Letters to the Editors

Don't cut off a helping hand

Re: Soup kitchen, homeless also a concern, letter, March 24.

The letter writer wants to "relocate the Soup Kitchen, the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project and other related homeless services out of the downtown redevelopment district and, ultimately, out of Clearwater." He would have us believe that these community services have made businesses close, property values decrease and crimes increase in the district.

He cites no statistics or studies to justify his tirade against these programs, which help those of our citizens who are without food, shelter, jobs or all three. But he fears this "volcano" stands in the way of attracting venture capital to develop the Glen Oaks golf course property and solve the drainage problem. Methinks he is speaking principally for himself.

The Soup Kitchen, CHIP as it now exists, and the planned Parkbrooke Apartments, a transitional housing program to be run by CHIP, are not the cause of any problem -- they are helping to contain any unruly element among the homeless.

With the blessing of Clearwater's elected officials and the hands-on oversight of our chief of police, along with trained personnel from St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army, these worthwhile programs have been established to help some of the marginalized in our city become self-sustaining members of the community once again.

Rather than demeaning the selfless efforts of the many professional and volunteer workers holding out their hands to these unfortunates and seeking to remove them from our city completely, we should be proud of what has been accomplished so far and be grateful that Clearwater has accepted its responsibility to look after the least of our brethren.
-- Arthur X. Deegan, Clearwater

Enforce ban on fireworks without any hesitation

Re: Illegal fireworks.

As a former Dunedin commissioner who suffered many slings and arrows for advocating the banning of fireworks in my city, I would like to publicly commend Pinellas County commissioners for having the political will to at least take the first steps toward future enforcement of our already long-ignored state law banning use by private citizens.

We see no justification for further delay by scheduling a public hearing on June 10, and see absolutely no validity to Commissioner John Morroni's argument that this law impinges on our freedoms and amounts to too much government regulation. Would he advance the same flawed argument to oppose enforcement of our laws against underage drinking? Did he take the same position while a member of our Legislature?

As for Commissioner Susan Latvala's contention that violators will just take their business to another county and Commissioner Bob Stewart's comment regarding how wonderful it was to observe the illegal use in celebration of the Bucs' Super Bowl victory, one must seriously ask how these personal opinions can possibly absolve officials from failure to perform their sworn duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of county residents and enforce existing state law.

The governing bodies of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Dunedin are also to be congratulated for passing resolutions supporting the Welch proposal. We trust that the new mayor of Dunedin will ultimately do so. Perhaps our new representative in the state Legislature, Tom Anderson, will consider submitting amendments that will plug the loopholes.

Even during these difficult times, since ours is a government of laws and not men, officials cannot continue to ignore the maiming and slaughtering of humans as well as destruction of property that continues in the name of celebration of "patriotism." In the past few years in this area, two houses burned, a man blew his hand off, and I have personally witnessed annually repeated episodes of violations by parents and children with flares and rockets landing on boats, a condo, a boat house, a crowd, etc., while still lit. Nationally there are a reported 6,000 children seriously injured annually (blindness, hearing, loss of fingers, etc.) as well as the most recent debacle in Rhode Island with 97 deaths.

Do we really need this?
-- Tom Osborne, Dunedin

Forever let it wave to support our troops

Every American should support our troops however they can. Be patriotic; wave your flag every day of the war. No one likes war, but the soldiers are protecting our homeland. I have kept my flag flying each day since 9/11. United we stand.
-- Bob and Jane East, Clearwater

Your voice counts

We invite readers to write letters for publication. Address them to Letters to the Editor, the Times, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. Or you may fax them to (727) 445-4119, or e-mail to
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Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length. We regret that not all letters can be printed.

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