America's heroes of World War II deserve our thanks
Letters to the EditorPublished February 26, 2005
I am a 41-year-old Naval officer who, on a sunny day in Tampa, decided to attend the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Iwo Jima last week.
During the five hours of the commemoration, I had more chills and goose bumps than I have in the last five years combined. Watching this generation recite the Pledge of Allegiance, seeing them with their "Iwo Jima Survivor" ball caps, and listening to their stories inspired me and humbled me. It was a moment to relish and remember.
We are so lucky to still be in the midst of these brave soldiers, sailors and Marines. A decade or two from now, we will only have stories and songs to remember them. God bless them and their heroic deeds. Thank you for answering the call and staring down tyranny and preserving my freedom.
-- Richard Fahy, Tampa
Grateful for the appreciation
I know the rest of the World War II veterans would join me in a big thank you to the sponsors of the appreciation day for World War II veterans in Tampa on Feb. 19.
All involved - the service people, the guides, the speakers, the musicians, everybody - gave us a huge welcome. The hospitality was as good as it gets. It was very moving!
-- Ralph B. Hovind, commander, U.S. Naval Reserve (retired), Dunedin
Listen to old warriors' stories
Thank you for your Feb. 20 article on our World War II veterans (Iwo Jima). It is so nice to see that our heroes have not been forgotten. With more than 1,500 of our World War II vets dying every day, we as a country are losing so much of our history. Our children are being deprived of the real life stories of courage and survival. Instead they're watching so-called reality TV.
What our children don't realize is that some day when they have children of their own, and their children want to trace a family tree, or ask about soldiers, or heroes, what will they say?
Don't think of Grandpa as a crazy or senile old man. Don't wait another five or 10 years until it's too late and then wonder if grandpa ever fought in a war?
Ask him now. Use this opportunity to find out who Grandpa is. Let Grandpa tell you about the war. No matter what he did, whether he was abroad or stateside, whether he saw combat or he was a cook, there is a story to be told. Let Grandpa tell it. You will both learn so much from it. You will learn that maybe Grandpa isn't such a crazy, senile old man, and Grandpa will learn that maybe his grandchildren do care. Maybe they will lead our future. Maybe we won't be forgotten.
-- Trish Austin-Lord, Safety Harbor
The true costs of war
Re: Post-traumatic stress disorder needs to be taken seriously, letter, Feb. 20.
Thank you so much for this letter concerning the writer's experience with post-traumatic stress disorder. He is right on target. The general public must learn more about the aftereffects of war. As a former wife of a Vietnam veteran who served two tours in the Marine Corps, I must tell you, the scars I bear are deep indeed.
Little is written about secondary PTSD. Spouses, children and families of troubled vets are affected in so many ways by being in close proximity to their vets. Living with a disease before it was identified as one caused untold trauma, confusion and despair for those of us trying to hold life together on the home front.
I was issued no manual to help me cope. That I managed to survive 19 years of that hell still baffles me. It was only by the grace of God.
Perhaps the time will come when the public, who sends soldiers off to war, finally realizes we need to demand that your government provide funding for mental health services for those directly affected, for as long as it takes.
Wake up, America, to the true costs of war.
-- Charlene Rubush, Seminole
Helping troops and displaying a ribbon
My wife and I have read several letters from people suggesting we take the magnetic ribbons off of our vehicles and do something meaningful for our troops.
While we agree with the sentiment, it should not be assumed that everyone isn't doing something else as well. We collected food, toiletries, cards and other necessities for months to send to a group of 25 soldiers we were told receive very little from home. It is amazing how many people were willing to contribute - not just goods to send but also money to pay for postage. (The government does not have a discount for things being shipped to our troops - how sad is that?)
We have maintained e-mail contact with their leader and are happy to report that all of these soldiers are now out of harm's way but have now offered the names of more people for us to help.
So, I guess the message is, we are not taking our magnetic ribbons off our vehicles as they are merely another sign of support for our troops. And whether you agree with this war or not (we don't), we as a people need to lend whatever support we can to our brave service people everywhere.
