Letters to the editor

Vote ‘yes’ on Key Club referendum

Dear Editor:

Two letters in your paper last week urged residents to vote “no” on the Longboat Key Club referendum. According to the letter-writers, approval of the referendum would permit 300 additional units to be built on Longboat Key – 300 units more than what is already allowed. This is totally incorrect.

The owners of the Longboat Key Club already have the right to build 300 residential units on their property. The choice is not between 300 new, additional units and no units. The choice is between 300 residential units and 300 tourism units.

If the referendum is defeated, it is inconceivable that Ocean Properties, the owners of the Key Club, will not build the 300 units they already have the right to build. So which type of unit is better for Longboat Key and for someone like me, a permanent resident?

It makes sense to me, as Ocean Properties points out, that tourists in a full-service resort tend to spend less time in their cars than local residents do: Tourists who come to a beach resort like the Key Club, with its extensive tennis, golf and dining facilities, are spending a lot of money for their experience and do not want to, or need to, spend their time on the road. 

But even aside from this consideration, tourism units are of major value to Longboat Key. They bring in visitors who may decide to buy here, and that helps all of us who own property. 

I understand that people are upset over the traffic situation, and I agree that traffic this past winter was the worst I have seen. I, too, want something done to deal with this problem.

However, it makes no sense to vote on the Key Club referendum on the basis of fury over the traffic situation. The traffic problems are regionwide and must be dealt with on a regionwide basis. Gulf of Mexico Drive is a state highway, as are most major highways in Sarasota County, and officials at the state, regional and local levels need to act together to solve our traffic problems.

I have no stake in the Longboat Key property, but it seems better for me as a resident if the referendum is approved. I hope that other residents will get beyond the rumor and misinformation and vote “yes.”

Barbara Katz

Longboat Key

America faces threats to freedom

Dear Editor:

My congratulations on a fine and very insightful editorial, “The Parallels of History.” 

A strong defense of our American freedoms and all that we hold dear can only come from a stronger offense. In that, the current occupant of the White House is seriously lacking to the great peril not only of our way of life, but that of our only true ally and only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel. 

Capitulating to Iran, our avowed enemy and scourge of the earth, makes him lethal to the free world. Welcome to the new world of nuclear proliferation.

We are dealing with a world situation that we have not seen since the 1930s. Evil unchecked only emboldens even more evil and aggression. 

We see this coming not only from the Middle East and Africa but from our red button “reset friend,” Comrade Putin. We see China’s aggressive tactics in the East and South China seas threatening territories claimed by Japan, Vietnam and others and in its support for Syria and Iran. We see saber rattling by North Korea against South Korea and eventually other nations as it continues to build more nuclear weapons and better delivery systems. 

By not holding our ground as the free world’s protectorate since World War II we have encouraged evil to proliferate around the world and are facing exploding nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and perhaps in Japan as countries that can no longer count on the United States for protection must tend to their own protection and form new alliances.

Regrettably, America has elected a multidecade sympathizer and member of Jeremiah Wright’s church of “God Damn America.” Therein lies his hatred and downplay of Christianity and Judaism.

Hope and change has turned into hate and hostility, if there was indeed any hint of hope and change to begin with in any understandable form for the America most people love. 

Milan V. Adrian

Longboat Key