Letters to the Editor, Feb. 17
Poisonous lying, violence
I don’t understand the big deal about George Santos lying his way into public office. After all we have a past president who allegedly lied his way into public office and keeps on lying. And as alarming and outrageous as the conduct of five members of the Memphis Police Department is to all of us we should not be surprised.
Speakers at a political rally encouraged and incited an armed mob to storm the Capitol as the mob broke down doors, windows, and destroyed public property in an attempt to overthrow our government. Our past president gave tacit approval by watching the mob as they assaulted Capitol police without exercising his authority to stop the assault. Physical fighting is an approved way to force others to submit to your will. Hopefully the poison that has been injected in our society will soon dissipate.
Andy Dalton, Marco Island
Poison to the basic idea of meritocracy
Ron DeSantis has finally said it. Black history is part of American history.
We now have separate black history classes and black studies departments as well as classes and departments on diversity, equity and inclusion.
These are all poison to the basic idea of America as a meritocracy, which is the foundation of our success as a nation.
Every one of these separate venues provides, often taxpayer funded, high paying jobs for African Americans, queers and other minorities. Their task is then to unearth and promote the idea of past racism and discrimination as a justification for current racism and discrimination which favors African Americans, queers and other minorities.
Our power structure has bought in to the concept that if you want to be a good and fair person, give a job or college spot or other benefit to someone who does not deserve it because they are black or queer and deny that benefit to someone who does deserve it because they are white.
This is the current, in new garb, version of the old segregated South, in reverse.
This is also the heart of the current president and Democratic Party policy today.
Bob Stabile, Bonita Springs
Why we need right to clean water
“High fecal coliform levels found,” (2/6) provides a perfect example of why we need a constitutional right to clean water.
As reported, such levels should be under 70 on the Most Probable Number scale, but Calusa Waterkeeper found they were 900 in the Estero River and 1,600 in the Imperial River! Nearly all tributaries flowing into Estero Bay showed high counts of fecal coliform bacteria.
Waterkeeper Emeritus John Cassani says we’ve seen “extremely high levels of fecal bacteria for 20 years,” and FGCU professor James Douglass, says, “It’s become sort of the norm for Southwest Florida.” He adds that the “next step is for state agencies to track down the sources of pollution and do something about it,” but they don’t, and “no one’s held accountable.”
With a constitutional “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters” we could hold state agencies accountable. Our Legislature knows this. That’s why in 2020, to protect special interests, they preempted the authority of local governments to pass laws giving citizens any environmental rights, which would include the right to clean water. In doing so, they created the need for this constitutional amendment, because who would have thought that we shouldn’t have the right to clean water and a healthy environment for ourselves and our children?
Sign the petition at FloridaRightTo-CleanWater.org.
Joseph Bonasia, Cape Coral
Poison to the basic idea of meritocracy
Ron DeSantis has finally said it. Black history is part of American history.
We now have separate black history classes and black studies departments as well as classes and departments on diversity, equity and inclusion.
These are all poison to the basic idea of America as a meritocracy, which is the foundation of our success as a nation.
Every one of these separate venues provides, often taxpayer funded, high paying jobs for African Americans, queers and other minorities. Their task is then to unearth and promote the idea of past racism and discrimination as a justification for current racism and discrimination which favors African Americans, queers and other minorities.
Our power structure has bought in to the concept that if you want to be a good and fair person, give a job or college spot or other benefit to someone who does not deserve it because they are black or queer and deny that benefit to someone who does deserve it because they are white.
This is the current, in new garb, version of the old segregated South, in reverse.
This is also the heart of the current president and Democratic Party policy today.
Bob Stabile, Bonita Springs
MORELetters to the Editor, Feb. 10