Beautiful holiday display
I am writing to thank Ralph and Shelly Stayer, owners of Johnsonville Food Company, for sponsoring the “‘Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden” at the Naples Botanical Garden. What a beautiful holiday display! The Naples Botanical Garden is fantastic to behold. I urge everyone to visit this holiday display at The Naples Botanical Garden. Again, thank you Ralph and Shelly Stayer for your generous sponsorship.
Duncan J. Cameron, Naples
NBC2, Kiwanis giving tree
As an activities director at a Fort Myers senior living facility, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the community for their participation in the NBC2 and Kiwanis giving tree.
Because NBC2 reached out to me in October to find out what individual residents might want or need, my residents were thrilled to receive treats for their pets, books they wanted to read, shirts and hats from their favorite sports teams, and clothes that are their correct size. I have countless residents ask me, “Who did this, and how did they know what I like?” Ultimately, they figure it out after seeing the television commercials all month, but I enjoy telling them that the gifts came from Santa until I get one too many eyerolls.
I would also like to thank the Kiwanis Club and NBC2 for their continued efforts in promoting and supporting the Giving Tree year after year. All those who contribute to this wonderful program are acting in the true spirit of Christmas, bringing joy to the lives of complete strangers. I and my residents are truly grateful for all that you have done and continue to do.
Cindy Thompson, Fort Myers
Right to use Florida beaches
I’m writing to share a disturbing incident regarding our right to use Florida’s beaches, and to rally the public’s support for the same.
At 10 a.m. on the morning of December 30 I visited Vanderbilt Beach. I set up my chair close to the water just south of the Ritz Carlton, hoping to escape the crowds of people that I knew would arrive in a few hours. I was soon joined in my area by an older couple, as well as a family of four. The mist was slowly burning off, the water the color of steel, and the waves were crashing gently on the shore.
I was soon approached on a four-wheeler by a Bay Colony “Access Control Officer,” who asked whether I was a member. When I told him that I was not, he informed us that we had to leave because we were trespassing.
I let him know that we were, in fact, not trespassing and that I would not leave. Florida law states that the public has the right to access beaches below the mean high-water line, which is where we were all located.
Bay Colony’s Access Control Officer then began to harass me, the family, and the older couple. He not only lied about our right to be where we were, but he also took our pictures, said that we were being video recorded, handed us a flier from Bay Colony with false information, and threatened to have us arrested for trespassing. He also said that he would call the sheriff to have us removed.
Soon enough, a Collier County sheriff’s officer showed up. What happened next was surreal.
The officer asked us, “Of all the places on the beach that you could be, why did you choose to sit here?” The real answer to this question is that it just seemed like a nice place to sit. But the right answer to this question is obvious: a citizen doesn’t require any reason to peacefully enjoy a public space, or to exercise their rights.
The officer then asked, “Are you one of those people?” I took this to mean a person who deliberately exercises their rights to provoke others – especially law enforcement officers. You can find many such people on YouTube, particularly regarding the First Amendment. Alas, that wasn’t the case, but here again the answer to this question is straightforward: A citizen can have one, many, or no reason at all for enjoying the public section of a beach.
The officer then asked, “Where are you guys from?” Needless to say, it didn’t matter where any of us were from. Everyone has the right to use Florida’s beaches.
The mom of the family let me know that she had previously asked the officer where they could sit. She told me that the sherrif’s officer said it was “a grey area.”
It’s not a grey area. The law is clear.
What’s most disconcerting about this incident was that a Collier County sheriff actively colluded with a private corporation to prevent members of the community from using a public amenity. That’s repugnant and the opposite of what the public should expect from its servants. When called by Bay Colony’s Access Control Officer, the officer’s first and only response should have been, “They are sitting within the public area of the beach. There’s nothing I can do or will do.”
Soon after the officer left, we all spotted a dolphin playing in the water just off the beach. Everyone – Bay Colony residents and the general public alike – surged down to the water as the mammal crested and breached in the waves.
Bay Colony has taken over large swaths of Vanderbilt Beach. Perhaps it’s their right as a property owner. But for those portions of the beach that they don’t own and don’t control, they need to stop harassing the public when it’s lawfully enjoying its small slice of Florida’s natural treasure. Collier County sheriff’s officers should prevent them from doing so, and Naples City Council should make clear to all what the law is.
