Letters to the Editor

+ A note of thanks
Dear Editor:

Professionals Assisting Military Families and Friends(PAMFF) would like to thank Michael Garey of The Lazy Lobster for giving us permission to hold a fundraiser in the entrance of the restaurant. Michael, as well as his staff, was attentive to our needs and kindly provided us with the necessary items for displaying our wares.

It is rewarding to have a local merchant support our nonprofit charity in such a gracious manner. The fundraiser was quite successful.

Sheila Weiser
Longboat Key

+ Leave 911 service alone
Dear Editor:

Why is Longboat Key so poor it cannot afford to ensure its citizens with good emergency responses?  Don’t trivialize this issue. We are talking about life and death, and security on Longboat Key.  Those of us who are elderly and live alone can do so only because we know we are a telephone call away from safety.

Some elderly people believe they cannot live here because we have no medical facility on the Key, so they move near a hospital. But many of us, knowing how good our emergency response is on Longboat Key, feel safe staying here because an EMT can stabilize us faster than an emergency run to a hospital. Nothing is more important than emergency response time to our elderly population. Don’t try to save money on people’s lives.

If we have enough money to build a community center, which most of us won’t use, but not enough money to provide a quick response to emergencies, which all of us are likely to use at some time, then, once again, it appears that the commissioners are out of touch with the people.

Anne Arsenault
Longboat Key

+ The painful truth
Dear Editor:

Regarding your editorial on the word for 2014, you may be the only newspaper editor in North America to recognize the disaster that took place on Nov. 7, 1932.

Unfortunately, it isn’t going to take another 250 years for the USS Titanic to finish “going down by the bow.” The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was just the culmination of what FDR started in March 1933.
Amity Shlaes, in her book “The Forgotten Man,” describes in detail the factual events of the Great Depression and the recovery that took place as the result of our involvement in World War II.

Albert Jay Nock, a name unknown to today’s voters, correctly predicted the condition that this country is in, and the unlikely prospect of any corrective action. Why put on a life jacket when the captain and crew say, “I can swim, even if you can’t? We will be the first ones into the lifeboats.” 

The mantra that it wasn’t an iceberg and we are unsinkable will produce the same results as those experienced by the passengers on the RMS Titanic.

Thanks for your column and the painful truth.

John W. Minton Jr.
Bradenton

+ Editor error
Dear Editor:

I read your Jan. 2 column on “Revelation” with interest. I agree with your concerns.
I was surprised, however, that you used “i.e.” when you should have used “e.g.” That is a common mistake, but I don’t expect it from an editor.

Nelson Patterson
Sarasota

+ Please use the sidewalks
Dear Editor:

When will something be done about individuals walking in the middle of the road?
On a daily basis people are walking on Harbourside Drive in the middle of the road. Seems strange, as the bicycles ride on the sidewalk.

It is an accident waiting to happen as they walk in the middle, and it is a wonder no one has been hit yet.
Maybe if signs were placed or as we drive by the walkers just blow your horn and advise them to use a sidewalk.

Steve Fromkes
Longboat Key

+ ‘Hope springs eternal!’
Dear Editor:
Regarding your word for the year, “Revelation,” the basic factor in the decline and deterioration of a society is the politicians.

Every society, including Rome, was depleted by politicians pursuing power, influence and personal advantage. The “term bread and circus” was coined in Rome as the bribing system to enhance political advantage.

Politicians believe that the “masses are asses,” and they are, on the whole, correct. The civic IQ and interest of the average U.S. citizen is deplorable, a disgrace.

This dysfunctional, inefficient, incompetent government at all levels, especially the federal level, did not happen overnight.

Since the Wilson administration, gradually the unique “American” success and system has been compromised. World War II galvanized traditional American values until the early 1960s, then were compromised with the advent of the Vietnam War.

Along with the political establishment, academia has also been a major deteriorating subversive influence, assisted by the maturing of TV.

The post-World War II “greatest generation” inadvertently provided the foundation for the baby boomer ’60s generation to create the current dysfunction.

That aged ’60s generation is now “reaping” the convoluted, distorted, value-bankrupt, no-character society it created.

Elected government, meanwhile, is a reflection of its citizens. Government bureaucrats are a covert, cancerous byproduct of corrupt government. 

Currently, we have the most corrupt administration in presidential  history and an impotent, political, corrupt Congress.

“Revelation?” A noble idea and concept. Unfortunately, it will take more than one generation to restore traditional American values and national character.

That is assuming that “restoration” is possible, from a very depleted condition. Then again, “Hope springs eternal!”

Vic Cameron
Sarasota