Opinion: Governor should avoid primary endorsements

Although individuals are free to express support for a candidate of their choice, a governor should avoid endorsing any one candidate in a primary election. In my opinion, the true purpose of the Republican Party is to support all Republicans. A policy of endorsing one Republican over another in primary campaigns is ridiculous. What is the purpose of a primary election if the party leadership's aim is to hand-pick their own puppet-candidate?
-- A.T. O'Donnell, registered Republican, St. Petersburg

A boost for the underdogs?

Re: Bush endorsements rile primary opponents.

Isn't the power of incumbency in terms of finances, contacts and experience enough already? Why did Reps. Frank Farkas and Leslie Waters feel the need to also ask Gov. Jeb Bush for help?

The governor has contributed to the David versus Goliath battles in these two house districts, and I believe the voters will rally behind the underdogs.
-- Allen P. Bonnette, Wesley Chapel

Pig amendment is lesson in democracy

The constitutional amendment protecting pregnant pigs from torment will be a boon to the democratic process in Florida. It will show that, at the end of the day, the people do have a check over the billion-dollar lobbies that have crippled the Legislature for decades. This initiative, unlike the bullet train amendment and many others over the years, made the ballot after more than a year of grass-roots campaigning, and is motivated solely by ethical concerns, not by self-interest. It will cost taxpayers little, if anything at all.

I am surprised that many argue for the disenfranchisement of the majority by asserting that all lawmaking should be left to the Legislature, even when the Legislature is crooked and inept. Before anything, we should ask whether the Legislature is effectively upholding the will of the people. If not, then the Constitution is failing and needs revision.

In November, I'll be voting for several of the amendments, including the one to protect pregnant pigs.
-- Brad Grossman, North Miami Beach

Protect the humans

Re: Pregnant pigs amendment will go before voters, Aug. 6.

Though I have a fondness for animals and am against any type of mistreatment of any from of life, I was totally appalled by this article. Let me tell you why. Floridians for Humane Farms got almost a half a million people to sign their petition. That just goes to show that the people of this country are more concerned about the treatment of animals than they are concerned about humans. Almost 500,000 people want a constitutional amendment to prevent pregnant pigs from being in too-small cages, yet how many unborn children are slain each year in this country?

How many kids go hungry in this country? And what about the many, many acts of cruelty to humans in this country? Where are the 500,000 people then? It is a sad state of affairs when the people in this country care more for animals than for humans. Yes, there should be laws to protect animals. But a constitutional amendment? This would not only be a sad thing, but it also would make a mockery of the Constitution itself. The Constitution is to protect people not animals.

Let's protect the humans for a change
-- Glenn M. Huggins Jr., St. Petersburg

Questions regarding an attack on Iraq

Re: Missing the voice of dissent, by Norman Solomon, Aug. 8.

A few questions for all those who can influence our decisions about Iraq:

Have you carefully studied the Persian Gulf War? Are you willing to face lots of American body bags? What about seeing the Gulf War Syndrome again? Do you really think that even a "successful" war against Iraq will make the United States and its allies safer? Do you want this country to be thought of as the world's worst bully?

How would you like it if another country attacked the United States in order to destroy or capture our advanced weapons or to change our form of government?
-- Mary Moore Boulay, Clearwater

Seek an alternative to military action

Despite the "hawks" patriotic posturing and the now urgent plea for action, the world consensus cannot be ignored. With Russian President Vladimir Putin, the European Union and Arab states warning us that they will not support a U.S. invasion of Iraq and to go ahead and ignore their comments would be disastrous to the United States in terms of both world opinion and internal security. There has to be an alternative to military action.

Pressuring Saddam Hussein to allow U.N. inspectors, or pressuring him to step down without threat of arrest or trial in the World Court, or further threats of sanctions (which have already made the innocent citizens of Iraq suffer) would be better than killing more innocents and likely letting the target get away. Remember Osama bin Laden. We have to stop supporting imperialist thinking that threatens our own citizens with retaliatory moves like Sept. 11.

The same goes for Fidel Castro. By alienating him we are only allowing seeds of discontent to sprout into full-fledged hatred of the United States. Introducing capitalism through trade would weaken Castro more than sanctions, and it would keep potential terrorists from using Cuba as a training ground or launchpad for assaults on U.S. citizens.
-- Kevin Centlivre, Bay Pines

Remember how it was in Cuba

Re: Greco's overdue trip to Cuba is a signal of hope, Applause for Mayor Greco, and Why make the Cuban people suffer? letters, Aug. 5.

