Beach parking pass
As a local resident, I am writing to support the idea of a regional beach parking pass between Collier and Lee counties. Many of us live in one county and frequently visit beaches in the other. It is unfair that we are charged non-resident rates despite paying Florida taxes like everyone else. Collier residents go for free since it is included in their taxes, we in Bonita that live on the edge of Collier have to pay to visit our own beaches even thought we are locals. Collier took away our ability to purchase a beach pass for $50 years ago because they stated they were “losing money”! Hard to believe.
Vicky McLane, Bonita Springs
Trump’s 401(k) crypto proposal
As a retired compensation and benefits professional who helped design and administer our company’s 401(k) and retirement plans, I’m alarmed by President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he would sign an executive order allowing employer retirement plans to invest in “alternative assets” — including cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, hedge funds and private credit
This is a deeply misguided idea.
In my professional role, we didn’t just throw trendy investment options into the 401(k) menu because they were popular. Every fund had to meet standards of investment suitability — a core principle for any fiduciary managing workers’ retirement savings. We looked carefully at risk, historical performance, and especially fees. Above all, we protected employees from inappropriate, volatile, or unproven investment vehicles.
Cryptocurrency is exactly the kind of asset that does not belong in 401(k) plans. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are speculative, volatile, and largely unregulated. While some investors may be drawn to crypto as a high-risk bet, retirement plans are designed for long-term, stable growth — not casino-like swings.
Trump’s proposal politicizes retirement policy. It prioritizes headlines over fiduciary prudence. And it places employers — who already carry legal responsibility as plan fiduciaries — in the impossible position of vetting wildly fluctuating digital assets. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
There’s a reason the Department of Labor has long advised caution on including crypto and “alternatives” in retirement plans. And there’s a reason most plan sponsors — large and small — avoid them. The risks are just too high.
Let’s keep our retirement system grounded in sound, proven financial principles — not political stunts or speculative hype. America’s workers deserve better.
Don Miller, North Fort Myers
The sky isn’t falling
The sky is falling; the sky is falling! First it was recession, we were headed directly into a recession, then it was empty shelves, they would all be empty, then there would be no government services as all the departments and agencies were being emptied of their required personnel. Next came Inflation, prices were going through the roof, next the stock market was going to crash, we were destroying the environment and of course the world and their leaders would all turn against the United States. At this moment none of this has happened, in fact prices are lowering or stable, the border is secure, and we are in the process of removing the 11 to 13 million unauthorized individuals Biden invited into our country and now on their way out and the rest of the world now knows how much they need the USA’s markets for their goods.
Looking good from where I’m setting.
PS: The latest, we’ll have no one to pick our crops, cut our lawns, make repairs and build our buildings. Of course, the Trump Derangement Syndrome crowd would never think of letting in legally the numbers of workers required.
Hubert Saunders, Naples
Trump’s horrid taste
With the Rose Garden gone and the Oval Office looking like a Nevada house of pleasure, is there anything untouched by Trump’s hand of horrid taste? The GOP is remaking the old movie, “Dumb and Dumber,” on a grander sale. You must admire Canada and Mexico for not joining Trump’s daisy chain.
Kevin D. Ryan, Estero
Goodwill shops
I have been a local supporter of the Goodwill and thrift shops for years, donating tons of items that I no longer needed. Lately I am noticing that they will not put anything good out on the floor. They are putting all the nice stuff online.
So here we are the “locals,” our community, supporting the Goodwill, but they will not help the locals who donate to them and support them back. This seems an atrocity and quite greedy of them. I see many locals go in to the store and walk out with nothing. So if you are donating to the Goodwill, just know that you kindness and goodwill is not staying in the local community.
Karen Coderre, Naples
Bye, bye Liberty
I’m expecting an announcement soon from the White House that the Statue of Liberty, her hand holding high a torch of welcome, will be torn down and in its place will be erected a statue of Donald Trump, his hand holding high an ICE pick.
Robert Hilliard, Fort Myers
Marco tax rate
Marco Island residents are facing an extraordinary fiscal proposal: a 51% increase in city revenue forFiscal Year 2026. This includes a $10.5 million increase in property tax revenue and a newly proposed3% utility franchise fee on electric bills, expected to generate another $1.5 million — a total increase ofnearly $12 million in one year. This scale of increase is virtually unheard of among Florida cities of similar size. In the past 20 years, no city with a population comparable to Marco Island (about 16,000-17,000 residents) has increased its annual operating budget by 50% in a single year. Cities like Tarpon Springs, Palm City, and Key Biscayne have managed growth through incremental budgeting, not sudden leaps.