And to my fellow beachgoers: if this happens to you state your rights politely and don’t be bullied away. We all lose when good people stand by and do nothing.
Jeff Lessard, Bedford, NH
Thanks to President Carter
Jimmy Carter was the best ex-president in modern U.S. history. I had the privilege to be able to tell him so one day.
And his championing human rights while he was in office is overlooked. Those human rights principles that he applied helped get the U.S. out of Watergate and helped get the world out of Vietnam.
Today is a sad day. Thanks again for your kindness, your leadership, and your moral compass, Mr. President.
Chris Verrill, Fort Myers
Carter’s decency, integrity
An article in the Atlantic spoke of Jimmy Carter with these words, “…the strain of basic decency and integrity that helped get Carter elected in the first place, in 1976, never deserted him, even as his country devolved into ever greater incivility and division.” How terribly far that devolution has come!
Daniel Graziano, Naples
Trump Derangement Syndrome
My wife and I have lived in SW Florida for well over 20 years, both in Collier and now Lee County. We are lucky enough to have two fabulous health care systems, NCH in Collier County and Lee Health in Lee County. Top of the line surgeons, doctors and nurses. Dedicated professionals.
However, there is one insidious disease that neither organization helps and that is Trump Derangement Syndrome. Judging by the letters in the Naples Daily News since his overwhelming win on November 5, many of our residents have contracted the illness so I would appreciate it if the above excellent health care organizations could provide much needed help for these poor folks afflicted with the disease.
Michael Adler, Miromar Lakes
Failure of media
Democracy requires an informed citizenry, and the media over the past decade has created or allowed an increasingly misinformed citizenry. When people are more concerned about bathrooms for transgenders than climate change’s profound impact on the biosphere and the extinction of life on it, the media has failed.
When people worry about crime when crime rates have fallen, about the economy when it is healthy and about immigrants when they help sustain our economy, committing fewer crimes than the native-born whites, the media has failed.
As far Donald, the media treated his lies as potentially true; lies received the same informational flow as truths, destroying reality in the minds of the people. Social media has eliminated information systems which curtailed the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Misogyny, racism, antisemitism have become socially acceptable with little or no comment by the press.
And the right-wing media — Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk’s X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan’s, fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information where truth became the exception, not the rule.
Why didn’t the American press step up to the plate? Because the American press is being held captive by leaders who have abandoned truth in deference to power and greed.
Sally Lam, Naples
Posse of billionaires
Happy New Year! I hope the holiday season was everything everybody hoped for! I just have one very special important question. All the hard-working people who are working two, three jobs to make ends meet and voted for Donald Trump − why do you think his posse of billionaires really care about you? Have a healthy and prosperous new year.
Marc Bellagamba, Fort Myers
True inflation rate
The Biden administration says that the inflation rate for 2024 has been about 3%. However, as an example of what I think has been the true 2024 inflation rate, at least in groceries, is as follows. About 6 months ago I went into my local Publix supermarket where I bought an 85-count Publix brand box of tissues and paid $1.10 for it. That was about 1.29 cents per tissue. A week ago at the same store I paid $1.79 for a 70-count box of Publix brand tissues. That was about 2.56 cents per tissue. That looks to me to be about 100% inflation. (And I have found that this is only an example of the rest of the cost of groceries in general.) I don’t know how the Biden administration has been calculating the inflation rate, but it looks to me to be with smoke and mirrors. The liberals are predicting that the Trump policies will increase inflation. This is compared to what?
Wayne Sherman, Naples
U.S. expansion history
To the contributor who called Donald Trump an idiot because he mentioned making Greenland our 51st state without even owning it.
You obviously didn’t do well in history.
Do you know we purchased Alaska for the ridiculous price of $7.2 million? Have you heard of the Yukon gold strike?
Do you know of the Louisiana Purchase which gave us pretty much all the land west of the Mississippi River? 828,000 acres! That cost us $15 million, about 4 cents an acre.
I’d say that was a pretty good return on our investments, wouldn’t you?
I’m sure there were probably a few who called Presidents Johnson and Jefferson idiots also.
Now I’m not saying Greenland will become our 51st state but everything is negotiable, and I mean everything. You won’t know unless you try.
And by the way, wasn’t it Canada that Donald Trump was talking about as our 51st state?
