Our precious library
The Budgetary Committee’s proposal to close the Vanderbilt Library does not, in my opinion, show the required respect for all the diverse functions that the library performs for the Pelican Bay community. Our community, of course, consists primarily of retired people who place less value on the “toys” of this generation − the “smart” phones, apps and internet addictions. Most of us remain the traditionalists who enjoy “smart” visits to our little regional library with its charming tinctures of a Swiss chalet nestled among the trees. There we can read enlightening books, check out excellent DVD’s and also have access to resources concerning community issues and local affairs. Going to our library is so preferable to staring at screens in isolation at home.
The library is not only about books but also about social integration and the charms of belonging to our wonderful local community. The reassurance that the library is “always there for us” is not something that is quantifiable in terms of “dollars per customer.” It is an investment by Naples in the quality of life of its residents. It’s why we choose to live here rather than “upstate.” When those living alone want to have companionship, they can pop in to do something as basic as sharing a jigsaw puzzle, or to participate in the vibrant book club. There is also the priceless resource of emotional support from the wonderful staff, who are always ready to extend a listening ear and compassion.
Our precious library is not a “cost estimate” which can be reduced to spreadsheets and slides at a committee meeting. It is instead a timeless spiritual investment which has a value to the continuity of our delightful city which far transcends any physical cost.
Philip Stevens, Naples
Perfect gentleman
On Tuesday, June 10, I was lunching with my 96-year-old mother at Mel’s Diner in Cape Coral. As we were about to leave it was pouring rain and I told Mama to wait till I go bring the car around. When I brought the car around there was a gentleman who had Mama’s hand in the crook of his arm and an umbrella over her head as he escorted her to my car, opened the door for her, and made sure she got in okay. I thanked him but never got his name. As Mama and I drove away we both mentioned that he was a perfect gentleman of a bygone era. Mama & I thank you.
Sharon Fehrer with Mama, Geraldine Bower, Cape Coral
Conserve wildlife
I drive around Naples with a very special license plate, “Conserve Wildlife.” Depicted on this license plate is a pileated woodpecker, a swallow-tailed kite, cypress trees and a black bear. Isn’t it a bit hypocritical to hold a hunt for animals featured on a conservation license plate? The studies show that there is adequate habitat for these bear populations. The studies are incomplete as to the viability of certain populations. So FWC is going to allow hunters to bait and kill these mammals. We will end up with genetically inferior and inbred populations of bears. We have seen something like this before in another species. FWC, if you are concerned about the populations, do some culling and take out the old and sick. Help our bears.
Kathleen Greenawalt, Naples
Cuts to arts funding
We take great pleasure in witnessing live plays here in SW Florida. Now, the theaters are enduring a catastrophic setback due to the current administration’s cuts to The National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. This direct attack on our society’s vital cultural fabric is an aggressive threat to the quality of arts here and nationwide. Since the Broadway-quality of productions requires a large funding, ticket sales are just a small portion of the operating budget. This coupled with the extreme cuts to arts funding at the national and state levels will denigrate the quality of performances. So why these cuts? They are part of the lame Republican budget bill which will take these savings and give tax breaks to the microcosmic few who are already obscenely well off. The senators have this rare opportunity to rectify this terrible situation. Please say NO to this lopsided and unjust bill.
Glenn Chenot, Cape Coral
June 14 is Flag Day
In the United States of America, we proudly celebrate June 14th as “Flag Day.” This began back on June 14, 1777, and this day has been celebrated annually as a moment to recognize our nation’s unity, freedom, diversity, and glory; with the red, white and blue colors on display from sea to shining sea. Also on this day back on June 14, 1775, the U.S. Continental Army was first established making it the oldest branch of the U.S. military with “250 years” of continuous service to our nation. The shared date of June 14th; “Flag Day” and the U.S. Army’s birthday highlights the close connection between our country’s national symbol and its defenders. The waving of our nation’s stars and stripes banner visually reminds Americans of the importance of patriotism, service and sacrifice.
Today as you salute the flag, please take the time to thank a veteran for the freedoms that we all enjoy daily. “God bless America” and all of our military personnel everywhere!
