Opinion: Video lottery is a good way to fund education

Placing video lottery terminals in the parimutuel facilities in Florida is one of the safest ways to secure the future of much needed funding in Florida. I speak as a 60-year-old native Floridian.

Do we want to someday see machines in every convenience store in this state? I think not.

Is Florida a "gambling free" state at the present time? Absolutely not!

If you want to point a finger at addiction to gambling, point it at the Florida Lottery. Playing the lottery is taking a chance at a "pig in a poke." The odds of any kind of return to the majority of the players is remote. The only winner with the lottery has been education in the state.

Placing machines in the parimutuel facilities in this state will keep the gambling controlled and under the supervision of the state. The benefit will be to education in Florida and the recently mandated new constitutional amendments regarding class sizes and kindergarten for 4-year-olds.

It is time for everyone to open their eyes and admit that people like to gamble and will spend their money doing so. Florida is billed as a tourist state -- let's be one and offer the entertainment to those who seek it. Let's collect the taxes that we are now missing -- cruises to nowhere, trips to Mississippi and the Bahamas and Indian casinos around the state. All these equal zero dollars to Florida's economy -- but millions of dollars are spent on the pleasure already.

And one cannot overlook gambling on the Internet. It is available in every home in this state with a click of a button.

You want Florida gambling free? Then pull the plug on the computers, the Indians and close the bingo parlors in the church halls and shut down the veteran organizations.

I applaud Senate President Jim King for his courage. I only hope he can strengthen the backbone of Gov. Jeb Bush to face the real issues regarding the situation here in Florida. Education is the ticket to keep gambling a recreational sport in Florida!
-- Yvonne M. Gurbada, Sarasota

Greyhound racers care about the dogs

Re: Dog track gambling shouldn't expand, Nov. 21.

As the director of media relations for Derby Lane and a former greyhound trainer, I was shocked to see your newspaper publish a letter that directed readers to a hard-core animal rights anti-greyhound Web site.

Animal rights activists will say anything to promote their extreme agenda, which includes not only the abolition of greyhound racing but eventually a complete ban on the use of animals for any human purpose or benefit. I understand that it may not be possible to verify every claim made in a letter to the editor, but it seems reasonable to draw the line at giving hate-filled Web sites free promotion in this way. Would you have left the reference in if it directed readers to a Web site that attacked someone else's lifestyle or religion?

After 25 years in greyhound racing at various levels, I know that the vast majority of people in the sport are very conscientious about animal welfare. As an industry, greyhound racing has worked closely with volunteer groups to promote greyhound adoption, with the result that now about 90 percent of the registered greyhounds in the United States either get placed in adoptive homes upon retirement or are returned to the farm as pets or for breeding purposes. That is a fact you will never hear from the animal rights extremists.

Greyhound racing is very active in Florida, and thousands of good people are involved in the sport. To provide free advertising to those who constantly slander these good people is shameful and grossly unfair. I hope that you will do the fair thing and direct your readers to two other sites that offer a more accurate and balanced view of greyhound racing. They are the American Greyhound Council's Web site, www.agcouncil.com, and the National Greyhound Association at www.ngagreyhounds.com.
-- Vera Filipelli, St. Petersburg

Our deteriorating education graduates

Watching the implementation of the Class Size Amendment will be interesting. Having taught more than 30 years in Pinellas County, I have watched the gradual deterioration of all aspects of our public schools. Students misbehave more than ever before. Parents do not take responsibility for their children. Teachers are overwhelmed by the demands of their job. I am convinced that class size will not be the panacea taxpayers expect.

It will be most interesting to see where all the qualified and capable teachers will come from. In order for a teaching candidate to complete training to graduate, he or she must spend at least six weeks as an intern in a classroom under the direction of a veteran teacher. The last several interns I've had were horrible. One, a geography major, didn't know where the Sahara Desert was. I prayed that this person's internship would end soon; I cringed with the thought that I was inflicting this incompetent soul on my young charges. Another intern had the personality of a flea. He may have been knowledgeable, but one will never know. He was totally unaware of the students; he simply delivered a lifeless speech in a droning monotone to . . . maybe the wall . . . on a daily basis.

Our universities are not graduating top notch educators. Years ago, when women could either be nurses, secretaries or teachers, there were enough people with the knowledge and personality to staff classrooms. Today, females are no longer trapped into specific careers, and most of them do not opt to go into a field where the pay is low, the work grueling and the respect nil. The old adage, "You get what you pay for" rings true.

