Letters to the editor for Sunday, January 22, 2023 – News-Press

January 22, 2023 Kim Martel

Another beach community sacrificed

High-rises OK’d for Isles of Capri. Another beach community sacrificed to fill the coffers of developers. This story has become repetitious. A developer buys 5 acres of beachfront to build mega high-rises that don’t fit and will decimate the neighborhood. Neighbors organize and plan a course of action to no avail. Why? Because the deal is already in the works. Here is the plan. The project goes before the planning staff and Planning Commission who do not totally approve it.

The neighbors rejoice because their fears have been validated. Now comes the real plan when it goes before the county commissioners. They talk and talk and let the neighbors speak. But then, the real dog and pony show happens when the land use attorney jumps up and says wait, we have changes to the plans . The residents haven’t seen the new plans but that is not a problem because the land use attorney says they are great plans. The commissioners also say “what great plans.” The problem is that no one has seen the plans. The residents ask, please bring the plans back to staff for another review. No need says the land use attorney, they can look at them over lunch.

After lunch, everyone is on board with the changed plans, except the residents who still haven’t seen them The threat is now made that if the residents don’t agree with the new plans, they will get commercial development instead. This will quiet them down, they think.This same scenario with some of the same parties happened with the One Naples project which was shoved down our throats by changing the plans over the lunch break. The residents never see the new plans, the land use attorney was the same, three of the commissioners were the same. This is a sickening abuse of their power and takes away the rights of the residents to have a voice in their government’s choices.

Elizabeth Pircio, Naples

Scrap the IRS

Congress wants to cut the increased funding for the IRS. Donald Trump and other multimillionaires pay no income taxes. You can’t get through to an IRS advisor when you call. The tax code is so intricate that you often need a CPA to help you file. Tax attorneys make a bundle every year. Filing is a pain, and refunds are often slow to appear. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

There is a simple solution to this batch of problems, and logical reasons to implement it: scrap the current federal tax system and replace it with a national sales tax. What is gained?

Everyone buys stuff, so everyone pays taxes. That includes the huge underground economy (cash transactions that never get reported) that is currently untaxed and those who use the presently convoluted system to dodge taxes altogether. Exceptions can be made for food, medicine, health care costs and for perhaps a few other items, such as the first $30K for a new car. The exceptions list should result in a one-page tax law.
The yearly onerous task of filing a tax return is gone, as are audits, unanswered telephone calls, and all the other annual tax-related pains.
The system is proven. The states use it now.

What is lost?

Nothing.

Why won’t this happen? Because those that enact the tax laws benefit from its current status.

Gordon R. Ultsch, Ph.D., Cape Coral

Health care workforce shortage

Disappearing doctors; making a personal health care plan article does not tell the complete story of the shortages. The shortages of nurses and physicians in the USA and Florida is occurring because the work is very difficult, stressful and hospitals have cut back on staffing making caring for patients properly and safely impossible. Burnout is rampant, wages have not kept up to other industries as hospitals and payers have cut back on reimbursements to hospitals. Hospitals are required to waste money on non-essential diversity programs, all health care personal are required to spend personal time completing continuing education training. Computerization has not put the nurse at the bedside where they need to be but health care workers spend more time on documentation on computers than attending to the patient. Everyone in health care is burnt out from staffing shortages, low wages, stressful work hours or COVID. If you think the shortage is critical in nursing and physicians other disciplines are much worse, for example respiratory care, laboratory, radiology, just to name a few. Many of the lesser recognized professions are expecting critical shortages, too. Florida hospitals need to step up and increase staffing levels, pay and provide a better work environment to provide care safely. A medical mistake can be disastrous. Florida hospital associations, medical associations and professional organizations need to demand a safe work environment, competitive wages for health care workers or it is only going to get worse for those of us who need health care services in Florida and nationwide.

Gail London, Bonita Springs

Our homes, not just another job

To all the contractors out there, most of us have all gone through this hurricane together and we all have a pretty good idea of what each other is going through. Being honest, our houses and property are just another job to you and right now you have jobs coming out your ears, and you still have your own lives to deal with. We get that. But remember, what is just another job to you, just another house, is our HOME. You are in our homes. The place where we go when we’re done with our jobs, raise our families, and escape the world. Our homes. Please act like it. All the unanswered phone calls, emails and texts, missed appointments, broken promises, and sloppy, messy, or incomplete work will still be remembered when you don’t have work coming out your ears.