Letters commending Mayor Dick Greco for his trip to Cuba are welcomed in this environment of egregious egoism. If Fulgencio Battista had been the benevolent dictator that Cubans currently living in America dream about, I doubt that Fidel Castro could have ever convinced a half-dozen people to talk to him. It would be very interesting to have a detailed account of what life ws really like for the vast majority of Cubans under dictatorship. But I suppose it is hard to give up a life with wild nightclubs and mob money.

I worked in Jamaica for a time in 1959. Household employees were paid a maximum of $3 per week, and local residents who hired them became very upset if you even questioned the miserly wage paid for servants.

Trade and tourism will quickly convince Cubans that they have had enough of Castro, but I doubt that it will create any repatriation.
-- Harold Seckinger, Homosassa Springs

A president in the trenches is preferred

With our economy melting down at the close of nearly every day on the stock market and tensions in the Middle East nearing nuclear proportion, our president and leader of the free world goes on vacation, a "month-long working vacation," one in which he can relax in his own home, wear jeans and boots and jog through the woodlands each morning. Wouldn't we all like to take those kinds of vacations?

Instead, most Americans I know are slaving at their jobs to make ends meet for their families, fearing that those jobs could capsize without notice due to downsizing or worse, company bankruptcy and closure. They are postponing retirement into their 70s because of diminished funds in their retirement accounts and rising medical costs with insurance reimbursements. They are working harder and longer to make wages they earned a few years ago. And they are skipping vacations because they are simply too tired and vacations are too risky.

I would prefer to see our leader in the trenches with us, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up and sweat beading on his forehead, not sporting a denim shirt and trucking through the pasture showing off cattle.
-- Kristin M. Kronsnoble, Tampa

Pretending Palestinians don't exist

Re: It is time to reject the myth of Israeli occupation, letter, Aug. 7.

The letter writer, chairperson of the Anti-Hate Committee of B'nai B'rith, says that the West Bank and Gaza are not "occupied territories." Further, he says Jewish people have a well-established connection to this land whereas the Palestinians have no historic connection because they do not exist as a people. These assertions fly in the face of available facts and are easy to refute.

Palestine has been continuously inhabited since the dawn of history. In 1850 it was estimated that half a million people lived in Palestine with 80 percent being Muslims, 10 percent Christian and 7 percent Jews. By 1922, when the British mandate for Palestine was established, the population had grown to 750,000 with 78 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian and 11 percent Jewish. Arabs, Muslims and Christians in Palestine during this period far outnumbered Jewish residents.

Population mix has been a problem for Israel throughout its history and it remains a problem today. Israel cannot operate as a true democracy with equal rights for all, including Palestinians, because it insists that Jewish residents must be a majority. To exist as a Jewish state, Israelis must drive out the Arab population, as they have done with the Palestinian refugees, or corral them in an unidentified status in occupied territories, as they are doing in the West Bank and Gaza.

A two-state solution, with Israel in control of 78 percent of the land and the Palestinians in the other 22 percent is what most people now see as the solution. Unfortunately neither Israel nor the Greater Florida B'nai B'rith accepts this solution. They prefer to pretend that the Palestinians don't exist!
-- Joseph A. Mahon, St. Petersburg

Occupation is very real

Re: It's time to reject myth of Israeli occupation, letter.

There is nothing more real than a colonizer's occupation of a people and a land by the force of tanks, F-16s, helicopter gunships, humiliating checkpoints, roadblocks, curfews, restriction of movement, destruction of infrastructure and the occasional dropping of a 1,000-pound bomb in a heavily populated residential area. The effects are real, too, with 2,000 people dead and many more thousands injured. These real and horrible conditions lead to real frustration, anger and desperation.

The world, international law, and the United Nations consider the Israeli occupation to be illegal. The United Nations and international law recognize the right of a people under occupation to resist by any means necessary.

This letter is nothing more than Zionist propaganda. Using the writer's logic, we could also claim the Nazi occupation of Europe was also a myth.
-- Pilar Saad, Tampa

A peculiar patriotism

When I became a citizen of the United States, I received a small American flag, which I thought was a really precious memento and have kept in a safe deposit box so it would not get soiled or worn. Since the Sept. 11 disaster, I see so many American flags in the middle of the road, lying in yards, lying in flower beds, others so tattered and torn you can't even see the stripes. And now I see towels designed as flags that people can use to wipe themselves off with.

How appalling! This is being patriotic? Wake up, America!
-- Mary Voiles, New Port Richey

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