According to the July 21, 2025 City Council budget workshop, the millage rate would rise from 1.2400 to 1.6680 — a 33.9% increase — to fund infrastructure maintenance, wage adjustments, and emergency reserves. The utility tax would appear on residents’ electric bills to offset LCEC’s use of public infrastructure. Even Council Chair Erik Brechnitz has questioned the scale of the increase, suggesting an audit by the Florida Department of Government Efficiency. Residents have voiced concern about whether these increases are truly necessary or just convenient.
Before approving this budget, city leaders owe the public a clear breakdown of where every dollar willgo — and why this year’s needs couldn’t be addressed more gradually. Taxpayers deserve transparency, not sticker shock.
George E. Wittmann Jr., Marco Island
Disclose the documents
In an environment growing murkier by the hour, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Trump is not going to allow disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein file that many in his MAGA base and others are clamoring to see, as he promised he would do in the campaign.
The materials seemed to be headed into the public domain six months ago when Attorney General Pam Bondi, his sycophantic loyalist and former Florida AG, announced that she had them on her desk, including the infamous “client list,” and was about to reveal them within days.
But a funny thing happened on the way to disclosure, as it was reported this summer that President Trump’s name is splattered throughout those documents and he was told that − which he has denied − in May. Since then, he and his administration have shamelessly engaged in Nixonian Watergate schemes to distort and distract the public. Meanwhile, it’s been reliably reported − and not denied − that in her pursuit of justice, the attorney general has had the FBI assign about 1,000 agents, about 7% of its workforce, to work around the clock reviewing some 100,000 documents and identify any references to the president, perhaps, as some suspect, marking them for redaction.
The unmistakable upshot is that the intransigent current occupant of the White House will continue to cling to these items like his presidential predecessor 50-plus years ago held on to the conclusively incriminating Watergate tapes, including the “smoking gun” 18-1/2 minute one (including a key erasure) in which he initiated the cover-up shortly after the infamous break-in. It took a Supreme Court ruling ordering their disclosure and a visit to the White House by a somber group of senior Republican senators warning him of imminent impeachment that led to his resignation within a few days 51 years ago this week, August 9th to be precise.
But no Supreme Court case seems likely now and, even if it were, his cozy relationship with the compliant conservative majority on that tribunal would probably yield a favorable outcome for the president, who might not obey an unfavorable one, anyway. The trek of GOP solons to convince him to abide by his campaign pledge of transparency and reveal the files is also unfathomable under current circumstances.
As for resignation, as the say in the president’s native New York City: “fuhgeedaboutit.” Meanwhile, Vice President Vance, AG Bondi, and other administration heavyweights reportedly are conferring regarding “strategies” to deal with the Epstein episode. Here’s one simple strategic suggestion: disclose documents.
Marshall H. Tanick, Naples
Devolving into sexism
In 2022, fewer than 30 percent of Republican men believed the proposition that “women should return to their traditional roles in society.” Two years later, that number was 48 percent. Republican women underwent a similar surge — from 23 percent in 2022 to 37 percent in 2024.
Today, 79 percent of Republican men and 67 percent of Republican women say they believe American society has gotten too “soft and feminine,” with 43 percent of the country overall agreeing.
Iin 2018, 84% of eighth- and 10th-grade boys said they agreed either “completely” or “mostly” that women should have the same job opportunities as men. Five years later, the share who said they agreed “completely” with equal pay for equal work had fallen from 72 percent to 57 percent.
Why this backlash ? We may never know precisely why, but we know the trend and it does not bode well for women. Some of the backlash is a male irritation with women replacing men in the upper levels of the workplace or are viewed superior to men because of their education. In addition, religious elements are at work attempting to carry women back into roles as mothers and subservient homemakers which is consistent the the thinking of confirmed mysoginists such as the authors of Project 2025 who now operate as the Trump administration.
The forced elimination of DEI from private companies, from federal, state, university and from local governments is part and parcel of the effort move women. Women, plan on pregnancies and housework as your future.
Joe Haack, Naples
Time’s up!
Damnit, we’re Americans! Not some simple-minded followers who passively watch while an extremist movement takes control of our country. We’ve fought for everything, from George Washington on up, to not live under the boot of religion or a zealot’s control. We are free and we’re going to stay free. But, it’s time to raise hell! Repeatedly call or visit your representative’s office and tell them they work for you, and to listen to you.
