH, she is still helping her patients and reminding them of what they need to do.

What a wonderful woman, what a beautiful heart for people.

Her patients certainly were blessed.

Linda Targett , Naples

Letter: Wal-Mart comes through

Editor, Daily News:

In a time of financial tightening for many, I was truly touched by the kindness of Heather Morgan and several of the employees at Wal-Mart on U.S. 41 East.

This past school year I spoke with Morgan about a donation from Wal-Mart. Through a miscommunication, we were unable to get the $80 that we thought would be donated to us. Instead of disappointing the class, Morgan took it upon herself to take up a collection for our class.

Several employees each donated small amounts to the fund and collected a total of $100!

The Intensive Accelerated Class at Calusa Park Elementary School works hard to help students become successful learners. A big part of this is helping them learn to be organized. The donated money will be used to buy binders for the students of next year's IAC class.

The binders will house all of their work for the year. They will be carried with the students to and from school and to every rotation throughout the day.

We, the teachers and future students, truly appreciate the thoughtfulness!

Elaine Gustafson , Karin Reinbold, Heather Shepheard , Naples

Letter: Who asked us?

Editor, Daily News:

As I drive in and around Naples, and like so many other drivers here have to pay these outrageous prices for gasoline, I am reminded of the words of my congressman, Connie Mack IV, about drilling for oil off the coast of Florida: "When it comes to drilling, Floridians should control Florida's destiny."

Funny thing, though. I cannot find a majority of Floridians who object to the drilling, or have been asked.

Think about it.

Ernest Cuellar , Naples

Letter: Ba-a-a-a-d situation

Editor, Daily News:

Before I moved to Naples, when I had trouble falling asleep, I used to count sheep.

Now I count dump trucks.

Fred Hayes , Naples