Letters to the Editor: June 16, 2006

Daily dose of comment and insight from our readers.

The Naples Daily News welcomes letters of up to 250 words. We reserve the right to reject letters or edit for clarity, brevity, good taste and accuracy, and to prevent libel. No poetry, attacks on private individuals, or letter-writing campaigns, please. Writers should limit submissions to one letter every two weeks. Include a phone number and make certain you have signed your letter.

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For the love of animals

Editor, Daily News:

Thank you for featuring our newly rescued pups on Tuesday. We have received a number of calls about possible adoption.

The arctic wolf cross (not pure) mother, five pups and another high-content male wolf dog were rescued from a former rescuer. The problem with animals in need is so bad that rescuers are now letting themselves get overwhelmed. This can be stopped by spaying and neutering animals, as well as learning about the breed of animal you want prior to bringing it home.

What the caption couldn’t say is Sheba (the mom) came into rescue with a bullet in her eye that needed to be treated. The other male is very thin and sick, and all the 8-week-old pups need vetting prior to placement. The pups are old enough to be placed as soon as we can screen and approve homes.

Shy Wolf Sanctuary needs help in the form of donations to cover veterinary bills and food. (We are 100 percent volunteers and currently 100 percent supported by donations.)

I would like to thank Mary Elizabeth Carr who, for her 12th birthday, decided to ask the guests to donate to Shy Wolf Sanctuary. Our Tehya was a special guest at the party, and Mary Elizabeth’s friends and family donated almost $800 to help care for the animals. This young lady has an exceptional heart and head and sets an example we all can follow!

We need volunteers to do everything from animal care to returning phone calls and office work. And we need homes for not only these pups, but the older adult animals we have rescued, rehabilitated and screened.

Please consider adopting an adult, as it opens up a spot for us to take in other animals that urgently need our kind of care.

For more information on helping or adopting, contact Shy Wolf Sanctuary, 455-1698.

Deanna Deppen/Naples; Board member, Shy Wolf Sanctuary

Strange news judgment

Editor, Daily News:

I woke up Wednesday and thought it was Flag Day.

I was surprised to see there was no flag on the front page of the Daily News. I went to my calendar to confirm that it was June 14 and a day to honor our nation.

I was correct but in shock that the newspaper was not respectful in paying tribute, especially at a time like this.

We are at war. President Bush paid a surprise visit Tuesday to Baghdad that was not on the front page either.

Flag Day is a day for all Americans to celebrate and show respect for our flag. Our flag is representative of our independence and our unity as a nation. Our flag has a proud and glorious history. It is at the lead of every battle fought by Americans. Many people died to protect it. It even stands proudly on the surface of the moon.

As Americans we have the right to be proud of our culture, our nation, our flag. Make sure that your children know to raise the flag, how to properly display it, salute it, stand when it passes by in a parade and use it with pride.

Rita Caskey/Naples

Simply not correct

Editor, Daily News:

I wish to correct some inaccuracies regarding state programs that reimburse foster parents for damage caused by the needy children under their care.

According to Daily News letter-writer Fritzi Ryan, a Victim’s Advocacy Fund within the Attorney General’s Office “has run out of reimbursement money.”

This is simply not correct. The Attorney General’s Office receives requests for compensation from the State Institutional Claims Program and determines whether each request is eligible for funding.

However, several state agencies participate in this program, and each individual agency funds claims under its supervision. In this case, the Department of Children and Families, which supervises the care of foster children, maintains the fund in question. The Attorney General’s Office values Florida’s heroic foster parents, who provide loving and nurturing homes for children in need.

We are proud to assist them by reviewing their applications for reimbursement and have not allowed any compensation fund in this office to “run out of money.”

Rodney Doss/Tallahassee; Director, Division of Victim Services, Office of the Florida Attorney General

Remotely interested

Editor, Daily News:

When my wife and I took our several-times-a-year trip from Storrs, Conn. (home of the UConn Huskies), to Naples, we discovered happiness was the part of the trip when we had a full tank of gas and an empty bladder.

Now that we live here full-time, our happiness comes in another form — having the TV remote in hand when Morgan & Morgan want to tell us how they are “for the people.”

Robert F. Tate/Naples

Why drag others down?

Editor, Daily News:

The June 14 front page Daily News headline and lead article reports a recommendation of the Productivity Committee (I served on one about 15 years ago) for Collier County to reconsider charter government.

In the past, I have thought well of this idea and served on a Collier charter commission (perhaps 25 years ago), which had charter government go to public referendum where it went down to flaming defeat.

But I could not support any charter today which attempts to put the so-called constitutional officers, who operate efficiently and cost effectively, under our County Commission and manager, who do not.

Public safety is government job number one, but annually our commission fights with the sheriff to bring his office back to their level. And when auditor and clerk Dwight Brock questions selected payments to contractors, the county manager and staff close ranks and “stiff-arm” reasonable inquiries.

Part of our county is now operating well. Let’s not have it regress to the level of the County Commission and manager.