Every time you go to the grocery store, pick up a few extra cans of pop-top goods. They particularly like soups, stews, freezer pops (if they have access to a freezer), jerky - anything American.
-- Earl F. Crockett, St. Petersburg
Don't cut veterans' health care
How can we honor our veterans last weekend at the Tampa Convention Center and then allow our government to cut their benefits?
The Bush administration is planning to increase the cost of medical care for vets.
This administration can spend millions of dollars to educate the women of Afghanistan but will expect those vets who risk their lives for this country to pay for their benefits.
Write your representatives and tell them no to any change in the vets' health care.
-- Harry L. Schweer, St. Petersburg
The Dresden nightmare
Re: Dresden memories still hurt, Feb. 13.
Finally - the press has recognized the terrible bombing of Dresden! This city was no threat - no factories turning out war materiel, no airfields, nothing to accelerate the war.
Also, by this time it was pretty much a "done deal" that the war was lost by Germany. This was a nighttime bombing by the British; they bombed people, churches and museums. This, to me, was just a vengeful act. There were just civilians and families. This was a real holocaust! Then came the second and third bombings the very next day.
All the committees or investigations won't change what happened - death and destruction!
-- Dorothy E. Karkheck, Dunedin
Retribution was due
Re: Dresden memories still hurt.
Don't feel sorry or shed a tear for the town of Dresden and its inhabitants.
I grew up in London and lived through the daily and nighttime bombings from the Luftwaffe. This went on for months. We took our school lessons in an air-raid shelter, then after dinner went to our shelter to sleep.
I also remember a town called Coventry and many other cities reduced to rubble. So, when people talk about the callousness of the British, they should realize that it was retribution for the war they started.
-- Ronald A. Westwood, Pinellas Park
Try a means test for Social Security
Re: Social Security.
Why not have a means test for social Security?
Surely Bill Gates, George Bush, wealthy politicians, CEOs of large companies, actors and other multimillionaires such as those who make absurd salaries playing with balls of various shapes and sizes, do not need Social Security payments.
Substantial savings could be made if persons whose income or assets exceed a specified threshold were excluded from payments. It could be enough to save the program for several decades. It is an actuarial problem and it certainly is worth considering - or reconsidering.
Moreover, according to some experts, Social Security is not in imminent danger - not until 2042. Hopefully the administration's pet project of individual savings accounts will not succeed.
-- Suzanne P. Coates, Sun City Center
Medicare is the real problem
A significant percentage of Social Security recipients face an economic catastrophe, but not from the insolvency of the Social Security system in 30-plus years, as is forecast by political alarmists with a hidden agenda.
The catastrophe Social Security recipients face is the alarming increase in Medicare premiums as our government transfers more of the astronomical costs of the Medicare program to Social Security beneficiaries.
Medicare cost problems have been made even worse by foolishly providing for prescription drug benefits without a plan to fund those costs. However, only a fool would think that the government will not pass those mind-boggling costs on to Social Security recipients as increases in Medicare premiums. The increased Medicare premium deductions from Social Security checks will make things even more difficult for those who now depend solely on those checks for their poverty-level existence.
Steps must be taken now to link Social Security and Medicare costs whenever one or the other is considered by the government for "overhaul." Steps must be taken immediately to cap Medicare premiums and to assure that net Social Security payments to recipients are not reduced further by government efforts to "save" the system from insolvency.
-- Jimmy D. Chiddix, Beverly Hills
Bush has no concern for costs
Re: Bush: Don't touch Medicare, Feb. 12.
President Bush does not want Congress to reopen the Medicare legislation that has been passed, even though we now know the 10-year cost will be around $1-trillion dollars not the $400-billion originally predicted. And it contains an obviously bad idea stating that Medicare will not negotiate prescripiton drug prices. In other words, Medicare will pay whatever the drug companies decide to charge for prescription drugs.
Cost and mounting deficits seem to not concern this president at all. Or whether something is a good or bad idea.
His plan to save Social Security through private accounts is estimated to cost to as much as $2-trillion, which would be from borrowed money - that is, it gets added to our national debt.
