One would think that a half-billion dollars of additional revenue generated by a growing economy would be acclaimed as good news for all Floridians. Yet once again the Times is determined to see the glass as half-empty.
The current-year budget reflects increased commitments to Florida's critical needs, including more than $800-million in additional funds for public schools. We have also maintained fiscal discipline by limiting the growth of government to our people's ability to pay for it.
These additional revenues demonstrate that prioritizing economic development and fiscal discipline is a winning strategy. Now is not the time to abandon it. While we project $541-million in additional revenues for the current year, only $144-million is expected to recur next year and in the years ahead. Spending all available revenues now, therefore, would only increase government spending far above what future revenues will be able to support.
We look forward to crafting a budget next year based in part upon these additional revenues. But we will not spend money we do not have.
-- Jeb Bush, governor, Tallahassee
State of education is laughable
Re: Lottery works to support education, letter, Nov. 14.
This must be a joke! Who in their right mind is going to argue that Jeb "devious plans" Bush is helping education? I read through this rebuttal to Howard Troxler's column (Lottery not helping education as it proclaims, Nov. 3) in disbelief. I'm studying to be a registered nurse, and whenever I mention the term "education governor" to any professor or college employee, they just smirk or snicker.
The letter was full of statistics and other "credible" information to try to convince the public that education is improving for the children of Florida under Jeb Bush. The same man has just allowed high school students to be able to graduate with three-fourths of the credits previously required. Some children couldn't read when they graduated with the full level of credits! Now those who graduate with fewer credits may have to take remedial courses to make up for the lost classes when they get to college. Therefore what used to be paid for is now the student's expense.
I've got an idea: Forget about FCATs and lottery contribution numbers and all the other smoke blown by the governor and the lottery to confuse the public. Go to any teacher or office-holder at any learning institution, and ask him or her how the recent years have been under Jeb Bush - Just mention it at your next parent-teacher conference. I guarantee they will not say education has improved.
I was baffled by this letter right up until I saw it was from Rebecca Dirden Mattingly, secretary of the Florida Lottery.
-- Christian Campbell, student nurse, Brooksville
It was a joke
Re: Another Bush embarrassment, letter, Nov. 17.
I knew someone besides the head of the gay and lesbian organization in San Francisco would find bigotry in Gov. Jeb Bush's generic wisecrack about San Francisco. My question for the letter writer is this: How can a widely inclusive and unspecific characterization be considered so offensive? Bush's reference to "endangered species" could apply to the small number of Republicans in San Francisco or to the ideas of the city's dominant Democrats. It's a joke, my friend - one that San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown apparently laughed at.
I'd like to know how the letter writer feels about Bill Maxwell's very specific - and, I think bigoted - indictment in his reference to "the Republicans' racist inner core" (Yellow Dogs are a liberal's best friend, Nov. 12). The Republicans I know have no such racist core. And I don't think Maxwell had a joke in mind when he wrote his column. It is kind of a joke, though, come to think of it, that anyone of Maxwell's intelligence and experience could actually believe such a characterization. Yeah, that's funny - or sad, depending on how you think of it.
-- Bob Armbruster, Seminole
Where is the outrage at Kennedy?
Re: Another Bush embarrassment, letter.
The letter writer states that Jeb Bush "once again . . . reveals his ingrained bigotry" when he commented about San Francisco's "endangered species."
Well, what would he say about Sen. Ted Kennedy's remark about President Bush's judicial nominees, Janice Rogers Brown and Miguel Estrada (African-American and Hispanic, respectively)? Kennedy boasted, "What has not ended is the resolution and the determination of the members of the United States Senate to continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court, federal court in the United States."
Where is his outrage on that? I guess Kennedy gets away with making such denigrating remarks.
-- Ron Melone, Clearwater
Let charity begin at home
About 12-million families last year worried that they couldn't afford to buy food, and 32 percent of them actually experienced someone going hungry at one time or another. Nearly 3.8-million families were hungry last year to the point where someone in the household skipped meals because he couldn't afford them.
