Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2001
The report of the statewide grand jury on Florida's efforts to cut drug abuse is a significant public service. Over a period of eight months, the grand jury called -- by its own account -- a host of witnesses, heard expert testimony, researched the broad expanse of the issues and considered a myriad of approaches to the problem. The result is a remarkably comprehensive, in-depth report intended to decrease the demand for and supply of illegal drugs in Florida.
Interestingly, the grand jury states in its report that it began its investigation inclined to be critical of the effort to counter drug abuse in Florida. But the jurors conclude with a great deal of praise for Gov. Jeb Bush's leadership, legislative and judiciary support, and community efforts to reduce drug abuse. They went where the facts, and not their personal ideologies, led them.
How sad, therefore, to see the St. Petersburg Times damn with faint praise, the work of the statewide grand jury (Unwarranted "drug war" tactics, Dec. 30). By allowing their ideological biases to lead them, the editorialists of the Times focused on the one or two items (which consumed less than 1 percent of the report), harshly critiquing them while giving sparse endorsement to the rest of the discussion, apparently with which they agreed. I would hope that the Times' readers review the grand jury's report (which they can find at http://legal.firm.edu/swp) to gain a more balanced picture of this important work.
-- James R. McDonough, director, Office of Drug Control, Tallahassee
I am writing to express my feelings regarding the arrival of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. As a child, I can remember going to the circus and enjoying all the animals and the funny acts that they performed. But now, as a mother of two boys, I can honestly say I would never take my children to see these poor animals perform these despicable acts. The cruel and inhumane treatment that these animals endure just disgusts me.
People don't see the cruelty that these living creatures have to go through, not to mention their living conditions when not performing. And people think this is family entertainment? These animals are tranquilized, captured and forced to be separated from their families and removed from their natural habitat. The way they spend the rest of their lives from that point on makes me sick to my stomach.
I encourage readers to please think twice about supporting this form of animal cruelty. And to everyone else who supports the circus, please think before you purchase those tickets. In reality, you are just supporting animal abuse. Give that money to your local animal shelter or make a donation to the SPCA. Believe me, you'll feel better about yourself.
Animals have feelings, too, and were not put on this Earth for this cruel and heinous entertainment.
-- Jan Filipovsky, Brooksville
Readers should be reminded that not only "animal rights activists" are opposed to the exploitation and enslavement of animals that is so thinly disguised as entertainment.
Ringling Bros. has failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established in the Animal Welfare Act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited Ringling for failure to provide veterinary care to a dying baby elephant, possess records of veterinary care, provide animals with sufficient space and provide animals with exercise. In less than two years, two baby elephants died, a caged tiger was shot to death, a horse (who was used despite a chronic medical condition) died during Ringling's traditional animal march, and a wild-caught sea lion was found dead in her transport container. This is all public record, not made up fallacies that "animal rights activists" dream up.
Chains are wrong and slavery is wrong. We don't have to be a part of it.
-- Melissa LaFrance, New Port Richey
Years ago my wife and I visited Bermuda and stayed in the home of native Bermudans. We were quickly informed to be extremely careful in our use of water for showers, drinking, etc., as their only source of water was rainfall collected in a cistern system using a special roof, gutters, filters and large tank system, which was built under the above-ground home. The water was very pure and had an excellent taste. All Bermuda homes are built with this system.
It has occurred to me over the years living in Florida that a simplified system of the Bermuda model could be developed easily and retrofitted to existing homes and built into new ones. The collected water could be utilized for lawn watering, car washing and any other non-drinking uses. Many times I have observed hundreds of gallons of rainwater flowing out of rain gutters off homes, condominiums and commercial buildings, which in many cases becomes polluted runoff as it flows into parking lots and streets. I envision a retrofit system for existing homes to include simple rain gutters, sealed concrete storage tank and pump system. New homes could be constructed with a more sophisticated system and could be self-sufficient in years of decent rainfall. I challenge Swiftmud and local engineers to design, build prototypes and test a modern cistern system similar to the ones that have been used by simple people for centuries.
-- Pat Brady, Treasure Island
I want to express my concern that the St. Petersburg Times has failed to be impartial in its reporting of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
A clear trend is seen in your editorial decisions regarding the selections of photographs attached to articles about the conflict. Almost invariably, you attach a photograph of grieving Palestinians to articles in which there is any mention of the death of a Palestinian. Such a photograph rightly reflects the pain and tragedy of the death. When an Israeli is killed, however, you rarely show grieving family members. Why the difference in treatment?
