Jaycee Park plan
It is almost impossible to imagine that the Cape Coral Council members continue to promote changes to Jaycee Park, a proposal that is overwhelmingly opposed by thousands of residents. The 60% design stage states that P3 negotiations are underway. P3 partnerships are simply contracts between government (Cape Coral) and private firms. Shedding some light on what the city hopes to accomplish with P3 that they cannot do without private investment may answer why council is stubbornly promoting a plan that will cost taxpayers $12 million dollars. Please, council members, name the kinds of private partners you are negotiating with. The proposed plan shows all the parking on the street side, eliminating the use of the present waterfront parking areas heavily used by the disabled and challenged elderly who will no longer be able to access the waterfront by vehicle. In an area inhabited by many in this category, this one aspect alone should be enough to stop the plan. The design reveals the largest areas of the park given to band stands, food trucks, alcohol areas, parking and washrooms. The pristine nature of this neighborhood park filled with shade and green space will be lost forever if this Coney Island design should go forward. I am copying this to mayor Gunter and council in hopes they will listen to the wishes of their people as opposed to park designers and some P3 partners.
Marie P. Dechman, homeowner and Cape Coral winter resident
Poached by greed?
I've lived near and shopped at the Galleria Shops for many years and after reading your article about their treatment of a long-time tenant I drove by last night saddened.
To me it appears that after many years of the center not being completely built out or fully occupied that the owners of Poached are victims of corporate greed. Unless I'm misreading your article they have been tenants in good standing for 13 years. Now that the center appears to be completing build-out they feel they can bully tenants to change their business model or leave? Ridiculous. The restaurant business is not easy and Poached has developed community for it's staff and customers which doesn't contribute to the bottom line of ownership of the center.
I wish the restaurant owners good luck and success and hope your paper lets the community know where they land. I wish the owners of the Shops karma. I know it's Shoppes but we're no longer part of Merrie Olde England.
Tim Winschel, Naples
Ancestors were immigrants
I am a descendant of immigrants. Every branch of my family tree has a family that left northern Europe for America. Every branch of your family tree too has a transition family that left some other continent and came to America. Everyone in America – including the native Americans – is a descendant of immigrants from somewhere else. Human life began in Africa, and to some degree that makes us all African Americans.
The Mortensons left Sweden in 1880 because if you were born poor, then you lived and died poor. Sweden was a rigid class-stratified society at the time, and my great grandparents left for Minnesota because they had opportunities in Minnesota that did not exist in Sweden at that time. My Kroschel ancestors came to the United States in the 1860s and 1870s because they were draft dodgers. Otto von Bismark was drafting 16-year-old boys to fight to create the modern German state and the first drafted in the Kroschel family was soon killed in battle. As younger Kroschel boys reached draft age at 16 they left Prussia for Wisconsin. My Boub ancestors left a spectacular valley in Switzerland that was overpopulated, and the Swiss government was paying families to emigrate. My Scotch-Irish ancestors left rocky farmland for more fertile soils in Pennsylvania. I am 100% the descendant of immigrants from other countries.
We are all descendants of immigrants from other countries. Yet apparently we have forgotten how we got here. Now we talk of building border walls, denying refuge to those fleeing persecution and death, denying those seeking a better life for themselves and their children. These are about the same reasons my ancestors had for leaving Europe for America, and maybe yours too. Why we now want to close the door that was open for our ancestors smacks of ugly racism and classicism not encountered by our ancestors.
America has been open and generous to my family. We worked hard to accomplish and achieve what we have. But we were given chances here that did not exist in the places my ancestors came from. Recent immigrants here are working to build their own lives and the lives of their children, and thereby our country’s future economic life and vitality. My retirement years are dependent on widening and deepening the workforce that is decreasingly dependent on natural reproduction and increasingly dependent on workforce infusion from other countries. We risk our own welfare and futures by curtailing immigration.
I say: Welcome to America, and get to work.
Tom Mortenson, Lehigh Acres
Trump's disdain for vets
Donald Trump’s disdain for the military is genetic.
Trump’s grandfather was stripped of his German citizenship and deported from Germany for draft evasion. Draft evasion brought him to the United States.
