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Re: Troopers need your help in reducing crashes, July 20 letter.
I must take exception with the letter written by Florida Highway Patrol Col. Christopher Knight. His words are clearly those of a politician and not those of someone who wants to take the lead in reducing the number of injury accidents in our county and state. According to the latest (2003) statistics published by the same state Knight works for, the three leading causes of vehicle collisions with injury, in order of occurrence, are careless driving, failure to yield and "other," meaning causes not definable.
Speeding is in sixth place on the list. Yet when looking at traffic enforcement data for that same year for Pasco County, state troopers wrote 7,526 citations for speeding, 2,286 citations for careless driving and 1,296 citations for failure to yield. In contrast, our local sheriff has written half as many citations for speeding and double that for other more dangerous infractions than the Highway Patrol has written in Pasco.
While Knight is proud to point out that statewide more than 900,000 citations were issued, he failed to mention that more than 350,000 of those, or 39 percent, were for speeding. Statistics also show that when the federal 55 mph speed limit was abolished, accident rates did not go up relative to the amount of cars on our roads.
Why then all the speeding tickets? It's clear that Knight has taken the Highway Patrol from a policy of serve and protect to one of observe and collect. The dedicated men and women of the patrol have become revenue collectors for Tallahassee politicians, and it seems Knight is leading the charge.
I have noticed a lot of speeders, mainly on State Road 52 and U.S. 19 in Hudson and the Port Richey area.
There are a lot of aggressive drivers on the roads today, and I wish they would get an attitude adjustment. There is no reason to act like maniacs when you get into your vehicles.
I had a young person almost hit me while I was pulling into the drive-in window of my bank, then he sped out of the driveway to SR 52.
I wish everyone would slow down and remember driving is a privilege. Pay attention to everyone around you and drive defensively. It takes just seconds to get into a devasting accident. Obey the law, pay attention and drive within the speed limit.
To all the senior citizens still driving past age 80, please be careful. Most likely you have medical problems. If your vision is badly impaired or if you have other health problems, you are putting yourself and others at risk by driving.
I realize it must be hard to give up your independence, but ask a neighbor, relative or friend to drive. I am a caregiver, and I help my mother and my grandfather who cannot drive anymore due to health problems. I am very proud of them for electing not to drive and put themselves or anyone else at risk.
Re: Too young to be together, July 17.
I, too, am a mother of six children - five girls and a boy. And I, too, have dealt with teenage dilemmas.
My boy, Zachary Stough, was 18 and dated a 16-year-old girl. Yes, I know he was not 21, but the girl's mother felt he was too old for her and did not want them seeing each other.
They still managed to keep in touch. Of course the mother found out and the ultimatum was for the girl to stop seeing him or be sent to California to live with her dad. Next thing you know, she was flown to California, and my son was devastated. Everything went downhill from there.
He called every day and finally got to talk to her. He missed her so much. He really did love her. She and her father promised that he could go out to California, but the promises stopped. He just wanted to be with her so much and she kept telling him she loved him.
Then one day he just couldn't take it any more and he realized it just wasn't going to happen.
Just a little word of advice. Pay close attention to every little thing. I thought I did. On Oct. 11, my son will be gone one year. He took his life. He would have turned 20 this Nov. 19.
My son was always out with his friends having fun, coming home in a good mood, and never let on that there were problems and that he was taking it so hard. I know that is one main reason he is no longer here.
We seem to forget that we were young, too. We thought we were in love, but we made it. Children today are much more sensitive, yet they appear to be so much more mature and think they know it all. Yes, we love them and want what is right for them. But who really knows what is right?
Aloha Utilities made a flimsy attempt to settle with the Florida Public Service Commission and the customers. I am encouraging all Aloha customers to call the commission and tell it not to accept this offer to settle. Also, call Sen. Mike Fasano and the Pasco commissioners to let them know we do not want to accept this offer.
If this offer is accepted by the commission, we will be exposing ourselves to three rate hikes rather just the one rate hike to move to Pasco Utilities. The first is the forced rate hike to buy Pasco water, the second is the voluntary cost to us for putting in plastic pipes in our homes, and the third is the forced rate hike for whatever solution the unproven University of South Florida study offers for clearing up the hydrogen sulfide in Aloha's water.
What if Aloha comes back and says the USF study did not come up with any solution to get rid of the hydrogen sulfide from their water? Then we are right back to where we started over 10 years ago.
We have come too far to give up the fight to move to Pasco Utilities. The Pasco County ad hoc committee and the Pasco County commissioners already told Aloha what the solution is: installing aeration at all of its wells. This is just another smoke screen by Aloha.
The world lost its leader in hospice care on July 14 when physician Dame Cicely Saunders died.
Saunders is credited with founding the world's first residential hospice in London and introduced the concept to the United States during a 1963 visit to Yale University. Today, there are more than 3,000 hospices in the United States that belong to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, about 40 of which are in Florida.
In Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties, individuals and their loved ones can turn to Hernando-Pasco Hospice when faced with a life-threatening or terminal illness. Our agency began in 1982 and accepted its first patient in 1984. We now provide hospice services to more than 700 individuals daily and take a family-centered approach to addressing their physical, psychological, and spiritual needs.
Hospice is a philosophy of care that accepts dying as a natural part of life. However, when death is imminent, hospice seeks neither to hasten nor postpone it. Caring and remarkable individuals like physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and trained volunteers uphold these standards and help to ensure that one dies without pain and suffering.
Although the word "hospice" is synonymous with compassion, misnomers do exist. Hospices are autonomous, free-standing organizations that do their best to meet the unique needs of their communities. The hallmark of hospice care globally is death with dignity. For this, we pay tribute to Cicely Saunders.