Letters to the Editor, Dec. 21
Fifth Avenue falls short on COVID steps
Saturday night two friends and I went for dinner and a show at the Sugden. This was my first evening on Fifth Avenue in well over a year. It will also be my last evening on Fifth Avenue for the foreseeable future.
Neither the Sugden nor the restaurant did anything with respect to the COVID pandemic; no masking, no social distancing and no checking for vaccine status. The restaurant was crowded with few masks in sight and the same was true for the Sugden.
I am fully vaccinated including a booster, but I might still be a COVID carrier and am unwilling to risk a break-through infection. As much as I’ve enjoyed Fifth Avenue in the past, I can and will live without it until steps are taken to protect the public from COVID.
The politicization of vaccines flies in the face of science.
David Goldstein, Naples
Naples Pier fishing rules not helpful
No fishing on Sundays at the Pier is ridiculous. That is when families can fish, fathers and their children.
I heard it was going to be no Wednesdays. As for no fishing at night, that doesn't help the pelicans. They are asleep in the trees at night.
New candidates and present City Council members all say they want to preserve the quality of life in our unique community. This decision is not doing that.
Susan H. Earl, Naples
A time for goodwill, mutual respect
For a few days, at least, let’s set aside our political, social and religious differences to celebrate our national holy day of communal affection, human warmth and fellowship.
Christmas has become America’s only national holy day (with 'White Christmas' as its official hymn and, for those of us old enough to remember, Bing Crosby as its patron saint). A few days each December, most Americans — regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, race or religion — take a step back from their ordinary routines, look at their fellow man and utter a prayer for our collective well-being with the phrase 'Merry Christmas' or, for those politically correct, 'Happy Holidays.'
In the fourth century, Christians co-opted the traditional mid-winter festival of Yule (hence the 'Yule log' and 'Yuletide') by identifying Dec. 25, the winter solstice on then contemporary calendars, as Christ’s birth date. Over the millennia, different cultures enhanced the feast. Nineteenth and early twentieth century American and English authors and practices refined the holiday as we know it in popular culture. The advent of Hollywood and mass media (not to mention Hallmark movies) have expanded it into an all-pervasive influence defining the end of the calendar year.
Although some may decry the migration of the holiday from its formal religious roots, it has, in effect, become part of America’s secular religion — as said before, a feast of goodwill, mutual respect and affection one for the other. Isn’t that what Christianity — and, in one form or another, every major religion — is all about?
So, let’s enjoy our holy day, sincerely wishing each other a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy 2022!
Donald Christl, Bonita Springs
Republicans selling their souls to Trump
We Republicans have had only one majority of voters’ presidential win in 60 years. We are so desperate that we invaded our nation’s Capitol killing policemen in an attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election. That attack was a warning of the potential that Trumpist goons have for future attacks. We have enacted laws in 16 states that gives us the power to reverse election results if Democrats win. We lie daily about loss of the 2020 election and take every step possible to undermine the electoral process. We use death threats to honest idealistic election officials and their children throughout the USA. We have succeeded in getting them to resign, so we can substitute Trumpists to oversee and control the electoral process.
Recently Trump linked up in Naples with the very wealthy greedy supporters with the goal of re-electing him to continue freedom from taxes. We are selling our souls to Trump in a Faustian bargain in spite of his goal to substitute an authoritarian dictatorship for our representative democracy. We Republicans are like Judas kissing Jesus condemning him to his death on the cross for just 30 pieces of silver (freedom from taxes).
William Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs