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TyRon Lewis made the choice to be a criminal

A face that still provokes Oct. 22

Seeing TyRon Lewis' face on the front of Neighborhood Times definitely still provokes me and probably any other citizens who get up every day to go to work and live their lives in relative peace.

Even more disturbing is the fact that Tamara Wilcox-Dzimbahwe, the so-called wellness coordinator at the All People's TyRon Lewis Community Gym, is ignorant enough to say that TyRon Lewis was "murdered." Even she can't accept the fact that TyRon, a druggie and car thief at best, was willing to endanger the life of a police officer and innocent bystanders to achieve his lofty goal of being a criminal.

She goes on to state that he was murdered due to the lack of economic development. It actually makes me physically ill to read her comment. TyRon Lewis made a choice. He made a choice to be a criminal and he died as the result of it. I don't feel sorry for him.

I just feel sorry that the community gym can't be named after some hard-working African-American who made the right choice to do the right thing and made something of himself or herself. There are plenty of them around, but no one wants to notice.

Peggy L. Duncan, Pinellas Park

Yeshitela alienates races

Still fighting the power, by Waveney Ann Moore Oct. 22

Although Omali Yeshitela is extremely bright and well read, there is no doubt he's radically racialistic. Yeshitela is a fighter, but it's a shame he's not a fighter for all poor people, regardless of race. Economic and social injustice affects all poor folks, not just African-Americans in Midtown.

Why can't this man foster brotherly friendship to bring races together, and not alienate them one from another? Such would be a gain for common sense and societal harmony. Honest work and modest talk would mellow all racial entities. Misguided, passe racial attitudes can only destroy racially cohesive communities. Yeshitela has too much of an anti-whitey attitude and black separatist philosophy, which militates against racial unity and true integration.

Robert B. Fleming, St. Petersburg

Amendment truths

Irony, myths mark charter fiasco Oct. 8

Diane Steinle's column is a perfect example of misinformation. Do you honestly believe for one second that the Council of Mayors, the city managers, 21 city attorneys and their respective law firms would have recommended filing a lawsuit against the county, Charter Review Commission and supervisor of elections if they misunderstood the law on the dual-voting requirement or municipal annexation, or that they wanted to strip the voters of their right to vote on issues of great public importance?

So what could have caused such a rift between the cities and county when, for the most part, they have had an excellent working relationship?

Let's speculate for a minute that there are one or more individuals in the county government who seek the ways and means to consolidate as much power as possible under the Board of County Commissioners at the expense of the municipalities.

Let's also speculate, for discussion purposes, that that person might be county Administrator Steve Spratt, who came to Pinellas County after implementing a successful consolidation plan in Miami-Dade to strip the cities of much of their home rule powers. And let's also say that his whip on the CRC is county Commissioner Susan Latvala or the CRC chairman, Alan Bomstein.

Please do not try to give your readers the impression that all the members of the CRC are a group of unpaid citizen volunteers trying to do their civic duty. For example, the sheriff, a county commissioner, state legislator and a City Council member were all in their official capacity while serving on the CRC, and the balance of the members were carefully selected by the county.

There are some members on the CRC, I believe, who really care about the future of their county government and performed their civic duty without a hidden agenda.

Like the brochure recently sent by the CRC to absentee voters, the wording of one or more of the proposed charter questions is misleading, confusing or ambiguous.

As I see it, the issue is simple. If the people of Pinellas County want a county government patterned after Miami-Dade, with its high taxes and high crime and delegating municipal home rule power to the county, then vote for the charter amendments.

But if the people want to maintain the current balance of power between and among the various municipalities in Pinellas County and the county government, then they should vote against the charter amendments.

Paul J. Marino, Belleair Beach

Pinellas County charter amendments

Cities want your money

I have lived in Pinellas County for more than 42 years. I saw this county grow from a small town with farms to the most densely populated county in the state.

Our crimes cross all borders, including counties, but more specifically, cities. It makes too much sense to consolidate certain public service agencies to capture, prevent and identify the criminals in our county. Many city leaders may not want to admit that consolidation of law enforcement may be valuable to all of the residents of the county. They are only concerned with their empires.

The Largo city manager, Steve Stanton, told me in 2004 that he envisioned all of Pinellas County with no sheriff's patrol as we know it today. He is determined to diminish the Sheriff's Office to only road patrol in Palm Harbor, as it is too hard to annex, and maybe the jail, forensics and the bailiff section.

The cities may vow their best interests to you, but what do they really want? Your money. Many aspects of our county can be more efficient at less expense under one entity.

Sometimes bigger is better. I feel this could be one of the cases by consolidating certain government functions.

Larry Weglarz, Tarpon Springs

[Last modified October 29, 2006, 08:11:02]