Christopher Spencer, president, Freedom Memorial Foundation of Naples
Immigration reform
The undocumented immigrant issue continues to plague America as evidenced by ICE raids, peoples’ shock, fear and anger, National Guard and U.S. Marine presence in LA, and presidential threats of imminent “real force” awaiting June 14th protesters. Sadly, today’s crises could have been prevented if Congress had been doing their job, i.e., modifying immigration laws during the past 20 years. The most recent, significant immigration reform enacted by Congress was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, legalizing 2.7 million undocumented residents who entered the U.S. before 1982. While reform attempts have been attempted in the past 30 years, virtually all have failed but those laws that did pass (1996, 2002, 2006) were responses to concerns about terrorism, border control, and enforcement of laws on hiring immigrants. The notable exception in immigration reform law has been pathways to citizenship. Would not the nation be better served if the application/vetting process was streamlined whereby citizenship approval and/or deportation occurred in a four-week (or month) time frame rather than a four-year one? Hiring more federal workers to process applications is a far less expensive and more humanitarian method to address undocumented residents than monies expended for ICE, local law enforcement, and the military chasing after contributing, albeit undocumented, residents. As long as immigration phobia is employed as a tactic to effectively inflame one’s political base and distract attention from other “more important matters” (“One Big Beautiful Bill,” $Trump cryptocurrency investments), flooding the zone with illegal immigration rants will persist.
James L. DeBoy, Fort Myers
Ignore this abomination
The army is throwing a huge party for draft dodger bone spurs Trump. He has said that the people who sacrifice in the military are foolish. Let’s ignore this abomination and not watch.
Benjamin Glick, Naples
Trump’s actions justified
It seems like every other letter I’ve read is about Donald Trump calling in the National Guard during these recent L.A. riots. Do you people have a problem with that? Have you even seen these “peaceful protests”? There is nothing peaceful about them Don’t believe what you see on CNN or MSNBC. I know it might hurt but tune into Fox News and see what’s really happening. Cars being destroyed, Molotov cocktails, frozen water bottles and cinder blocks all being hurled at the police. How in good conscience could you say that’s OK? These professional agitators (and believe me, they’re professional!) are attacking I.C.E. agents who are only doing what the law says they should be doing, rounding up people who have entered this country illegally. It’s the law and it’s their job, what would you like them to do?
Do you really want another Summer of Love as we had in 2020 ? You know, the summer where these insurrectionists tried to burn the down the Federal Courthouse in Portland, took over part of downtown Seattle and burned down a police station in Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots not to mention the many people who were killed that summer.
Is this the country you really want to live in? Is your hatred for Donald Trump that bad that you would allow U.S. cities to be burned down by these anarchists, because that’s what they are, anarchists. They want to bring all the bad from the countries they came from and foist it all on our citizens.
Donald Trump has absolutely nothing to do with this problem. It rests squarely on Joe Biden’s head and I’m not even sure he knew what was going on in his head to begin with.
Donald Trump brought in the National Guard to protect federal agents and to protect federal buildings in L.A. Seems like a no brainer to me but apparently not to Mailbag contributors.
Rick Manuel, Dade City
Imbalance of power in USA
U.S. government vs. the people: Never so reversed as today! And it is all due to SCOTUS’ Citizens United ruling. It gave infinite power to the wealthiest “A La” Elon Musk who purchased the presidency for Donald Trump, a convicted felon and traitor (January 6 insurrection) to the USA. SCOTUS even dug its vacuous hole deeper by ruling that Trump could not be held accountable for any of his actions, legal or illegal. Rupert Murdoch, one of the wealthiest, owns Fox News which controls the minds of MAGAs including their votes.
Yesterday Murdoch’s Fox News even blocked facts of the LA situation by garbling California Governor Newsom’s fact-based presentation to the nation. There are absolutely no riots in LA to justify Trump’s illegal nationalizing of California’s National Guard, nor to send in the U.S. Marines. Trump’s actions this week are a dress rehearsal for activation of The Insurrection Act to take absolute control of the USA and ultimately to prevent elections and saving him from jail.
And my U.S. Republican (I am registered Republican) representatives and senators just blithely ignore their responsibilities of impeachment and conviction of Trump and removing him from office. Yes, never in history has the imbalance of power in the USA been so extreme. If only MAGAs’ minds could be freed to realize the role of Citizens United in the political power play today!