That was up by 8 percent from 2001. No, this is not Iraq - it's the United States and the statistics are from a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is one of many scenarios a country should view before pre-emptively invading a sovereign nation for no just reason and spending billions to rebuild that country. Charity begins at home.
-- Larry Dunn, Orange Park
A wrong for the court to right
Guantanamo and its detainees will be a subject for the Supreme Court to decide in the near future. It's time for this review to take place. As it stands now, Guantanamo has become a dark page in American history and is being viewed as an evil, hideous bloodstain on that page. It is a place where justice was denied and where the moral standards of the world communities were sent back to the dark ages. And it was done by the superpower of the world.
The administration, in its quest for its agendas, has managed to shut off the beacon lights of justice that so many human beings depend on to release them from oppression and give them hope that someday they, too, will have a better place to live.
This administration is showing its double standards wherein we have our troops being killed to bring justice and democracy to the Middle East and at the same time, we are putting human beings in prison for life, without due process or giving them their day in court.
Let's hope the Supreme Court will right the wrongs and bring sense to this administration.
-- Luis Zamora, Brandon
Not behaving like a democracy
Your Nov. 14 editorial Security versus liberty was right on target. How is it possible for the United States of America to ask the rest of the world to democratize while it behaves undemocratically? Offshore prison camps; hundreds detained without charges; enemy combatants who can be anyone the government has no case against; a Patriot Act where librarians spy on users.
Is this the democracy we want to export? It is about time we claim our country back.
-- Samar Jarrah, Port Charlotte
The way war is
Re: Tactics in Iraq deemed "brutal," Nov. 14.
So what else is new? If I where to discuss military tactics/strategy with Gen. John Abizaid, which isn't too likely, I would mention several things:
1. "War is hell!" (Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman).
2. Never, ever, underestimate your opponent.
3. Marshall Tito Broz's Yugoslav mountain guerrillas successfully kept an entire German mechanized Panzer division at bay in World War II.
4. Never, ever bring boxing gloves to a street brawl.
5. If nothing else seems to work, try using the enemy's tactics.
6. Ah, well. Like famous generals before him, upon retirement he can write his memoirs, give lectures, etc., and make tons of money.
(As to my "credentials," I was just a staff sergeant, 81mm mortar squad leader, in Korea a long, long time ago.)
-- Jos. P. Corell, Safety Harbor
Get tough on our senators
Re: A long-winded night for the Senate, Nov. 13.
This country better forget about a new get-tough policy on Baghdad. They better get a new get-tough policy on those guys in Washington. What a joke: cots for fatigued senators!
-- Flo Beynon, Port Richey
A tribute to Terri
Re: A thousand words about the Terri Schiavo you never knew, Nov. 13.
Thank you, Kelley Benham, for your Terri Schiavo article. Probably there are many readers like me who are sick of this controversial case and who wish it would just be resolved. Until this story, I'd never made it through an article or news broadcast about her plight. But this article provided a lovely little vignette that paid tribute to Terri and the dignity of humanity that perhaps others caught up in the world of politics have lost sight of.
-- Stephen Ross, Gulfport
Try a compromise
My heart goes out to both Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents, the Schindlers. In a situation where the life (or death) of a loved one is at stake, emotions are obviously going to run high.
In my opinion, the solution is very simple: Each party needs to reconnect with the compassion in their hearts and make a compromise. For a limited, but reasonable time of perhaps 9 to 12 months, Michael Schiavo could agree to allow the Schindlers to administer whatever therapy they feel would be advantageous to Terri. I suggest this, because it is obvious that Terri's parents are desperate to be sure they have done everything possible to help their daughter before giving her a death sentence. As a parent, I know I would want that opportunity. If after the allotted time there is no improvement, then the Schindlers must accept the fact that it's time to let go and allow Terri's husband to follow through with removing the feeding tube.
If a miracle does happen, and Terri does improve, it seems only humane to continue the rehabilitation until she can communicate in some manner her own wishes regarding her life.
-- Edie Smith, Seminole
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