Stewart Hoehn, Cape Coral

Freedom to oppress people who differ

These are the words quoted by a family in your report on transgender people deciding to move away from the state of Florida for their safety. This “path of hate” was initiated by recent bills passed by the Florida Legislature. The “free state” of Florida promoted by Gov. DeSantis has become “the freedom to oppress people who differ.”

Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples

Extremely incompetent autocrat

Anyone who is unbiased (exclude MAGA) and halfway intelligent can see the difference in the documents discovered at the the Joe Biden residence compared to the corrupt former president at Mar-a-Lago. Joe Biden and his attorneys have been 100 percent cooperative in reporting to the national archives and the DOJ. Whereas Trump and his attorneys have been fighting the national archives for over a year and have been extremely uncooperative in returning the classified documents resulting in a warranted and LEGAL search to retrieve government property. Trump, the self-described “genius,” who once said you could digest bleach to get rid of COVID, also said that he could declassify documents just by thinking about it — this is the extremely incompetent autocrat that some want to be president — mind boggling!

Tom Beck, Naples

Isolation of sick not healthy

It was my first day in NYC after leaving my sleepy NJ town. I was lucky to score a one-bedroom share bath apartment in Greenwich Village. Soon after settling in I went for a walk. My first destination was Washington Square Park which is surrounded by railings. Men like sparrows were seated along these railings.I was 18 years old and sure that in this array was my prince charming. It didn’t take me long to realize that the park was a meeting place for gay men. Over the years I befriended many gay men and came to understand their culture and plight.

I became a nurse and was front and center when AIDS struck the gay community. All AIDS patients were put on isolation and dressed like space aliens. We were terrified of contracting the disease. Now we have COVID. We isolate and worry about mental health. Solitary confinement does not lead to healthy outcomes.My grandmother had TB and lived her life in her home in an oxygen tent. I visited her one day a week and no I didn’t kiss her but I let her know I loved her by blowing kisses and showing my drawings. It was her ray of sunshine. It’s time to end our draconian ways. Thank you governor.

Marlene Doherr, Cape Coral

GOP now resembles a cult

The state of my former party, the GOP, has me relieved that I left. The reason I left was simple; they demanded I sign a loyalty oath to the party itself. Not the USA, not the state, not even to the people represented; but to the party itself. In my wildest imagination; did I think it would get this horrific. I did though predict, something bad would happen. Party over county has historically “never” worked out. When you have a proven liar (not Trump) Santos being sworn in, and given committee assignments, then a losing candidate shooting up rivals’ homes. This garbage has gone way to far. No longer the party of Lincoln or Reagan; it now resembles a cult! When is the last time a cult has ended well?

Robert Jenkins, Naples

Atrocious use of English language

If this past few years have not overwhelmed you, then you are blessed.

Too much bad news can actually change who we are, and often that is not good. Mental health services are few and lacking.

So that leaves me to agree with many writers that the English language is “going to hell in a handbasket.” I have been aware of this for many years, but it is now getting out of hand. When I hear a seasoned news broadcaster say “they should have went…” I agree with a recent writer that I am grinding my own teeth at a rapid rate.

I am now often seeing in email and regular speech “myself and her are going to the concert…” (more teeth grinding). I do not have a solution for this, except to try to block our brains from this atrocious use of the English language. It is getting harder and harder to do.

Correct use of language DOES matter, and the more we abuse it, the more we will show our ignorance. I am appealing to people, especially those in radio and TV, to begin to pay attention to “The King’s English.” As for those acquaintances around us, correct them softly, but do correct them! Otherwise our English language will cease to exist as we have known it.

Sarah Wilmarth, Fort Myers

Republicans don’t care about truth

Most people know former President Donald Trump is the biggest crook, conman and liar on the planet. We now may have a close second in newly elected Congressman George Santos (R) of New York, whose life history and resume were totally fabricated. The Republicans in Congress don’t seem interested in calling him out. It appears to be just another indication that Republicans don’t care about the truth.

Trump has made liars of most Republicans in Congress. One major newspaper recorded over 30,000 lies told by Trump while in office, and he is still lying every day even now.