William A. Pettinger M.D., Bonita Springs
Trump inflaming situation
I am really disturbed and puzzled by what is happening in Los Angeles. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens are being illegally detained and deported without due process (which is a constitutional right). A few hundred people are protesting, almost all peacefully, which is a legal and constitutional right. The Trump administration is responding and inflaming the situation by sending in the military. What the heck!? This is not the America I want to live in and voted for. Why would the president want to escalate this confrontation rather than diffuse it? I suspect that this is an effort of the GOP and White House to distract from the disastrous tariff policies and teetering economy and wildly unpopular budget reconciliation bill which is currently being negotiated in Congress – which cuts Medicaid, SNAP benefits, housing assistance, VA benefits, and for those seniors in the readership area, it will necessitate significant Medicare cuts in order to satisfy the budget laws already in effect. At the same time that the proposed budget bill slashes benefits for most Americans, it will decrease taxes for millionaires and billionaires and corporations and explode the national debt by trillions of dollars. Who wants this big budget bill, since it only is good for really wealthy people? No one wants it, which is why the president is causing a kerfuffle in LA to distract the media attention and give cable news networks something to focus on, other than how much this budget bill will hurt the average American. Call Congressman Donalds, Senator Moody and Senator Scott and let them know your thoughts about this lousy budget bill and tell them to get to work helping the people of SW Florida, instead of screwing us all in order to benefit their few wealthy donors.
Donald Belmont, Naples
Democrats’ naivete
Isreal executed a sophisticated and well planned attack on Iran with air attacks and Mossad agents on the ground. They disabled the Iranian regime and executed many leaders, both military and nuclear.
Years in planning and it took only minutes for Tim Kaine, Hillary’s running mate, to condemn the attack. He was joined by Jeffries and other progressives in the Democratic party. These people still think that John Kerry and Biden’s plan of giving in to all of Iran’s demands and lies would be the best route to peace in the Middle East and the world in general.
The Dems’ naivete is astounding. Trump knows what he is doing. He is supporting Israel but keeping arm’s length so as not to be involved directly. We should all feel grateful that Trump is in control, not Harris.
Michael Zubrow, Naples
Trump reveals his nastiness
Trump would have felt very comfortable on a medieval throne. Many monarchs were ruthless, self-absorbed, thinking of themselves as having divine rights, expecting unquestioned loyalty, and rewarding their favored, entitled nobles. The absolute ruler flexes his muscles and acts tough, bullying the weak. He picks his fights and enjoys punishing his lesser subjects while placating the noble class.
Trump reveals his nastiness when dealing with protests and deportations. He acts tough with Gov. Newsom and protesting mayors, but he’s a pussycat with the murderous Putin. The bully called the Guard and the Marines to intimidate people, and he will continue to politicize the military. His intervention is unwelcome, expensive, and makes things worse. None of Trump’s appointees have the intestinal fortitude to question his chest-thumping. They’ve drunk the cruel-aid. He targets protesters, despite pardoning the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol? Certainly, ICE should arrest and deport the bad guys, serious criminals. But act reasonably and compassionately. Millions of illegals are good people who raise their families here and contribute to society. They are our friends and neighbors, unnecessarily targeted and tormented by a very unkind man.
Why doesn’t Trump focus on some real problems — climate change, nuclear threats, budgetary imbalances, Putin’s expansiveness, enduring Mideast unrest, hacking crimes, AI positives and negatives, and health care for women, the poor, and the aged? He’d rather bully the weak.
Kevin McNally, Bonita Springs
Find points of agreement
In these politically polarized times brave souls argue that we should try to identify points of agreement before we hopelessly divorce. Following are two possibilities. First, President Trump has publicly promoted a goal of increasing investment in the U.S. Most of us would agree on that. Presumably we can all agree that Serbia, Albania, and the Arab States are not in the U.S. If so, can we find a common position on how recent, large Trump family investments in those places are consistent with the goal the administration sets for other individuals and businesses?Second, regarding the recent Los Angeles situation. Surely we can all agree that illegals in the U.S. who commit crimes should be punished, whether fines or imprisonment here or deportation if they are found guilty under a reasonable judicial process. Likewise we all agree that any rioters who attack law enforcement or rob and loot should be brought to justice. But can we possibly agree on the overriding question which boils down to whether what we really want is deportation of the tiny minority of illegals who commit serious crimes or whether we want to remove all illegals estimated at 20 million by most authorities and 30 million by Trump. If we choose to “kick ‘em all out” we would be deporting between 6 and 8 percent of the U.S. population and 4 percent of the workforce. Are either of those choices what we want or could we agree on a more nuanced position?
Alan Keller, Naples
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Saturday, June 14, 2025
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
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