Treasure Coast news items unbelievable
So many gripes, so little time.
If I read correctly, attorneys for local developers are arguing to put in septic tanks for some new construction near Vero Beach.
You’re kidding, right?
Brightline is waiting to see if Stuart is going to get a $45 million grant for a train station to service trains that lost half a billion dollars in 2024.
You’re kidding, right?
I hope I’m wrong, but it looks like they’re going to build skyscrapers on and near Hutchinson Island and another sidewalk on the east side of State Road A1A from Fort Pierce to the north.
You’re kidding, right?
More unbelievable is Big Sugar will likely get approved to mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
You’re kidding right?
Money always wins, no kidding.
David Habel, Vero Beach
Great dads live in hearts and heads every day
With Father’s Day in our recent rear-view mirror, I have this story:
My dad was very, very, very strict. So was my mom, though not quite as much. That said, I have many beautiful memories of my father.
The one I’d like to share today is what I call “The Ice Cube Story.” I was 19 and just married.
Now, let’s be honest, there’s no great talent required to make ice cubes. All you need is an ice tray, some water and a freezer. Anyone can do it. At the time, Pat and I were living in White Plains, New York. My dad never called before visiting, he just showed up. It was a family tradition, really.
On this particular day, he arrived with his longtime friend, Ed Cocciardi. Dad walked in, made a beeline for the kitchen, opened the freezer, one of the few things Pat and I actually owned, and pulled out a little plastic bag, twisted and tied shut, filled with ”homemade” ice cubes.
Back then, there were no Ziplocs. Just simple bags, carefully tied.
With his chest puffed out, my dad turned to Ed and said, like I’d cured cancer: “Look at this, Ed … she makes ice cubes.”
There are so many stories like that. Little things that meant the world to him and because of that, they meant the world to me.
My dad found pride in the smallest things. He made me, my sister, and our mother feel seen, special and enough. That’s why I have strong self-esteem. That’s why I believe in the power of dads. I married one of the best (Pat), and we raised another amazing dad, too.
In our family, the “great dads” list is long. So, here’s to all the great fathers — especially mine, Raymond Francis Albanese. He lives in my heart and head every day.
Mary Lou Ciambriello, Vero Beach
Gold Dome project overdue; stop the naivete
Regarding the article, “Gold Dome may launch new era of space weapons,” by Joey Roulette, I vehemently differ with the opinion of Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C.
Samson referred to President Donald Trump’s idea as a “Pandora’s Box.” She further elaborated that the costly Gold Dome missile defense would only entice our adversaries to develop more and worse weapons in retaliation.
This ludicrous, fear-based policy of appeasement was implemented by U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain leading up to World War II, and history has taught us how well that turned out.
News flash for Samson: Costly or not, our enemies wish to destroy us. The Gold Dome idea is similar to President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (known then as “Star Wars”). The Iron Dome over Israel has saved countless lives. Samson’s naivete in believing that if we do not put up a dome, our enemies will not continue weapons development is an invitation to catastrophe. They seek more advance weapons technology all the time and playing nice with them is as foolish as it is dangerous.
Reagan also preached “peace through strength,” and unlike the reckless lunacy of Chamberlain, that policy has thus far kept us safe. Trump understands and embraces that strategy also.
You don’t apply the Marquis of Queensbury Rules in a knife fight, and you don’t placate your bloodthirsty, evil foes thinking they will be grateful instead of opportunistic.
Douglas Wrenn, Vero Beach
Trump back in office for good reason
I see the majority of Americans now understand how we were deceived by the previous administration: A million voters have changed their party affiliation to Republican, while the farther left continues their Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Some, like Jake Tapper, who now has a best-seller in his book telling all how we were so misled by an enormous number of people, are amazing. Oh, really? How about the border, economy, crime and many other issues their party has to own? Was that in his book? It certainly wasn’t in his “reporting.”
As we head down the road to restoring America and its values, I see ABC, who must pay Donald Trump’s library millions of dollars to settle a defamation case, has fired its main correspondent, Terry Moran, for a post he put on social media. It’s a step in the “right” direction. Will Moran also cash in on his own lies to his audience?
As I write this, the mob is pelting Los Angeles Police Department cars driving by with bricks as they attack U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents trying to restore order to a broken city in a broken state.
Protestors were reportedly bringing sledgehammers to break up the sidewalks to make smaller projectiles, waving Mexico and Palestine flags as they burned a pile of American ones. Many are from other places and just came to California to start trouble. It was an unbelievable scene in my country unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.
