Take the time to prepare for 2005 hurricane season
Letters to the EditorPublished May 31, 2005
June 1 marks the start of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. While many Floridians are still recovering from the effects of the 2004 storms, the approaching days of summer mean all residents need to be ready for another active season. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
Gov. Jeb Bush recently signed into law a "tax-free holiday," June 1 through 12, for hurricane-supply items. I urge you to take advantage of this "holiday" and stock your supply kits for the 2005 season. The safety of you and your family depends on your taking the time and responsibility to prepare for a storm in advance. It is also important to stay aware of hurricanes and severe weather threatening Florida throughout the year.
Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida for six months each year. We must remain prepared. Save a few dollars and some time waiting in line by purchasing your supplies now. This year, there is no excuse not to be ready. For more information on hurricane preparedness and the sales tax holiday please go to: www.FloridaDisaster.org
-- Craig Fugate, director, Florida Division of Emergency Management, Tallahassee
Media are in a frenzy
I've lived in Pinellas County for 25 years and I've never seen such a media blitz. We've already had six weeks of hearing about hurricane readiness on the local television stations and it hasn't even begun.
Are we going to be listening to these media scare tactics till December when the season is over? Everyone is aware that we had four hurricanes and that they were devastating. But to keep drumming it in day and night on every newscast is beyond belief. What will the local TV channels do if they don't have a hurricane to report?
Thank goodness we don't live in a state with four "real" seasons. We'd have to hear about tornado readiness, blizzard readiness . . . since they all have new equipment: Vortex, VIPIR, Titan. It's going to be a contest: Who will be more accurate in tracking a hurricane? Please give us a break. We don't want to hear about this 24/7 for the next six months if there isn't a storm on the horizon. Let us enjoy the summer!
-- R.A. Bandy, Safety Harbor
What can we rely on?
Peter G. Gosselin's May 22 article Losing Ground, as well as a recent Times editorial, Shifting the burden, should serve to warn workers that they had better do some serious planning to ensure a comfortable retirement.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, large manufacturing companies would establish a plant in a neighborhood and hire almost the entire community. The workers were satisfied with this paternal establishment, which not only paid them on time, but seemed to have a genuine care for them and the community itself. The company provided day care centers, established health care and insurance programs, etc., to the point where a generation of satisfied young workers followed their parents into the protective fold.
Your editorial, Shifting the burden, reported that the second largest air carrier in the United States will be allowed to "dump its nearly $10-billion pension liability on the federal government." This precedent-setting move, combined with the outsourcing of jobs and the abandonment of long-term manufacturing sites is, in fact, allowing these companies to relinquish their responsibilities, and their promises to their employees. If other airlines and burdened corporations seek the same relief, that burden will eventually fall on the taxpayer. That, my friends, is you and me!
And so it seems that we can no longer count on our lifelong employer. We cannot count on our pension plans, or the insurance companies, which presumably back them. And, as the debate continues, we cannot be certain that Social Security is really secure. In what direction is this beloved country headed and does anyone care?
-- Orfeo Trombetta, Seminole
Agreements were not kept
Re: Losing ground, May 22.
I wasn't terribly surprised to read in this article the comment from Sylvester Scheiber regarding pensions. He was a member of President Bush's 2001 Social Security Commission, so it came as no surprise when he said, "People like to think of employers as social welfare organizations, but they're not." Unbelievable!
In the 22 years I flew for United, I never thought of the company as a social welfare provider. I provided it with a quality, reliable and successful work product. In return, the company agreed to pay a (good) salary, and provide certain benefits. At retirement, these included free passes on the airline (gone), free medical (gone), and now my pension will soon be cut by a substantial amount. The company reneged on the deal.
In light of the current corporate love-in in Washington, and with this administration especially, who's surprised?
It's interesting that the upper management at United (and others) are retaining their multimillion-dollar parachutes while this occurs. How vivid a picture must be painted for people to figure out what's going on?
-- Austin K. Ferguson, St. Petersburg
Privatization problems
Re: Pair taken, without a warrant or a fuss, May 24.
A private corrections company gave two Florida residents, awaiting a hearing, to deputies from St. Thomas. I don't care who is blaming whom, but somebody should be explaining to a grand jury.
That aside, the problem is privatization of government responsibilities - not only in this state but the entire country. Privatization does not save money (it might even cost the people more). It only creates profits and grandiose salaries for corporations! But, of course, their lobbyists donate to our representatives (I use that term loosely). That used to be, and should still be, a crime: graft and corruption. The graft-givers and the graft-takers should be explaining to a grand jury.
-- John Culkin, St. Petersburg
Where will people live?
Re: "We have lost everything," May 22.
My heart truly goes out to all those people in the Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park. Unfortunately, this will be an ongoing problem as the large property investors keep buying up all the land that they can get their greedy hands on, not caring who has to suffer because of it. Affordable housing is becoming extinct as expensive townhomes and condos are going up all over the state. They are in such a high price bracket that the average person cannot even think of purchasing.
When these mobile home parks fall into the hands of these land developers, where will the displaced people live? I think it's a shame that so many people, who have worked hard all their lives, have their life ripped out from underneath them. Even tiny little houses, in deplorable condition, are selling in the range of $120,000 and higher. Most of the townhomes have a starting price in the $200,000s and condos are also becoming out of reach. So where will people live? Something has clearly got to be done about this horrible situation. The way it's going, you will surely see an increase in the number of homeless people.
-- Carol Levey, St. Petersburg