One example of note occurred when you printed an article of the bombing of a bus filled with Israeli schoolchildren, a bombing that resulted in deaths and dismemberments. Certainly it would be easy to obtain a photograph of grieving Israelis, but you printed a photograph of the bus instead. Not grief-stricken families, but the bus! Why?
These editorial decisions bring up several questions: Are you intentionally trying to emotionalize the deaths of Palestinians and de-emotionalize the deaths of Israelis? If not, then what accounts for this trend in your photo selection? It is clearly biased, but is it intentionally so?
Your readers rely on your impartial reporting. And reporting includes the images as well as the words.
-- Jeremy S. Gaies, Tampa
Re: Time to resolve to fix voting system, by William Raspberry, Jan. 2.
This is not to debate the merits of "alternative candidates" or "instant runoff" voting systems as recently suggested by columnist William Raspberry and promoted by two letters, Instant runoff should be used in our elections and Voting alternative has benefits (Jan. 6). It is rather to submit some questions that seem pertinent to the debate.
For example, what will constitute a "valid" ballot? An "invalid" ballot? If a ballot during automatic machine tabulation fails to register a vote for a second or third candidate choice, will there be on the books an unchallengeable set of laws mandating the methodology for resolving such "irregular" ballots?
If there is a second choice only, will that second choice also be assigned as the first and third choices? How will the votes be assigned if the first choice is an Independent and the second and third choices are for the same Libertarian candidate?
If the initial automatic count and any subsequent automatic recounts register no choice at all, should a manual recount be mandated? If a manual recount is mandated, will the ballot examiners be allowed to use hand-held magnifying glasses or other optical aid apparatus to help determine the intent of the voter? Will restrictions be imposed on "hours-per-day-per-examiner" to preclude examiner fatigue and the attendant risk to count inaccuracies?
Finally and extremely important, how will the "vote your preference in 1-2-3 order" ballot be made less confusing to the voter than the West Palm Beach "butterfly" ballot?
Some will say, "Simple, just install an ATM-type interactive system." For those out there who envision this type system to be the solution to "butterfly"-like problems as well as the panacea for today's imperfect voting system, don't bet the farm on it. Why? Because as in any voting system, there is on the "business end" a human being.
-- A.E. Roberts, St. Petersburg
Though we can make light of Alan Greenspan's on-high existence and "tomb-like" environs, his impact on people's lives is not only real, but can be devastating. I would even go so far to say that Greenspan the Grinch not only stole Christmas but also is out of touch with reality.
As an economy watcher, my feedback and "what if" would be the following: Only time will tell if the recent interest rate cuts will stem the erosion of the government surplus, tax receipts from stock market capital gains, the low unemployment rate and decreasing corporate earnings. These three legs have been kicked out from the U.S. economy stool and threaten any burgeoning government surplus.
The real impact on an individual's confidence, of losing nearly $4-trillion dollars in capitalization in the stock market of people's hard earned 401(k)s, other retirement funds and college education funding for their children and grandchildren's college eductions, can only be imagined.
The "what if" center is on the collapse of the dot.com industry and IPO market, the demise of major parts of the telecommunications and technology industry that accounted by some measures for 30 percent of the economy's growth rate and a major share of the huge productivity "real growth" increases for business over the past decade.
We can only wonder what economic consequences will come from an overly restrictive monetary policy over the past year and how much of a setback to building out the Internet and telecommunications infrastructure that would have ultimately been responsible for the economy's future increases in productivity.
And all this for what? An estimated .5 percent decrease in inflation over the next 12 to 18 months. All kinds of literary metaphors, analogies and movie depictions come to mind: Trading Places, the farmer who outsmarted himself and killed the goose that laid the golden egg, or the good Samaritan that came to the aid of a nonpoisonous snake bite victim whoturned the tourniquet so tight that an arm was unnecessarily lost. I call it an outrage: Greenspanked and pick-pocketed!
-- Evan R. Jones, St. Petersburg
Voted out, appointed in
Just how do we get rid of politicians? We vote them out, and they just get appointed by their cronies. An example is John Ashcroft. His state wanted him gone so badly that they voted in a dead man!
For more than 40 years I have argued with people to vote in every election. At age 63, it finally got through to me: My vote doesn't count.
What a sad awakening.
Wilson Robey, Crystal River
Letters for publication should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. They can be sent by e-mail to letters@sptimes.com or by fax to 893-8675.
They should be brief and must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length. We regret that not all letters can be published.