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Re: Apology to blacks for years of pain, June 14.
At a time when the filibuster has become an icon of democracy for many on the left, it is good for the St. Petersburg Times to remind us that it was the filibuster that made it impossible for American blacks to obtain the protection of the federal government against lynchings in the South. In fact, in the course of the Senate's history, the filibuster was used more often to kill civil rights legislation than for any other purpose.
It would have been even better if the Times had been candid about who used the filibuster to thwart all efforts to overcome racial discrimination in America. It was not "Southern conservative senators," as your account has it: It was Southern Democratic senators - one of whom still occupies his seat, and pontificates about the "great traditions of the Senate" to the adulation of his Democratic colleagues who either choose to ignore, or don't even know, his voting history.
Re: Martinez matures, editorial, June 14.
Sen. Mel Martinez's recent efforts to find "a voice that speaks for the people of Florida," seems more than a little suspicious to me. You don't suppose it has anything to do with the recent slide in the presidential and congressional polls?
In his effort to "find his way," Martinez has clearly found his sail. After jumping on a perceived political wind of opportunity in the Terri Schiavo case, and manipulating the truth on the gulf drilling moratorium, it is no surprise that Martinez has changed his course.
I, for one, am not convinced that our senator has the earned the trust of people of Florida.
Re: Bush, Blair pledge to help developing African nations, June 8.
Our government goes in opposite directions on the same issue!
Our government just enacted severe restrictions on Americans who wanted debts forgiven via the federal bankruptcy laws. Now we forgive the debts of foreigners.
Does this tell us that our government likes the foreign guys better than us?
Re: A bigger cut for the already rich.
Your June 8 editorial gives a convoluted version of just exactly who pays federal taxes. The fact is, the "already rich" are paying the bulk of the federal income taxes collected.
An article by Walter E. Williams printed in the Washington Times last September points out that the top 20 percent of income earners pay about 80 percent of the federal income taxes, while the top 50 percent of income earners pay 96.5 percent of total federal income taxes.
The article further points out the top fifth of income earners (earnings more than $84,000) are not only more productive, with higher skills and education, than the bottom fifth of income earners, they work more hours and have more people in their household working.
In contrast, returns showing less than $15,000 in adjusted gross income were 30 percent of total returns, but accounted for less than 1 percent of tax paid. In fact, many in this bottom echelon received, rather than gave, at the federal tax payment window. The earned income tax credit provided checks to many in the bottom tier of wage-earners.
Your editorial is simply misleading.
When I came to Florida to retire two years ago, I did not know I would have the good fortune each morning to read one of the best newspapers in the country. The St. Petersburg Times enlightens, amuses and often comforts me.
But I was not comforted by the excellent but tragic stories of the destruction of Florida and the corruption of the Army Corps of Engineers and also, alas, so many politicians. I do congratulate the Times for this excellent reporting.
I would like to call your attention to what has given me a tiny ray of hope. In the May-June issue of Environmental Defense magazine, there is a story about the Army Corps of Engineers and a too-large and unneeded dam on the Mississippi River. Environmental Defense opposes the costly expansion and instead backs an effort by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to require that big Army Corps of Engineers projects be peer-reviewed by independent biologists, economists and hydrologists, and the corps replace habitat damage by levees and dams.
I hope the Times will support this bill.
The new chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is behaving exactly as everyone expected. We should all be outraged by the the proposed reduction and eventual elimination of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB sponsors quality educational programs that are an antidote to the drivel produced by commercial broadcast and cable outlets.
Defunding CPB seems to be a punitive measure by conservative Republicans who are unhappy with criticism of the current administration's policies, and an attempt to censor programing that they don't like. Eliminating CPB will deprive the public of an interesting and diverse conduit of information and entertainment, and we will be left with the cultural dregs of the information age.
Re: Gritty and pink, June 8, and Books off limits in youths' cells, Aug. 21, 2001.
Anthony Schembri has some peculiar ideas that are also incredibly bold. His "Baker-Miller Pink" room may indeed calm some youths and perhaps some of the detention officers, too!
More important, as secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Schembri is courageous enough to admit that "I have officers assaulting juveniles."
Gov. Jeb Bush has given Schembri "elbow room" for some of his odd tactics, but Schembri could use some basic common sense when it comes to problem-solving. Try allowing youths in juvenile detention centers to read books in their rooms and it's a sure bet that he'd have fewer out-of-control young people, and hence, less physical confrontations by staff.
Schembri should fully support Jeb Bush's "Just Read, Florida!" initiative: Let these children read! No "elbow room" is needed for this idea.
This debacle called "The Michael Jackson trial" has effectively reduced our print media to the level of grocery-store tabloids. The mere fact that this event can command three and four pages of copy in our nation's largest newspapers certainly speaks volumes on the status of our collective national intelligence.