Pinellas County schools have been back in session for a month now, and I felt compelled to write a letter regarding drivers' lack of concern for children at bus stops, particularly at my daughter's bus stop.
My fifth-grade daughter boards a bus at 6:30 a.m. on Gulf Boulevard and 44th Avenue in St. Pete Beach. It is still dark at that hour, so the red lights of the school bus are very visible to drivers. The problem is that drivers in both directions do not stop while children are boarding or getting off the bus.
The St. Pete Beach police had a marked car stationed at the stop two different mornings, and those were the only two mornings cars did not pass by the bus while its red lights were flashing. Is a ticket more of a deterrent than a child's life? Drivers, you have to assume that children are crossing the street when you see a bus stopped with red lights flashing.
The school district has made an attempt to make bus stops safer for our children, but if drivers do not obey the law and stop for school buses loading and unloading children, even the safest stops are dangerous. There are even several signs posted along Gulf Boulevard in the north- and south-bound lanes, specifying that drivers must stop in both directions while buses are loading and unloading.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. Please help protect our children by stopping for school buses. Leave your house one minute earlier in the morning, and you won't have to speed past a stopped bus.
-- Leslie Hughes, Tierra Verde
City seems beholden to developers
Re: Judge to rule on 4 ballot questions, Aug. 28.
As a longtime resident of St. Pete Beach, I am concerned about the future of our city. Placing the redevelopment referendum in the hands of a judge is the ultimate travesty from our mayor and commissioners. It is a sad commentary on the democratic process that the recalcitrant attitude of the city administration has brought a simple, well-intended citizens' initiative to such a frustrating point.
I am shocked and distressed that instead of listening to the desires of the residents, the city administration has chosen to side with the monied development interests. Everyone knows that the city's public hearings on the subject of redevelopment can never really reach a large audience and have simply exposed a few of the residents to some of the city's plans. For ideas as radically different as these redevelopment plans seem to be, it is inexcusable to ignore the desire of the voting public. A rather obvious conclusion could be drawn, both from the overt behavior of the city government and their behind-the-scenes cooperation with the development interests, that this administration must have a lot to gain if the redevelopment plans are implemented.
As a voting resident, I consider it unconscionable for the city administration to play petty legal games rather than allow the citizens to be heard. If their redevelopment plans are so desirable, why doesn't the city allow the issue to be brought to a vote? My conclusion is that the city administration doesn't care what the citizens want and isn't interested in the democratic process.
My impression is that the current administration of St. Pete Beach is cloaked in the self-righteousness that sometimes comes from unfettered power granted to petty people. They are much more frightened of being sued by developers than of not complying with the democratic process. If they had the best interests of the majority of citizens at heart, they would help their constituents devise a referendum that would pass any legal tests, and they would welcome a vote by the residents. It is the residents and registered voters who should decide the future of the city, not a self-serving group who cater to the outside development interests.
Our citizens have been stiff-armed by the city and stifled at every attempt to accomplish a simple task - to raise an important issue to the voting public rather than have it determined by a clearly biased administration. I can only appeal to the city government that if there is a shred of common decency remaining in them, they should help, rather than hinder, the residents in a search for a solution to this issue.
-- G.W. Cantrell, St. Pete Beach
Racial equality necessary for society
Re: End of intolerance, thanks to Navy, by Jay Horning, Aug. 28.
Mr. Horning provided some excellent insights in his column. He was born in a small Iowa town in which everyone was white. There were no Jews or blacks at all. After entering the Navy, which was integrated, he learned that races are not all that different, and the bigotry in his hometown was not justified. As a boy growing up in a small town, there was a sort of psychological contamination that resulted in racist attitudes. As with Mr. Horning, a psychological transformation can occur when one actually works or lives with other races. Negative views and stupidities can be overcome with experience.
Hitler's Third Reich was not that long ago, and in Germany the spirit of the times proclaimed that only the Aryans of the world were humanity's cream of the crop. It was unlawful in Germany, at the time, for an Aryan to marry and thus infect "superior" blood with that of "lower" humanity. National socialism transformed the masses emotionally with such propaganda. Though less pronounced, this phenomenon still goes on in some parts of the world.
In America, we've learned that unfounded prejudice can result in an inclemency of existence that results in riots, hatred, etc. In America, racial equality is ideologically necessary to promote a dignified civil society and harmony.
-- Robert Fleming, St. Petersburg
[Last modified September 4, 2005, 01:20:22]