With Trump, that will change. I think his “loss” in 2020 was absolutely stolen. That would be the reason he believes, as I do, that God protected him from our own corrupt government at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and in-between his two terms, our country needed to have a president so bad that it was from above through all of our prayers,
Trump was to be put in place as president to restore sanity and maybe even religion back into this world filled with insanity and evil.
Charles Sprauer, Stuart
Don’t let Trump achieve his goal
What occurred in the Senate hearing room in halls of Congress was terrible.
When you put people in charge of organizations, whether it’s the U.S. Department of Defense or Homeland Security, they must have the background to be able to deal with situations that will inevitably confront them.
Kristi Noem is a prime example of someone unable to successfully deal with the requirements of the position she holds.
Unfortunately, she proved it in spades in her failure to deal properly with Sen. Alex Padilla, allowing him to be thrown on the ground and handcuffed while trying to ask her a question.
I’m going to cut to the chase. Donald Trump has surrounded himself with incompetent individuals he considers loyal to him. These are the actions of a man who should already be in jail for past offenses.
He is the best snake-oil salesman I think we’ve ever seen in government, and that is saying a lot. Every time he uses the term “our country,” I am revolted.
What do Republicans tell their children as to Trump’s behavior as a man, as a husband, as a kind person?
Do not look for him to do anything that is going to benefit hardworking Americans during the rest of his term.
He is bent on enriching himself and the wealthy enclave with whom he surrounds himself. He wishes to exchange our democracy for one-man rule. This is more than a cautionary tale. It is being acted out before us daily.
It’s time for us to wake up, and each one of us do something that will make it more difficult for Trump to achieve his goal.
Roy Bickford, Vero Beach
World War III under way; unite to win it
We are in World War III with China. Hardly anyone knows about it.
No bombs or troops on the ground, no missiles or drones. It’s a scientific war for the future of civilization.
It’s a race to see who controls artificial Intelligence — AGI (artificial general intelligence), specifically.
If we lose, our world is gone: 85% of manual jobs are gone, 90% of intelligence and tech jobs are gone. We will be serfs of China, just as we would have been slaves of the Nazis if not for the Manhattan Project and our heroic U.S. military.
If we mobilize now, like we did for World War II under Franklin Roosevelt, we can win, but we need all our American resources, public and private, to win.
But, Donald Trump must cease the culture wars about trivial stuff and focus on funding the trillions of dollars needed to advance research and development on AGI. He must forgo the billions of dollars of personal and family gains from crypto coins and gold sneakers to organize this existential fight. Our nation’s survival is at stake. It’s as simple as that.
Trump needs to fire the majority of his incompetent appointments to our key agencies: Defense, education FBI, health and human services, and recall or appoint the most competent “best and brightest from both parties to win this war.
Let’s unite as Americans to win this war.
Robert Gibbons, Stuart
Democratic leadership seeks control, not due process
I find it really interesting that Gavin Newsom, everyone else in the Democratic Party, and most of the media seem to be condemning the use of the National Guard and military to attempt keeping order during the violent protest in Los Angeles. They are treating this as an unusual occurrence, when it has been done before.
It was used during the draft riots in New York City back in 1863. Again, with the “bonus army attacks” there in 1932.
More recently Lyndon Johnson used the guard for the Detroit riots in 1967. He again used the guard for the Newark riot, again for the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder. Then in 1992, George Bush used it for another riot.
So, this is not an unusual occurrence, like so many wish us to believe. All those opposed to the deportations seem to say it is all because “due process” was not allowed during most of the deportations Donald Trump has ordered. Isn’t it something that when Bill Clinton deported 10 million nobody rioted? Or when Barack Obama deported 5 million with 83% done without “due process”?
So what amazes me is that the Democratic Party and its elected officials can brainwash Americans to believe all this is only the done by Republicans. But recent political history would show Democrats really do not care about illegal immigrants; they just use the issue as a political tool to persuade voters.
In Donald Trump’s first term, he offered the Democrats a path to citizenship for people who came in illegally as small children with their parents. All he wanted was $8 billion to finish the wall. The Dems refused.
This has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with changing the administration.
Ed Marasi, Port St. Lucie
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Stuart Brightline station, high-rises, septic tanks, Big Sugar local messes | Letters
Reporting by Letter writers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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