Democratic representatives, get out in your districts/communities and hold public meetings that the Republicans are too afraid to host. Provide a venue where constituents of all stripes can speak. Publicize the meetings. Call in the press and newscasters so we can witness what’s really going on. Promote unity and resistance.
To all forms of media, stop avoiding your national duty and publish the truth/facts without fear of retribution, if you don’t you may cease to exist altogether. Happens with every dictator. Time’s running out.
While traveling in Great Britain and Ireland last year I had many compelling conversations with residents there, virtually each of them expressed shock that Americans could again vote Donald Trump, convicted felon, into office. I confided that my fears for my country could be likened to that of the better citizens in pre-World War II Germany, who with horror, observed the rise of Hitler and Nazism.
Many of us I guess, naively thought it couldn’t happen here. That Americans wouldn’t stand by and let oligarchs take over their country. Appears that no one ever told these American billionaires that you came in naked and you’ll go out naked. One oligarch’s yacht has 2 swimming pools and 2 helipads, how about that? Think how that wealth could be used constructively, to help our beautiful, precious planet and all those folks who weren’t born on a lucky draw. There but for the grace of God, and all that.
We are now within Trump’s Real Life Reality Show with many of his cast of characters, like him, former low level tv personalities. They’re ignorant, amateur, dog loyal and dangerous. Thanks to our “non-partisan” Supreme Court having passed “Citizen’s United” Elon Musk has bought and co-leads the office of the U.S. president.
So, here we are and Trump’s reality show is rolling. Thousands of vets and workers terminated, how’s the flood of unemployed going to affect the economy? Trump’s tariffs, well, check back in a couple years when we’re having a recession that’ll make 2008 look like a birthday party. Recall when Lee County had the highest number of foreclosures in the nation? Relations with our allies are damaged, their leaders now distrust the U.S. and are contemptuous of Trump. Ukraine? Whatever Putin wants Trump will try to get for him.
Social Security (each time I needed help/info from the SSA their service was smooth and efficient) and checks always on time. Elon sez it’s a “Ponzi Scheme.” The former head of the SSA said in a recent interview on PBS the whole system could collapse in months from Elon’s handiwork. Trump promised to not cut SS, Medicare or Medicaid. Another lie.
What can we do? Call your representatives, write on Facebook and social media, text, email, send postcards to other voters, publicly protest, volunteer, donate to elect honest and ethical people. Demand town hall meetings. Make change.
Don’t stand by like the good German, “Then, they came after me.”
Carolyn L. Moore, North Fort Myers
U.S. at a crossroads
Historians are trained to research, document and record actual events (and people) that occur during a given point in time. Their ultimate aim is to deliver and safeguard a history composed of unvarnished truth, i.e., both the “good” and the “bad.” President Trump’s recent order to scour monuments, memorials, statues, displays, exhibits and museums in order to remove language that disparages the American narrative is diametrically opposed to sound scholarship and, more importantly, is a paternalistic attempt to prevent Americans from knowing the full (sometimes tragic) story. America has never been perfect; no nation can honestly make such a claim. If we extrapolate the president’s latest executive order, land theft, enslavement, lynchings, Jim Crow, gerrymandering, Japanese internments, separating children from families at border crossings, presidential assassinations, Tuskegee syphilis study, near extinctions of American wildlife, water/air pollution, Teapot Dome (1921), Watergate (1972), Pentagon Papers (1971), Iran-Contra Affair (1986), mass shootings at schools, churches, synagogues, shopping malls, ad nauseum can now be stricken from textbooks, electronic media, photos, annals, and archives. Purging records of these inherently harmful and oppressive events will, in the eyes of our Commander-in-Chief, forever shield America’s legacy. It appears that Mr. Trump perceives the American Experiment as too weak to handle the truth. On the contrary, democracy is designed to admit past errors and, as a result, correct those missteps and move closer towards that more perfect union. Dictatorial regimes rely upon disinformation disseminated to its populace; open dialog, transparency, and disclosure of governmental lapses in judgment are antithetical and non-existent in authoritarian administrations. The United States is at a crossroads: What form of governance do we prefer, the one embedded in the Constitution or that which is found in Project 2025?
James L. DeBoy, Fort Myers
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Saturday, August 9, 2025
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
