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Citizens choose to mute their own voices

I find it interesting that Florida voters passed Constitutional Amendment 3 in the general election. I agree that a number of constitutional amendments of the past should never have made it onto the ballot. But with a Legislature that has been unwilling to address issues they or their lobbyist friends disagree with, there has been no other way to get their attention.

With passage of this amendment, it appears an already difficult process has become nearly impossible. We may have "saved our Constitution," but we have certainly made it more difficult for citizens to be heard.

Gary L. Couch, Palm Harbor 

Facing the GOP's legacy of debt

The election results were barely out before Republicans began circling their wagons and complaining. Watching C-Span on Wednesday morning, whiners were registering their sob stories about tax increases under the Democrats.

Let's hope the Democrats have enough sense to tax somebody or cut the spending. Preferably they need to do both. Does anyone feel secure knowing that the Republican administration has run up record debt, so much debt we'll probably only be able to pay the interest on it? Or knowing that China is the country holding most of our IOUs? Are we proud that many of us are prospering on the backs of our children and grandchildren?

Republicans were at one time fiscally responsible. They accused Democrats of being the tax-and-spend party. Now they have become the party of spend and spend and spend, leaving someone else the painful task of cleaning up their messes.

Dorothy Gaylord, Zephyrhills

The voting experience

On Tuesday, I had the most wonderful experience. I went to my designated polling place, showed proper ID, signed the book, received a voting card and went to a voting machine.

Upon inserting the card, a video screen appeared before me, and as I tapped my choices with my finger a green check mark immediately appeared. After doing this for each page of choices, I punched "Finished" and the voting card reappeared. I took the card to a box and picked up my "I voted" sticker.

What is so wonderful to me and others is that we actually believe we voted as depicted on that little video screen.

Robert Coffey, Belleair

An artful barrier

Thank God we get a reprieve from all the negative political ads and mailings for a while.

With all the ad money spent in Florida alone, we could have financed the wall on the Mexican border and commissioned Cristo and Jeanne-Claude to build it with an artistic flair!

Mark Higgins, St. Petersburg

A destructive diet

A four-year study by an international group of ecologists and economists published in the journal Science warns that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if declines in marine species continue at their current rates. The declines are due primarily to overfishing and pollution of coastal areas by waste from factory farms.

The global economic impact is staggering. The fishing industry generates $80-billion a year, 200-million people depend on it for income and a billion rely on it for protein.

As the world's human population grows exponentially, the only viable long-term solution is to rely increasingly on grains, legumes and nuts for protein. Unlike the consumption of fish and other marine organisms, these protein-rich foods do not mess up our fragile ecosystem, are not laden with mercury and they don't smell to high heaven.

Did I mention that this major global food policy decision starts with our next trip to the supermarket?

Ken Sandusky, St. Petersburg

Don't go for the gator gun yet Nov. 2

Leave animals alone

It's strange how people use animals as icons for a football team and then decide it is wiser to destroy them.

All Florida needs is more gun-wielding yahoos killing wildlife in their own backyards. Florida has really evolved. Our state is slaughtering all the natural resources that beckoned visitors here. Our land is gone. Our wildlife is hunted.

Man thinks he can control nature. He cannot, as we have seen by our recent hurricane pattern. Nature will win in the end.

To watch people murder animals in the name of conservation is pathetic, and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the steward of our wildlife, collects hunting fees!

Leave the animals alone. There are so many more things that need fixing.

Louise Kahle, St. Petersburg

Report: Haley error cost life Oct. 27

Haley does good work

It is regrettable that a patient died at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center and that other problems were found in regard to treatment. With more than 400,000 veterans receiving care and treatment there, I find it amazing that the center is operated in the efficient manner that it is. I think it only fair that some credit be given to the doctors, nurses and technicians who take care of patients and, in some cases, have no doubt saved lives - including mine.

Having had four surgical procedures and spending 34 days in the hospital, I can only say that I had wonderful care. The nurses, in particular, should get more credit and recognition for the fine care and consideration they give. There may be no news in good news, but I think a future story in recognition of some of the good work being done there might be of interest to the general public.

Donald Parks, Zephyrhills

A dismaying vote

What in the world was the (simple) majority of the people of Florida thinking when they went to the polls to vote on a Florida constitutional amendment that would strike a death blow to the citizens' ability to influence the state Legislature through constitutional amendments?

I am dismayed that the vote on Amendment 3 was the only one that passed with less than 60 percent of the vote. (It got 57.9 percent.) The amendment will require that all future amendments to the state Constitution pass by a supermajority of 60 percent.

I guess that the term simple pertains just to the mentality of the 57.9 percent of the voters who voted YES on Amendment 3, as compared to the term super for the remaining 42.1 percent.

Paul J. Sakson, Hernando

[Last modified November 9, 2006, 01:23:53]