I had to laugh when several Republican letter writers stated that Democrats just want power. Which party tried to overthrow our democracy and government with the Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021? Anyone with a small brain and the ability to reason knows it was Trump and the Republican Party. They even tried blaming “Antifa,” which is not even an organized group.

The Republicans have had illegal “militias” and cowards with guns threatening poll workers, school board members and other state officials who just happen to be Democrats — before and after the 2020 election. All the listed hate groups in America are from the racist far-right. They hate Blacks, gays, Jews and Democrats. Then you have the “QAnon” people, who are at least partly insane because of what they believe Democrats do to children. These sick people all vote Republican, the farthest right the better.

Unfortunately, lies travel much faster than the truth.

E.L. “Bud” Ruff, Naples

Cruelty of egg production

Egg prices have tripled in some states in the past year, largely because of the slaughter of nearly 58 million birds sickened by bird flu.Yet, no price can possibly justify the cruelty inherent in egg production. When chicks are hatched, all “useless” males are ground up alive or suffocated in large plastic bags. The “lucky” females are crammed five to a wire cage the size of a folded newspaper, where they are unable to spread their wings or display other normal behaviors. The wire floor cuts painfully into their feet, as the walls tear out their feathers. When their egg production drops after 18 months, they are simply ground up for pet food.But there is more. Eggs contain saturated fat and cholesterol, key factors in incidence of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. They frequently carry food-borne bacteria, including Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Staphylococcus, which account for 1.3 million U.S. illnesses and 500 deaths annually.Entering “egg-free” in a search engine returns tons of recipes for delicious, compassionate, healthful, eco-friendly egg substitutes and egg-free food products.

Neil LaVince, Fort Myers Beach

Consider being colorblind

It struck me that the Thursday, Jan 12 Sports section lead story seems to demonstrate the writer’ s unconscious bias, that race must still be noted: ie,“ Gibson will also be the first Black head coach at Riverdale.”Are we not past the point of differentiating race or ethnicity in our news stories in this century, here in the USA?

He is a man, qualified to be a head coach, and it should be left at that.It’s time to stop classifying notable people by their race, whether a coach, a president, a business person, or any profession.

Might we truly consider being colorblind in future reports or discussions, conversations or judgments?This great country is made up of many nationalities, color variations, ethnicities and faiths. We unconsciously recognize this, but still seem to feel we must sometimes define someone as Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Mexican, or whatever, to differentiate someone different from our own ethnicity, color or persuasion.

It’s unfortunate that many of us (Caucasians) still (consciously or unconsciously) feel a need to point these differences out.Let’s resolve to do better, and become universally color or ethnicity “blind” in our conversations and writings.

Charles Hugus, Naples

Two-faced charlatan

Ole “Honest Joe” is at it again. Biden’s rambling, self-serving speech this past Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church honoring Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. again demonstrated his inability to read a prepared spiel. He also showed his hypocrisy when he revealed his two boyhood heroes were MLK and Bobby Kennedy, despite Kennedy initiating an FBI investigation into King’s suspected communist ties and womanizing. Later, President Lyndon Johnson ordered J. Edgar Hoover to bury this inquiry. Factually, neither Kennedy brother championed Black causes as Dems portray. They frequently did the opposite.

Biden has a history of playing fast and loose with the truth, including plagiarizing the words of others. For instance, prior to the 2020 election he promised to forgive student loans while knowing that was unlawful. He proclaims the southern border is not open despite visual evidence to the contrary. Most recently, after chastising Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents he is guilty of the same offense. These are only a few examples of liberal double standards, supported by biased federal agencies and a colluding mainstream media.

Before casting stones at their opponents, Democrats should inspect their own dirty laundry. They applaud this man whose brother and son became millionaires riding his coattail as he personally acquired multiple expensive properties. As he proclaims over and over ..”I am the only — or — first president to blah,blah.” Dishonest Joe is likely the biggest fabricator of falsehoods to ever plant his tush in the White House.

If alive, Dr. King would surely shun Biden’s words of praise as he proclaims to be the best friend Blacks have ever had. More accurately, he has relied on Blacks to further his political career. Perhaps someday they will realize how they have been bamboozled by this two-faced charlatan.

Gerald Ponder, Cape Coral