Today's Letters: Crumbling infrastructure leaves a nation terrorized

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published August 5, 2007

Bridge collapses Aug. 2, story  

We have seen the terrorists and they are us. While our federal government wastes billions on a misguided war in Iraq and billions more confiscating tweezers from old ladies at airports, our domestic infrastructure is literally crumbling around us.

When will our leaders stop chasing the bogeyman of terrorism and start addressing critical domestic needs such as levees and bridges? Not addressing such critical needs is creating real terror right here and right now in this country. Just ask the residents of Minneapolis and New Orleans.

Why should our government waste valuable resources trying to build democracies overseas when it can't even get the basics right here at home?

Joshua C. Smith, St. Petersburg

A cost of tax cuts

The next time you hear politicians going on and on about the need for tax cuts, just show them a picture of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Then ask them how the victims of this tragedy would feel about how well the last tax cuts have been working out.

The truth is, we've only managed to sacrifice our own safety and security on the altar of tax cuts, and in hindsight, their supposed miraculous economic benefits seem a great deal less desirable.

We are just beginning to reap the bitter fruits of not maintaining our infrastructure. Think about that the next time you drive across the thousands of bridges here in Florida. Is having your family at the bottom of a river worth a few extra bucks on April 15?

Doug Steel, Wesley Chapel

A declining nation

It's not just the deterioration of the bridges but the deterioration of America itself. The Iraq war is using monies needed to keep America safe.

There are too many politicians lining their own pockets, as are CEOs of companies who pocket millions while the company crashes, leaving their workers penniless.

We have become a nation of "all for me and no one else counts." Who cares if hundreds of cars fall into rivers, if people are afraid to walk the streets, if people lose their hard-earned retirement money? One can hardly read the papers these days without murder staring one in the eye.

This is the deterioration of America, its bridges and its people. How senseless it is!

Judith M. Stevens, Clearwater

Blair snub of Hamas a misstep July 29, Bill Maxwell column

There's no point in talking to Hamas

The Hamas organization won the Palestinian election with help from the enemies of the Western democracies, such as Iran, Iraq and Syria, and therefore it is committed to follow their policies.

The policies of these countries keep the Israel/Palestinian conflict alive as a thorn in the back of the Western democracies, including the United States. Bill Maxwell recommends that Tony Blair should include Hamas in the negotiations on his Mideast mission.

No matter how many concessions Israel makes to Hamas, they wish to drive Israel out of the area completely. They teach their children to hate Jews and they kill innocent civilians.

Blair correctly plans to talk to Fatah, which seems willing to negotiate in accord with the terms of the Quartet of nations backing Blair. Does Maxwell not see that there is nothing to talk about with Hamas until they are willing to recognize the state of Israel?

Francis Dukes-Dobos, Clearwater

Blair snub of Hamas a misstep July 29, Bill Maxwell column

Shun the terrorists

We must voice our dismay at the lack of background displayed in Bill Maxwell's column condemning Tony Blair's snub of Hamas. Hamas has been listed as a terrorist group and a danger to the United States.

I think that those of us who support Israel - Christians and Jews - have a right to consider this column anti-Semitic. Maxwell, after all, calls for consorting with Hamas, which has pledged to destroy Israel. Israel is where a great many of the world's Jews live. To call for the destruction of Israel is rightfully called anti-Semitic.

Maxwell ignores the legitimacy of Israel's right to exist in a state with secure borders free from terrorist attacks. Maxwell's column calling for dealing with a terrorist organization such as Hamas is not in our national interest.

Norman N. Gross, Ph.D., president, PRIMER (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting), Palm Harbor

Blair snub of Hamas a misstep July 29, Bill Maxwell column

Talk to everyone

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the new Mideast peace envoy, could take a tip from former South African President Nelson Mandela. Even though he was imprisoned for 27 years, Mandela learned to speak his captor's language. With his good communication skills, Mandela earned his enemy's respect, which eventually led to his freedom.

Bill Maxwell is right on target by saying that Blair's snub of Hamas was a misstep. As a peace envoy, Blair needs to communicate with all parties involved. Talking with the leaders of Hamas is an integral part of the peace process.

JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater

A sort of trash therapy July 29, Perspective article

Rethink recycling

Recycling can be a positive event in many areas of the world, if it is cost effective. In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties it isn't necessarily so. Both counties operate "Waste to Energy" plants that incinerate garbage and generate electricity.

In Pinellas, the system can burn more than 3,000 tons of solid waste per day which generates electricity that the county furnishes to Progress Energy. It's enough to provide electric service to about 45,000 homes and businesses per day. That is real recycling.

This is a system that needs to be developed in more communities. It will reduce a solid waste footprint and reduce oil used to transport garbage out of communities because landfills are full.

Recycling feels good to some, but it really needs to be looked at to ensure that it isn't more wasteful. The system mentioned in this article is not for all.

A. Corbo, Palm Harbor

Summer of Love is nothing to celebrate July 29, commentary

Nugent's myopia

Ted Nugent's column on the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love is intriguing not only because of its source, the economically oriented Wall Street Journal, but for its wrong-headed connection between the hippie era and the individual and social ills of later decades.

For every Abbie Hoffman, who spent much of the '70s on the lam from authorities, there was a corresponding Jerry Rubin, who virtually originated the term "yuppie" by becoming an entrepreneur and, presumably, an advocate of the Wall Street Journal's politically conservative free-market economics.

For every musician who followed Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison into early death through imprudent drug use, there are countless more who made it into the present day with all of Joplin's and Morrison's history of youthful indiscretions but none of Nugent's present self-congratulatory posturing. Even the notorious advocate of mind-altering substances and White Rabbit composer Grace Slick today is a successful artist, and fellow Jefferson Airplane members Paul Kantner and Marty Balin not only continue to perform but appear perhaps less shopworn than the "clean and sober" Nugent.

Mike Shuman, Tampa

Summer of Love is nothing to celebrate July 29, commentary

A different '60s

According to Ted Nugent, "hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies" rebelled against the "work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents" back in the 1960s. And that's it, says Ted. That's what it was all about.

Not once does he mention the Vietnam War or the loss of the three key liberal leaders of the '60s (John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.) to murder, as if those events were not sources of disillusionment.

Ted is famous as the rocker who loves guns and hunting. While he was just beginning his dream of rocking his brains out for his entire life, a lot of those hippies were drafted and sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam, where a lot of them died. Ted and his rifle never made it over there to fight alongside those hippies. He was busy rocking his brains out.

Tom Crowe, Plant City

[Last modified August 4, 2007, 22:47:08]