Letters to the Editors

Initiatives can rein in lawmakers

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 16, 2000

Re: On a perilous course, by David Broder, and In Florida, we have witnessed the failure, April 9.

Why bash ballot initiatives? Ballot initiatives temper concentrated power by checking the legislative power establishment. They suffer the same corruption of purpose as the rest of state and federal legislative power and politics generally. That corruption is the profound influence of special interest money upon our electoral institutions. This problem is not solved by abolishing initiative power. That would only make it more difficult to rally the many people now totally unrepresented in winner-take-all politics to advocate critically and vitally.

Initiatives have put in place laudable political reforms that never would have been taken up by politically preoccupied legislatures. That is by far a more important story than the failure of initiatives in half our states to be citizen-voter inspired (many are) without ever also being an attractive vehicle for the deep pockets that are on the political outs with the legislature. Voters attempt to discern the difference.

Dyckman cites Broder's explanation of initiatives as typically carrying out extreme points of view. Extreme? Like the unconstitutional measures legislatures pass? Like unpopular measures the public is unlikely to vote for? Can't every bill or initiative be viewed on its own merits?

It is misleading to charge that lawmaking by plebiscite involves uninvolved citizens weighing-in with concerns limited mostly to their own and that legislators weigh more dynamic considerations. Legislators weigh a powerful multitude of purely political considerations that they shouldn't. For legislators, courageous voting is more difficult than for a faintly encumbered citizen voter who cares enough to vote.

Broder's most salient point is about our laws being increasingly crafted not by those who can be, or, might not be re-elected, but rather by unelected, unaccountable sponsors. It does raise the point they'll say nothing of:

Our lawmakers often vote on the most important measures concerning public resources without the opportunity to first read the last bill revision. Moreover, bills are often written by lobbyists. Initiatives are available for inspection before the vote. That's some accountability unknown to legislators.
-- Larry Allred, Largo

Trust the people

The condemnation of the voter initiative by David Broder and Martin Dyckman rests on two assumptions:

1. That the people are too stupid or venal to make intelligent and moral decisions.

2. That the flaws they see in the initiative process are not shared by other methods.

The first may or may not be true, but it should be noted that our elected representatives are drawn from the same pool; if the people are too stupid . . .

The second also may or may not be true, but I will wager a large pile of greenbacks that I can go through the St. Petersburg Times archives and find in every month of the past four years at least one column by editor Dyckman decrying the influence of money and connections on the legislative agenda.

The initiative may not be the answer to a working girl's prayer, but it isn't the work of the devil, either. The people deserve to be trusted, not at the least by the Times.
-- Frank Clarke, Oldsmar

Here's an initiative

Re: Let's talk about issues important to Florida's future, by Rick Dantzler, On a perilous course by David Broder, and In Florida we have witnessed the failure, by Martin Dyckman, April 9.

Sometimes when our elected officials fail to act or act improperly in favor of powerful political contributors, we must take the initiative to correct a critical situation. I believe such a situation now exists. In many counties, Hillsborough and Pasco among them, new construction is out of control. There are few restrictions to prevent unwarranted building. Our elected leaders seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

On the one hand they loudly proclaim a water shortage, restrict water usage for the existing residents and then blindly approve the construction of thousands of new buildings.

I'm fed up with the situation. I believe something needs to be done when I experience electrical brown-outs, my lake dries up and it takes me 30 minutes to drive a mile to the store -- all because new construction is approved without proof that it can be supported.

We need a complete building moratorium in place until our elected leaders first ensure that there is sufficient water and power and roads to support continued growth. They should also be required to enact and enforce regulations to adequately protect the environment. I believe that if we don't force the issue with an initiative, it will continue to be business as usual.
-- Sam Ward, Land O' Lakes

Promoting bigotry

Re: 2 judges, 2 counties, and a lot of baloney, by Mary Jo Melone, April 9.

Mary Jo Melone takes it upon herself to determine what is or is not a religion. Her column fosters bigotry and hatred for a religion that the federal government has determined is a religion and entitled to tax-exempt status.

I was in the court when Judge Susan Schaeffer stated she saw the signs of the picketers in Clearwater, which are provoked by columns like this one. Yet the Church of Scientology is not just defending itself in this case, but safeguarding for every individual, even Mary Jo Melone, religious freedom. That is missed in her column. She chose to be biased, bigoted and to disseminate hatred.
-- Dan Sigal, Clearwater

As a Scientologist and one who has lived in Clearwater for more than 20 years, I found Mary Jo Melone's column of April 9 beyond offensive. It was comparable to the worst rhetoric of the McCarthy-era paranoia. Who is Melone to try to influence the judges in the cases involving my church, and what theological background does she have to even speak about our religious nature?

There are laws in this country relating to religious freedom. Because Melone doesn't appear to understand this, that doesn't make them any less real. America was founded by individuals escaping religious prosecution. It is too much to believe that Melone and the St. Petersburg Times want to reverse this tradition.

In any event, as with slavery, as with communism, their bigotry, too, shall pass away.
-- Betsy Roush, Clearwater

Melone is on the mark

Re: 2 judges, 2 counties, and a lot of baloney.
--
I wholeheartedly applaud Mary Jo Melone's April 9 column. It was right on the mark!
I have read much about Scientology since moving to Clearwater five years ago and still cannot see it as a religion. I do, however, see it as an organization that deserves credit for attracting such high-salaried followers.
Doris M. Landsman, Clearwater

A tragedy rehashed

Re: The Valessa Robinson case.

Here we go again! The front page of the Times is thrust before our eyes bearing the beginning of another tragic story that we have little desire to see rehashed. What's more, it coincides with the start of the trial, which will be seriously complicated by the difficulty in maintaining a venue devoid of preconceived mind-sets.

What's wrong with holding off until the story has run its course with a jury decision that should be arrived at with only the evidence presented legitimately in a court of law? First Amendment discretion should be exercised in when as well as what is dished up to the minority of people who need the titillation of a sensationalized tragedy.
-- Ernie Agnew, Gulfport

It's just sensationalism

Re: Mad love, April 10.

What a stunning example of cheap exploitation: a front page photo of two teenagers and a ferret under the headline Mad love.

You have confused journalism with sensationalism and have done the public (including families) and the justice system a grave disservice.

Clean up your act and send some of your people back to journalism school. Then you will no longer need to employ quite so many telemarketers in an effort to entice people to spend their money on home delivery of your silly little tabloid.
-- Robert Wagenseil, Largo

A poor comparison

Re: Fuming about gas prices? April 9.

Why compare what we pay for a gallon of gas to what Canadians and the British pay for theirs? They get free medical coverage. The average medical coverage in the United States is about $400 monthly (for those who can afford it). Add that cost to the $1.50-per-gallon gasoline -- then it doesn't appear to be such a bargain.

And did I mention free college education in England?
-- P. Xenakis, Holiday

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