Ross Obley/Naples

Reasonably happy ending

Editor, Daily News:

Wendy Humphrey had been my doctor for a number of years until I was forced to change doctors due to an insurance matter.

Dr. Humphrey was always concerned, thoughtful, thorough and I believe quite intelligent.

It is a tragedy that a young woman should die at such a young age due to faulty lab testing. This is very worrisome for all women who rely on such tests being done properly with the correct results being provided.

Thank goodness the jury was smart enough to ascertain that Dr. Humphrey was not at fault, and therefore they chose not to ruin a brilliant young doctor’s career.

Beverly Davisson/Naples

Table for Arnold too?

Editor, Daily News:

I have a friend who has a Vietnamese pot belly pig — a fine animal that is housebroken and doesn’t bark, although his snort sounds like my old girlfriend laughing.

I would hope that Arnold would be allowed at these outdoor restaurants.

Shep Hyken/St. Louis

Now we all know the truth

Editor, Daily News:

Cal Thomas wrote about the good news from Iraq, as explained in the wonderful Commentary magazine, which our liberal press will never tell you.

There are many in the media and “think tanks” who wish Iraq would end tragically as comeuppance against President Bush.

First, according to Amir Taheri, former editor of Kayhan, Iran’s largest newspaper, since 1959 Iraqis have been escaping en mass from Iraq. By the end of 2005, 1.2 million have returned. Over 3,000 clerics have returned from exile.

The Iraqi denier is again safe as a medium of exchange. Business is back — the gross domestic product in 2004 rose to $90 billion. More than 15 million Iraqis voted in their election. Iraq now exports food stuffs to neighboring countries, something that hasn’t happened since the 1950s.

Under Saddam Hussein, people did not talk or give opinions. Now they are back verbalizing with talk radio, television and Internet blogs. By September 2005, more than 8.5 million Iraqi children are attending school or university. By January 2006, all Iraq’s 600 state-owned hospitals were in full operation.

Do you hear any of this in our media? Democracy is succeeding!

How can anyone in his right mind think of giving up until the Iraqis can defend their own country?

Georgine Hill Mendillo/Naples

Climate of our globe

Editor, Daily News:

Using paleoclimate data for the past 500 million years, ice core samples from the Earth’s poles, Dr. Jan Veizer concluded in an article published in Nature in 2000 that long-term temperature variations are only weakly coupled to carbon dioxide (CO2) variations. He also extended his theory by adding that the biggest long-term influence on temperature variation is actually the solar system’s motion around the galaxy, celestial mechanics.

The changes of the Earth’s orbit have a profound effect on the climate of our globe. Increases in eccentricity between the least and greatest distance from the sun, plus the wobbles and pulsations under the gravity forces of the other members of the solar system, most certainly exert the greatest influence on global temperatures.

Calculations can be used to predict the future temperature fluctuations through celestial mechanics that are much more pertinent then CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

A couple of curious facts: Certain species of tree frogs in the Amazon are dying out because of their intolerance to temperature change. The temperature is falling to their point of intolerance; heavy cloud cover is being blamed as the culprit.

Between 1940 and 1947, global temperatures went down even though CO2 levels rose remarkably.

Dr. R.W. Sanders/Naples

Stop it already

Editor, Daily News:

I opened my weekly journal, Science, and there again was the recent sad commentary: “Florida law bans academics from doing research in Cuba.”

For shame. This bill, sponsored by Rep. David Rivera of Miami, whose district includes part of Collier County, is another example of our hopelessly paranoid foreign policy toward Cuba. The problem is, it’s our state possibly interfering both with United States policy and worse, stepping on the academic freedoms of universities to conduct scientific research where and with whom they choose. This is pure politics.

It’s just like the 45-year-old Cuban embargo which was, and is, a complete failure. It only gave Fidel Castro an “enemy of the people,” making him more popular as the people’s savior. That the U.S. State Department labels Cuba a “sponsor of terrorism,” along with folks like North Korea and Iran, is likewise ludicrous.

Oh, but Cuba’s still communist. Need I mention North Vietnam and, yes, China, with whom we have total communication and trade?

Heavens, Cuba is about as much of a threat to the United States as is the Bahamas.

Rivera just doesn’t get it. We need to dump these ultra-right paranoid police-state agendas, forbidding Cuban travel and personal contact with the people, and instead promote and engage with Cuba in academic, cultural and scientific visits and programs.

This is the real “intelligent design” for foreign policy weaned. Otherwise, “Viva the book-burners and the isolationists!”

Dr. David Shonting/Naples

Why did you let him do that?

Editor, Daily News:

I am flabbergasted that the Daily News would print a letter full of lies, such as the one by Michael Rodriguez on Monday.

Rodriguez paints the Marines as laughing, bloodthirsty murderers and liars. He writes: “They threw a grenade onto the lap of a blind grandfather who was confined to a wheelchair. They burned his son to death. They were laughing all the while.”

The letter is filled with rumors and innuendoes from dubious sources.

I expect better from the Daily News.

Christopher Pritchard/Naples