According to Atlantic magazine, on a trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Trump referred to the 1,800 U.S. Marines who gave their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers.”
The Washington Post and Fox News reported that when Trump canceled a visit to another World War I cemetery, blaming the weather, he remarked, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
On Memorial Day 2017, Trump visited the grave of 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, the son of his chief of staff John Kelly. Standing at the grave of Robert, who died in Afghanistan in 2010, Trump turned to John and said: “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Trump mocks the idea of service and sacrifice. He dismissed the military advisors later in his first term, calling some of them “losers” and “a bunch of dopes and babies” because “we don’t win any wars anymore.”
Trump avoided serving in the Vietnam War with a medical deferment for bone spurs, a condition which never interfered with his playing sports. And, miraculously it disappeared when he was no longer draft-eligible according to his biographers, Gwenda Blair.
Trump referred to John McCain as a loser because he was captured and spent more than five years in a POW camp after his fighter jet went down over North Vietnam. Donald Trump tweeted in writing: John McCain Is "A Loser" because he allowed himself to be shot down by the enemy.
Trump’s White House Chief of Staff John Kelly revealed that former President Trump insulted wounded veterans, dead American soldiers who fought in World War I and U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Kelly informed CNN that Trump was “a person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because "it doesn’t look good for me." A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family — for all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are "losers" and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
Trump’s disdain for fallen warriors is genetic and it is a national embarrassment.
Joe Haack, Naples
Trump instigated coup attempt
Let’s see, we have one Supreme Court justice (Clarence Thomas) whose wife was an active participant in the effort to overturn the election result and keep Trump in power. He has also taken lavish gifts and vacations from wealthy donors and not reported them. We have another Supreme Court justice (Samuel Alito) whose flag-flying at his two homes clearly demonstrates his sympathy for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. And neither of these men was nominated by Trump, and neither has any intention of recusing himself on cases pertaining to Jan 6. Disgraceful. Perhaps what is most disturbing is that our ultra-conservative justices make no pretense of impartiality anymore. Chief Justice Roberts should be called before the Senate Judiciary Committee to outline a plan to restore the credibility of the court.
Here's the problem in our country right now: two well-meaning Americans can look at a situation/event and come away with two very different interpretations. I get it, I'm not thrilled about voting for Joe Biden, but another Trump presidency is unthinkable. Why aren't we saying it: he's a traitor; he instigated a coup, attempting to overturn a legitimate election result. Sadly, Americans often conflate arrogance for leadership. It's so easy to see: Trump has nothing but contempt for the rule of law. But if he wins the election he’ll use the full power of the judiciary to go after his perceived enemies.
Ray Clasen, North Fort Myers
Artificial intelligence
From the taming of electricity to the splitting of the atom; from the editing of the genome to the cracking of fossil fuels, man has been given the opportunity to use scientific breakthroughs to enhance the quality and duration of life on Earth.
With the current opportunity to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) we have greater leverage over our control over the elements and the ways in which we go about living our daily lives.
Any one of these discoveries can be harnessed to contribute to the betterment of society and life on Earth or, conversely, to our mutual destruction as a species.
Fossil fuels have given us enormous traffic jams. The smashing of the atom has given us the potential to bring about worldwide nuclear destruction.
So too AI is giving mankind the blessings of being better able to understand and cope with disease and climate change and all manner of threats to our very survival
The question now is do we control AI or do we let it take us to the point where our common humanity is irrecoverable?
Robert P. Sanchez, Naples
Leaders not listening
There is this notion that when elected leaders understand and deliver what their constituents want, they are buying votes. This seems to me a very elitest concept. Leaders do need to make decisions and not simply poll voters. However, when there is a pattern of ignoring the wishes of the majority, it’s time to challenge our leaders.
Very regularly, we read that our governor and Legislature have put ideology ahead of the clear and common good. Just a few examples: Governor DeSantis’s refusal to disclose travel expenses; Passing election laws that fail in the courts primarily because they are unconstitutional and restrict rather than promote voting; Deleting references to climate changes from Florida law (This in the light of what is obvious to a majority of people in our state, the country and the world. Worse, failing to act, sitting by while citizens face higher and higher costs related to climate change, e.g. insurance premiums, and kicking the problems down the road to our children and beyond. It’s getting worse and will not change without action); Interfering in women’s reproductive health care decisions; Refusing money needed to fund expanding Medicaid for those eligible and in need; Picking unnecessary fights with businesses resulting to loss of jobs and revenue to the state; Promoting laws that prevent local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers.
