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Those who build in harm's way should be on their own

Re: Life, liberty, the pursuit of beachfront property, by Anne Applebaum, Sept. 25.

I applaud Anne Applebaum for stating the obvious . I bet I could build a house on an active volcano with a great view and have the government (the taxpayers) pay to rebuild it when the volcano blows. Are we stupid or is our government stupid?

Is my analogy too obvious? Well, in my view some homes and communities are being built where they are obviously looking in the face of disaster and counting on Uncle Sam to come to the rescue. Unfortunately, the average taxpayer can never take advantage of building on these great properties. It is left to the rich (like Trent Lott). And they probably have the notorious Citizens home insurance, which also feeds on the average Joe.

For the government to allow permits, encourage building and provide relief after a disaster where we shouldn't build encourages the proliferation of homes and communities not only in dangerous areas, but also in areas that are environmentally sensitive. Mother Nature is trying to say, "Don't build here." I agree!

It is time for our government leadership to say, "If you're going to build in a place where disaster is probable, you are on your own." Stop wasting taxpayer money on these poor choices.

Welfare on the waterfront

Re: Life, liberty, the pursuit of beachfront property.

This article very succinctly states why people keep rebuilding homes in storm-prone areas. The people don't have to pay to rebuild their homes. We, the taxpayers, do in one form or another.

And I've long disagreed with beach renourishment at the expense of taxpayers. The owners of the beachfront homes should have to stand that bill, if not in full, at least more than they do now since they are the prime benefactors in living there and also in selling the property and making a fortune.

How much would they get for it if the person buying it had to rebuild the beach, and rebuild the home without welfare given to them via our government? Undoubtedly Sen. Trent Lott would not rebuild his home if he had to foot the bill, but we all know that won't happen. If our government enforced its own laws of protecting wetlands and oceanfront, then we wouldn't have this expense of welfare to the wealthy.

Human frailty calls for mercy

Re: How this tragedy ends, Sept. 25.

I read with interest Richard Bockman's account of USF professor John Iorio's classical literary analysis of the Jennifer Porter hit-run case. Essentially I am in agreement that, in a detached and pedantic academic sense, the Porter case is indeed pathos and not tragedy. However, this case also points up the basic flaws in even viewing the matter in terms of a "classical" worldview.

In my experience as a Christian minister, the classical perspective is far too removed from the reality of human frailty traditionally identified in our faith as "the flesh" or "sin nature." We are taught that this sin-nature can and does take hold of even the best of us at one time or another, hence the need for mercy, forgiveness and restoration.

What I know of the classical view is that it is often far too occupied with iron notions of "virtue" and "justice" (which "justice" in this view often strikes me as more a kind of civic retribution) than it is with love and mercy. Professor Iorio correctly points out that though this accident may have been a matter of fate, Porter nevertheless had after-the-fact choices and made the wrong ones.

What his analysis neglects is that human beings are far too often weak in moments of terrible trauma and lose the capacity to make the ethical distinctions that classical virtue demands. The Christian perspective allows us a little more room to see figures like Porter as indeed tragic in that we are all victims of the universal or "cosmic" tragedy of human sin. Therefore we are all equally in need of restorative mercy - no less Jennifer Porter.

An exercise in insensitivity

Re: How this tragedy ends.

I feel the Times exercised poor judgment in publishing this article, which analyzed the Jennifer Porter case in terms of whether it qualified as "tragedy" in the classical Greek sense. Two children died and two were seriously injured. To engage in an intellectual discussion of the similarities and differences between this accident and Oedipus Rex might be appropriate, if a bit tacky, at a dinner party. It seems the height of insensitivity to reduce this story to an intellectual exercise.

Emergencies are different

Re: Bush's plan leaves out the workers, by Robyn Blumner, Sept. 25.

What's in Robyn's Kool-Aid? New Orleans isn't even dry and there is no ink on the contracts yet, but Robyn Blumner has already decided that President Bush is wrong. When you have a crisis situation you operate in crisis mode. A real leader understands this and makes decisions necessary to get things moving.

With respect to rebuilding and/or repairing the infrastructure of New Orleans, we can go along with business as usual or go to emergency mode and get it done. Business as usual would require spending six months taking bids, six months reviewing bids and then awarding the job to the least qualified with the lowest bid that qualified under the Davis-Bacon Act. We would then have congressional hearings as to why the project was behind schedule and over budget. We would then call in Halliburton to repair those things that didn't work or were not up to spec. Or we could give the work to those qualified to do it and just get it done.

And as for Blumner castigating the president over suspension of Davis-Bacon, I would suspect that anyone qualified and capable of the scope of work required in New Orleans already pays their employees more than the scale in Louisiana.

The real Jim Morrison

Re: Mary and Jim to the end, Sept. 25.

In high school I was a fan of Jim Morrison not because of his brooding rock-star act but because of a book of poetry I found in my high school library (An American Prayer ).

Over the years I've read several books about Morrison and the Doors including the fan-must No One Here Gets Out Alive and John Densmore and Ray Manzarek's respected autobiographies, Riders on the Storm and Light My Fire . All of these books had references to Jim's "girlfriend from Florida" and his time in Clearwater but they were often simply filler lines without substance.

Thanks to the St. Petersburg Times and Mary Werbelow, part of this void is finally explained. Not only that, but you pass over the Morrison mythos of excess and glamor to find out more about the young-man-come-down-to-Clearwater.

Every time I read a lyric by Morrison from now on I know what to look for. Mary and Tampa Bay both are part of the equation.

[Last modified October 2, 2005, 05:32:32]