I will not take another intern. After all these years, when students enter my class in the beginning of the school year, I instantly feel an attachment to them; they're mine! No way would I inflict what is coming out of our colleges on these innocent kids! So as many of us old timers are ready to retire, the question is: Where are the competent teachers going to come from and does society really even care?
-- Melanie Woods, Palm Harbor Middle School, Palm Harbor

Politically motivated court

Re: Gore's revision of presidential race, Nov. 21.

Thank you for publishing George F. Will's column on the Florida Supreme Court's duplicitous role in the 2000 election. As in your Nov. 11 editorial on the voter-approved Amendment 1, the Times further demonstrates that the Florida Supreme Court is a politically motivated body bent more on making up law when it serves them.

Fortunately, we have the U.S. Supreme Court to show them how it should be done!
-- Lance K. Piscitelli, Clearwater

Downtown is congested enough

A Nov. 20 letter to the Times states: "What is really needed to revive downtown (St. Petersburg) is people. Lots of them" and then refers to the 8,000 residents that could have populated the proposed new community at Albert Whitted Airport.

Recent articles in the Times report drivers having to circle downtown blocks several times before locating a parking space. In addition, traffic on Fourth Street N to 22nd Avenue now looks like a parking lot, and traffic signal has been proposed at 18th Avenue N to stem the flow of traffic.

The winter season has yet to begin with its heavy influx of seasonal visitors, and semi-trucks are now using residential side streets to make deliveries. Summer traffic is what winter traffic used to be. Condemning and converting blighted land for the high-rises has its merits. Other areas are available. Use them. Downtown St. Petersburg doesn't need to be flooded with more condominium high-rises and congestion. Did somebody say something about a water shortage?
-- Bill Dunihue, St. Petersburg

Pedestrians share the blame

Re: Pasco U.S. 19 tops deadly roads, Nov. 21.

This piece by Leonora LaPeter does a fine job of reporting the findings of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, and of alarming those readers who accept anything they read and never look deeper than the surface. And while I read much about spending money to make safer streets, I did not see any investigation, on the part of the research project, city officials, or the reporter, as to how much of the problem was really with dangerous streets, lacking in pedestrian safety devices, and how much of the fault was with people too lazy and/or ignorant to use a sidewalk or crosswalk when available.

Having seen, and nearly hit, more than one mother walking her children between cars, when a crosswalk (there for a reason, I might add) was 30 yards away, I have a hard time believing the fault lies entirely with automobile drivers or lack of city planning.
-- Douglas DePerto, Tampa

A time for families

During Thanksgiving week, the families of the Tampa Bay area will join families across the United States in celebration of the 32nd annual National Family Week, Nov. 24-30. The celebration provides everyone opportunities to honor the connections that support and strengthen families.

National Family Week is a time to remember the special people or organizations that support your family. Perhaps it is a grandmother or neighbor who watches the children during the work week, a placement center that helped you find a new job, a community agency that provided after-school programs or a community organization that helped get a new park built in the neighborhood.

Family Service Centers Inc., working with the Sanderlin Family Center, Foundation Village, Citizens for Progress and Safety Harbor Neighborhood Family Center, is planning special activities in Pinellas County. Together, we are sponsoring "Families Reading Together." This local event, taking place in the neighborhood centers, highlights the importance of families reading together to kindle the fire of interest in children's reading and underscores the valuable contribution that local libraries make to strengthen families and communities.

We believe that when America's diverse families and children are safe, stable, strong and nurturing, our communities and our nation are strong. We encourage everyone to take time during National Family Week to honor the connections that support and strengthen families year-round. Let's recognize the value of families as well as the importance of family values.

Following are several easy ways families may choose to celebrate National Family Week:

-- Write a letter to someone who has made a difference in your family.

-- Discuss ways to spend quality time together, perhaps by volunteering.

-- Hold a "family supper" with neighbors or with the families of your children's friends.

-- Get involved with an issue in the community that's important to your family.

-- Visit a local neighborhood center to learn about the family activities it offers.

-- Write a letter to a family member describing what you appreciate about him or her.

-- Read a book with your children.

During the week of Thanksgiving and National Family Week, it is an appropriate time for us to say "thank you" to all who make our lives better.
-- David Kirk, president and chief executive officer, Family Service Centers Inc., Clearwater

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