Hopefully, reasonable minds in Congress, Democrats and Republicians, will come to the aid of this country. For, apparently, Bush is only interested in pushing his agendas, for whatever reasons, and no matter what the cost is to our country or society.
But I should not be so harsh on President Bush, for he has proposed to Congress a way to save money and cut down on our deficit: He wants federal programs to be cut in education, health, law enforcement, agriculture and housing - for a grand total savings of about $8- to $15-billion.
-- V. Paradis, Seminole
Health care is in crisis
President Bush has placed the restructuring of Social Security as his No. 1 priority. It is generally accepted that privatization will cost at least $1-trillion dollars at a time when when we are already incurring huge deficits. As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said last week, "you have to do it in a cautious, gradual way." Social Security is safe for about another 15 to 20 years.
The same cannot be said about our health care system. That is in crisis now.
The president and CEO of Humana Inc. said that "if health insurance premiums continue to grow at an annual rate of about 12 percent, they'll average more than $68,000 per worker by 2021." Business owners are eliminating health insurance at a rate of 1-million jobs per year. People today are having to choose between prescriptions and food.
Today's crisis is health care, and restructuring health care should be the No. 1 priority, not Social Security.
-- John Lythgoe, Dunedin
A plan to improve indigent care
Your Feb. 17 commentary Be careful fixing indigent program was extremely interesting to me. Most noticeably missing in your editorial was the fact that many of the voting members of Hillsborough County's health care advisory board are financially vested in the very program they are supposed to oversee.
If the elected members of the Board of County Commissioners had the same level of financial vestment in this program, you and your colleagues in the "press" would rightly cry foul and question our ability to be objective.
I firmly agree with your statement, "Above all, commissioners should remain open to new ideas." My request to open this program up for competitive bid is not merely about the bottom line but rather the free flow of ideas that will, in the end, make Hillsborough's indigent care program better.
It is extremely important you understand that the county will also be asked to compete in this process. This open competition will inspire creative ideas for the future.
I encourage you to undertake a complete and objective evaluation of the current program, and I believe you will come to see why I believe this program should be challenged to become better.
-- Brian Blair, commissioner, District 6, Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners, Tampa
Tampa needs more jobs
Three things are glaringly absent from Tampa's residential development: jobs, jobs, jobs. Unless you're a construction worker, run a cash register or can make a cup of designer coffee, there seems to be no new employment growth in Tampa, especially downtown.
Land throughout the city that once created jobs is being converted into residential areas at an alarming rate. It looks good now but where will all Tampa's new residents work? Will we have to commute to Brandon, south county or St. Petersburg to find a good job?
I welcome Donald Trump to Tampa, too. Could Trump II be a technology, business, legal, bio-medical, financial, banking and telecommunications center in downtown Tampa?
-- Gene Wells, Tampa
Museum director should bow out
Re: Tampa museum director faces a city's doubts, Feb. 13.
Shouldn't an art museum's focus be on art?
Almost all the recent discussions on the Tampa Museum of Art have been concerned with funding a major building project and not about the museum's art collection and exhibition program. Some doubts have also been recently expressed about the competence of the present museum director, and there has been a call for a new director with true business acumen as well as better leadership and communication skills. There have been very few mentions of a lack of exhibitions with broad public appeal and the need for a world-class permanent art collection.
For someone who is knowledgeable about art, the present director has seemingly followed the dubious policy of museum collection development in only the ancient and contemporary art fields with little if anything being collected in the vast area in between. In recent years, the only truly stellar exhibition at the museum was the "Magna Graecia" exhibition in 2003 organized by the curator of ancient art. The recent exhibition of the museum's permanent collection, "TMA@25," failed to reveal any truly outstanding objects in the contemporary art field, the specialty of the museum director.
The present director has not only seemingly failed to get a major building project under way but has failed to mount outstanding exhibitions and add important works of art to the museum's collection, especially in her area of expertise. Isn't it time for such a person regarded as "sweet" by her admirers to step down, sweetly and gracefully?
-- David J. Patten, St. Petersburg
Refreshing photos
I love the nature photos on the front page of the classified section. They are refreshing.
-- Bev Griffiths, Riverview