Today's Letters: Moving because of ban is a joke

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published October 8, 2007

Repeal smoking ban for sake of pals Oct. 5 guest column

Jack Bray wrote on Oct. 5, 2007, how unfair it is for smokers to be banned from public buildings where they used to meet, smoke and lunch with pals.

Excuse me, but if smoking with pals is so important to you why not invite them to your home for a visit and you can smoke to your heart's content.

Why on earth would you move out of state because you can't smoke in a public place? It sounds much like a child taking his marbles and going home because the child can't have his/her own way. To give up your home, your friends, and your community because you can't smoke when and where you desire, is just ridiculous.

If you were in my position, where the slightest exposure to smoke (cigarettes, etc, camp fires, barbecue) has serious consequences, you may change your mind. Staying away from smoke saves my life and the lives of countless others. If I smoked and you would become ill from my habit, I would make certain to refrain from smoking anywhere around you. I feel that I would owe you that consideration and respect.

If friendship and smoking go hand in hand for you and there is no place for compromise, you must not have any friends who are nonsmokers.

As to the bars and restaurants losing business over the nonsmoking law, where are you looking? I see lines of customers waiting to be seated in restaurants and I used to see (before the ban became law), lines of nonsmokers waiting for seating. I see smokers enjoying their dinner and friends and they don't seem to mind that there is no cloud of smoke between them.

Nothing gives a person the right to pollute the air of others and that is what has happened.

Stop pouting and move on to another place if Florida is so bad to you.

Lillian Mort, Bayonet Point

Repeal smoking ban for sake of pals Oct. 5 guest column

Don't let door hit you on way out

I read Jack Bray's comments suggesting the repeal of Florida's Clean Air Act (Amendment 6) with interest. I wish him luck and a safe trip to Alabama.

By the way, Mr. Bray, please take all your cigars and cigarettes with you.

Marc J. Yacht,Hudson

Repeal smoking ban for sake of pals Oct. 5 guest column

Before you move, read Constitution

Jack Bray mentions the Florida smoking ban, Amendment 6 to our Constitution. Perhaps he should read it.

Unfortunately, I think, as do many, Amendment 6 does not prohibit smoking in bars that sell small amounts of food in their establishment. So, Mr. Bray, your diatribe is not entirely correct. Other states, like California, and other countries like Ireland curtail smoking in all public places. If Ireland, one of the smokiest countries in the world we've visited, can invoke a complete smoking ban, too bad Florida couldn't.

So, Mr. Bray before you leave our state, if your wont is to see smokers and their buddies, puffing away, you can visit one of these bastions of polluted air.

Lilyan Dayton, New Port Richey

Carpenters Run pet lovers: beware

I wanted all pet owners in the Carpenters Run subdivision in Lutz to be aware of a horrifying fact.

There is an "animal lover" in the subdivision who had no problem driving up into a neighbor's driveway and taking said neighbor's small dog straight to the pound from the owner's front yard.

Where was the dog? In the street? No. Digging up yards? No. Was it starving and beaten? No.

Said dog was sitting in her own front yard when the fellow Carpenters Run resident took the dog from her owner's front yard and promptly dumped the dog at the pound. (No neighbors were contacted before the abduction. There is at least one witness.)

To add insult to injury, the dognapper then returned to the scene of the crime and left a flier that instructed the owner as to how to reclaim the dog from the pound. No name - no number - no responsibility. (Again: There are witnesses.)

This is not neighborly behavior. I am personally appalled that this sort of behavior exists in a subdivision in which I have lived for longer than 10 years.

So, Carpenters Run neighbors and friends, please keep a close eye on your pets. You may well come home one day and find your cat(s) or dog(s) gone.

Brenda Belanger,Lutz

Disillusioned with job search

After being here in Florida for 13 years I can take it no more by being silent. I relocated here in 1995 with my family and was a civil service employee of the county of Sullivan as a New York deputy sheriff/corrections officer.

Out of 50 states, 49 will recognize my law enforcement credentials and Florida is the only one that does not. Any other state would allow me to do a lateral transfer, but Florida won't.

I met with Sheriff Lee Cannon back in 1995 and was asked if I was Florida-certified. I stated "no" and was told this is a transient state and if I wanted to continue with my law enforcement career I would need two more years of college at my expense.

I explained to him there was no money available for me to do that. I had three children in three different schools, a mortgage on a home and the term transient did not apply to me.

I have not been able to attain a good job because I am told I am overqualified for a position. Being a former law officer, right away the prospective employer thinks I have left under some suspicious cloud, which is not the case.

I have had to take so many lousy jobs here to support my family and wonder why an individual such as myself with a clean background and not so much as a parking ticket and no alcohol consumption can continuously be passed over.

Others I have spoken with also are in the same boat. Please do not tell me to go back where I came from. I would, but my family is here and I cannot. I have learned that the good ol' boy system is alive and well here. Who you know, not what you know, also is alive here if you want to earn a good wage here in this place called paradise.

Robert Collins,Hudson

Please act on taxes, insurance

It's time for a change! The present elected officials don't seem to understand the hurt they are causing to the people. The taxes and insurances are much too high.

My vote at election time will be based on whether our elected officials do something to alleviate the high costs of taxes and insurances. I am unable to insure my property at its full value because I just can't afford the cost. I would like to be able to sell my home but because of taxes and insurance it is impossible.

If something is not done about this, and soon, we will lose our home. I am living on a limited income and will not be able to continue paying higher and higher insurance and taxes. This state is going like California did back in the 1960s.

I am elderly and I thought this would be our place of refuge from these situations. Please help take care of these problems.

Eugene Osborne, Port Richey

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[Last modified October 7, 2007, 21:59:17]