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Poverty can put a crimp in hurricane preparation

Re: Get ready, editorial, May 13.

Some people in your readership can't afford to build complete and thorough hurricane kits, or make arrangements for pets and family to go here or there.

Many people live in poverty and quite possibly some just don't have the options you do. They'll get a couple of gallons of water, and maybe one extra set of batteries, but then they'll buy food for their kids to eat today.

I've read the Times daily for at least 30 years, and I never felt so admonished for things beyond my control by people who haven't a clue what it is to not be sure of one's next meal. I'm in this condition because of bad medical care. Perhaps you wish to admonish me for not having insurance, too.

Why don't you just concentrate on getting the information out and leave the admonishing to others?

Keep young people alcohol-free

Keeping alcohol out of the hands of Florida's youth is always a top priority for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. We work year-round to enforce Florida's alcohol laws and to educate our licensees and the public. During the graduation season, however, it is particularly critical that we remind you of the dangers posed by underage drinking.

According to a recent study commissioned by the Century Council, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting drunken driving and underage drinking, 65 percent of underage youth who drink alcohol obtain it from family and friends.

Not only is providing alcohol to a minor breaking the law, but it also sends the signal that it's okay to drink at an early age. The law serves to protect our youth from making decisions they are not emotionally ready to make. While under the influence, teens may get behind the wheel of a car or make other important life decisions with impaired judgment. They will have to live with the consequences of those actions for the rest of their lives. So will the adults who provided them with the alcohol.

While most underage individuals obtain alcohol from someone they know, businesses must continue to diligently check identification of anyone suspected of being underage attempting to purchase alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. Each business has a legal responsibility and obligation to help prevent the sale of alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21.

Florida's youth are our most precious resource, keeping them alcohol free will help to ensure that their futures remain bright.

It's all unacceptable

It is with great interest that I compare the articles on Judge Brandt Downey (When questions arose, judge took sudden leave) and the 14 state workers (14 state workers fired for obscene e-mails).

It was amazing that these two articles ran on the same day, May 13. Of course the judge got front-page attention in Section B and the state workers were on 5B, even though they have lost their jobs. I assume the judge made the front page because he is a judge - an important person in our society who should certainly know how to act professionally and ethically.

Judge Downey (a government employee) still maintains his job, despite accusations of sexual harassment and observing pornography on government-purchased computer equipment. The "average Joe" state workers have lost their jobs due to "unacceptable behavior" on government-purchased computer equipment.

None of it is acceptable - none.

Signs of God's design are everywhere

Re: Sneaking Scripture into scholastics, May 11.

Tom Teepen and his "moderns" might need to "catch up" with the large body of scientific evidence for design. The design inference is already a valid scientific discipline used daily in forensics, anthropology, archaeology and other fields.

The common sense in all of us (not the "brouhaha," "gimmick" or "creating a stink") leads us to look at an abandoned watch in a field for its maker - Timex or Rolex. Our first thought would never be: "I wonder how many millions of years it took for these parts to fashion themselves and then assemble into this intricate timepiece."

What is crystal-clear is that signs of God's design are seen everywhere, from the subatomic level to the orbit of planets. And the orderliness, complexity and interconnectivity of all these design features do not fit well with an evolutionary scenario of accidents, mutational mistakes and chance encounters.

How can the scientific community, on the one hand, eagerly await 10 bleeps in a row from space as a sign of "intelligent life" and then look at DNA or the human brain with its 10-trillion nerve connections and conclude: "No intelligence required, just chance"?

Teen mothers story hard to believe

I cannot believe the article Baby mamas (May 6). Why not have a baby in your teens (without a husband)? You have child care paid for. Go back to school! Who pays for all this "welfare"? Our tax dollars are paying for this.

My husband and I raised seven children, never had one handout, not even cheaper lunches (with seven in school). He worked days, I worked nights as a waitress (hard work). We never left our children with anyone else. It was very hard, but I would never change a day of it. We were very responsible parents. We are now grandparents of 11 grandchildren and one great-grandson. We are 85 and 78, and both of us had to work till 1998, when we both retired. We have had a very happy 58 years together.

Mandate parenting classes

Re: Father charged in baby's death, May 9.

I'm sick and tired of reading that innocent babies are being killed by their parents for various reasons. Here we read about 21-year-old Gregory L. Ellguth who faces first-degree murder charges in the fatal injury of his 7-week-old son. Police say this father just picked the child up and spiked it like a football because he refused to eat.

The story says that the father admits he lost control, lost his temper and threw the child down forcefully.

I believe that our schools should have mandatory parenting classes. Children don't come with instructions when they're born, so we (parents) need to learn how to care for them. The state can suspend your driver's license for not paying child support. So why not enforce the parenting class by threatening to take away drivers' licenses if the class is not taken?

I hope that all states will someday enforce this kind of law and let all the innocent babies and children that died at the hands of their parents know that their lives were not forgotten.

[Last modified May 17, 2005, 12:13:35]