Rick Manuel, Dade City
A few observations
Some quick thoughts:
1. The man (VP candidate Walz) who put tampons in boys bathrooms calls Vance weird.
2. Our country is heavily overweight, very unhealthy and not ranked in the top 10 in life expectancy and people are worried that RFK Jr. will do something different.
3. Many on the Left are complaining or suggesting that Musk, the billionaire, is running the GOP. These are the same people who have the support of Soros, Steyer, Bloomberg, Bezos, Jobs and many other billionaires.
Ron Wobbeking, Naples
Enough negativity
I’m trying again to end 2024 and start 2025 with a request to the editors to stop publishing all the negative views (on both sides) from what it seems to me a small group of people who like to express their opinions to everyone in Collier and Lee counties. ENOUGH already.There are so many positive people and events going on, let’s write about them. To all the negative Nellies out there, give us a break and just try to enjoy life down here in beautiful SW Florida.
Bill Flaishans, Naples
Trump − his own antidote
The fact that Trump is beginning to be perceived as a loser may save our democracy from him. His recent loss in the congressional showdown over a government shutdown lifts the curtain on Trump as a loser. His choices for a new Cabinet lift the curtain even more. His sharing the presidency with Elon Musk continues Trump’s exposure as a loser.
Trump’s lack of vision, his arrogance and his distancing himself from reality will continue to manifest him as a loser which, in turn, will diminish his image among supporters.
Trump himself may be the antidote for the blight which he is inflicting on America.
Joe Haack, Naples
Fact-free voting
I consider myself a fiscally conservative and a social justice voter. I’m not a fan of Trump and truly can’t believe he was elected again. Despite all the fact that he’s unfit to run a used car lot let alone the U.S. government. To all of his MAGA followers I wish you the best of luck in the coming years. I surely would hate to see anyone who willingly voted for a known pathological narcissist conman, suffer because of some silly and uninformed decision they made without looking up the facts and just voting on hate, fear and prejudices. I truly hope that Trump becomes the greatest president this country has ever seen and we can live in peace, love and abundance. I also plan to write a letter of apology to all the Trump voters when he fulfills his promise of making this country great again. If things don’t turn out so well maybe some brave MAGA voters will have the guts and courage to admit they were wrong and never vote without looking at facts and the truths in future elections. If Trump does become a great president, then I will no longer look up facts and blindly vote for him.
James Ford, Naples
Social Security change
I object to the Your Turn essay by Gema G. Hernandez on Dec. 29, because the writer omitted several crucial points that would show your readers how unfair the recent change to Social Security really is.
Prior to 1983, all government employees were covered under a separate pension system called the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and did not pay any tax for Social Security. CSRS was very generous because your benefit equals almost half of the average of your three highest earning years. You could easily game the system by working tons of overtime as you near retirement.
Your writer claimed that most federal employees never collect from CSRS anything near $3,000 a month. That is not true. According to the Social Security Administration, in Nov. 2024, the average CSRS monthly pension is $5,447. Compare that to the average Social Security monthly pension of $1,920.48. The CSRS average is about 3 times the SS average!
Congress decided it was unfair that government employees were eligible for very generous pensions paid for by the general public, who will receive much lower pensions from Social Security. Starting 1983, all federal employees started to pay Social Security taxes on their salaries. Many government retirees now have a mix of CSRS points for retirement and points for Social Security. Government employees can collect both pensions. But, to even out the large discrepancy between a CSRS pension and what the rest of us get from Social Security, Congress created the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). Congress calculated that a CSRS pension would be almost 3 times the average SS pension and thus reduced the SS pension by a percentage of the CSRS pension amount. The Government Pension Offset (GPO) for survivors was calculated along the same principle.
The writer also used teachers, firefighters, and police to create unearned sympathy for those retirees by claiming that they are being cheated out of their Social Security. They are not being cheated out of anything. The original Social Security Act excluded most state and local government employees from the tax. States needed to opt-in to SS under a Section 218 Agreement. Most states did not opt-in and excluded their employees from the SS tax. When those employees retire after 20 years and then go on to work another 20 years elsewhere that did collect the SS tax from their paychecks, their SS amount gets reduced under the GPO. As the Social Security Admin has noted, the *AVERAGE* CSRS pension is almost 3 times larger than the average SS pension. Teachers, firefighters, police, and government employees all have unions that negotiate very generous pensions under CSRS. No taxpayer needs to feel sorry for government retirees.
Elizabeth Rosenberg, Cape Coral
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 1, 2025