There are many more examples and it will be worse unless we send a clear message that you are not listening and that is not acceptable.
Bill Feldman, Pelican Bay
Protecting wetlands
It was gratifying to read that Florida’s wetlands and endangered species will continue to be protected from irresponsible development encroaching on wetlands.
Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples
Presidential debates
Why are we, the people of all religions, all backgrounds, allowing our money to be distributed to those who have no right to receive it. Biden (progressives) appropriating 7.7 billion dollars to 160,000 to reduce student loans.
What is expected at the presidential debates in June? Will Biden be given the questions and answers before the debate? It will be the only way for him not to stumble on his words. Will he have a cheat sheet? Trump will answer off the cuff and with mental knowledge. Why will there not be an audience?
It will be very difficult to watch and not get sick. Mark my words.
Anthony Farina, Fort Myers
Nikki Haley's reversal
I just saw a very realistic A. I. video clip of Nikki Haley saying she will vote for Donald Trump. It was hilarious. They got her voice and lip movements down perfectly and…wait…what??… it wasn’t an A. I. fake video???Come on! It had to be a fake because all through Nikki’s primary campaign she said Donald Trump is "not fit to be president" and that he is "unhinged."Hmmm… I don’t get it. Is she okay?
J. Cant, Naples
Student debt forgiveness
Now that Biden has forgiven over $1.5 trillion in student debt, I had a thought while seeing roofers at work in Naples. How do you think these people working as hard a job as there is in 90 plus degree temperatures with the sun beating down on them feel that their tax money is paying off debt of lily-white hands college students / grads?
This may be the most unconscionable kick in the face of hard working laborers who sweat and toil to support their families.
Biden may be buying the votes of those whose debt is being forgiven but he is losing the votes of millions of hard-working people that did not attend college.
Michael Zubrow, Naples
How inflation works
Individuals talking about record corporate profits being the cause of inflation have a limited grasp of how inflation works. If we were to calculate those profits adjusted for inflation, they would be well in line with the standard growth and market conditions that would be expected had there been no inflation. Corporations make a big target because years of academic and Hollywood indoctrination have made them a big target. It was so bad that in the film "Aliens," they called the bad guys “the corporation.”The reality is that inflation first impacts wages which are the most sensitive to inflation. None of these wages are middle-class wages. Fast food, grocery, pretty much any minimum wage job where the Philips Curve (Google it), can have maximum impact inflate first. Those wages spike, and the wages on the top end that are sensitive to the market also spike. If an individual is a board member or a corporate executive, where a majority of their compensation is stock options, with an inflated market due to the increase in the monetary supply − their stock value will increase. The last in line relies on the unions. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, and UAW unions do not adjust those salaries until their contracts run out. Other comparable non-union jobs adjust wages to compete with middle-class union jobs. This is why the inflation rate was huge at the start but gradually slowed down while still increasing. We are seeing the rates adjust to the new middle-class wages and impact prices.
Anthony Rainone Ed.D.(c), Cape Coral
Bias on the court
Do you remember when the merest whiff of bias or questionable motivation would send jurists scrambling for the door marked "recusal?" Me too. Those were good times. But now we have Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas on the highest court in the land. The former flew a flag symbolizing the serially refuted "stop the steal" conspiracy shortly after it had inspired a deadly coup attempt, and the latter is married to one of the prime movers in that plot to negate a legitimate election. And as yet, neither has given any indication of intent to recuse himself in cases presently before the court directly involving the appalling assault on small "d" democracy. It makes a joke of a legal system once the envy of the world, and it makes me sad.Sam and Clarence, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume for the sake of argument that you might actually be capable of calling balls and strikes objectively in these momentous cases despite all appearances to the contrary. But can you really tell us with straight faces that your refusal to recuse doesn't smell bad? Come on now guys − I said with straight faces.
Geremy Spampinato, Naples
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