Apology for detracting from veterans' event
I apologize to those who were offended by the distribution of my campaign literature when the Wounded Warrior riders passed by the Coral Shores High School.
As a veteran of our armed forces who served overseas in the U.S. Army from 1964-1967, I share the Warriors' commitment to the defense of our country, and I truly honor their sacrifices on our behalf.
Although I wasn't present at the Coral Shores event, and unaware of the incident at the time it occurred, I am ultimately responsible for the actions of my campaign.
It was certainly not my intention to detract from the attention that the efforts of the Wounded Warriors so deservedly received during their ride through the Keys.
Again, please accept my apology, and the apology of my zealous campaign volunteers, for this mistake.
Mario Di Gennaro
County commissioner
Key Colony Beach
Most scientists agree about climate change
The letter to the editor by J. Timothy Gratz is an oversimplification. Among scientists there is no disagreement about climate change. What many scientists have actually said is that climate change may not be the world's most pressing problem (Freeman Dyson: "I am convinced it is not") but it still could be the most complex challenge the world has ever faced.
What many scientists are in disagreement about are priorities: They actually state that they disagree with the political and public obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and immediate threats to our planet physically, socially and culturally. These dangers they see as more pressing and immediate are problems of nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation and social injustice.
They believe their arguments on these issues are most pressing, but it does not exclude global climate change, on which there is basically no disagreement.
Like the Royal Society of Science, which represents the questioning skepticism underlying the burning curiosity of scientific thought, their motto is Nullius in Verba, meaning "Nobody's word is final."
Jerry Weinstock
Key West
I'm not coming back to be hassled by beggars
I have been back home for a few weeks now after spending three months in Key West. The greatest impression I got from the Key Westers is that they are very tolerant of lazy, drunk, and homeless beggars that populate the streets and parking lots of grocery stores.
Instead of dealing with these public embarrassments to the city in a more long-term solution, they give them a park to "sleep it off" during the day so they can prowl the streets at night begging for drinking money. I understand that there are homeless people everywhere, and some do have a story with bad luck hanging on their backs. But from what I saw, the ones who stand idle at the exits of grocery store parking lots and intersections, holding their begging signs, are for the most part able-bodied and capable of supporting themselves in some manner other than expecting working folks to hand them a dollar.
I was embarrassed to see this going on in a place that should be more concerned about the "beggees" and less concerned about the "beggars." I will not return to Key West, and will not recommend others to vacation there. I realize that my not spending money there will not hurt the local economy at all. It's too bad that people that have earned their way through life the hard way have to tolerate those who want it handed to them for simply holding a cardboard sign. But, I guess that if we hassle everyone who drinks in Key West, there would be nobody left to watch the sunsets.
Roger Carnes
Princeton, Minn.
President's predictions are now coming to pass
When Obama appealed to the Republicans to support the health care bill he predicted that without it, costs of all health services would increase. That is exactly what is happening, and proof is Gov. Crist's $2.7 billion budget hike to pay for Medicaid cost increases. Medicaid is one of the services whose costs would decline under the new health plan. Unable to factor in the future savings, Crist is doing what Republicans always claim they never do but what they always do -- raise taxes.
Who would have thought that Republican stubborn insistence to say no to everything that Obama proposed would so quickly create exactly the burden that the president predicted. This is instant proof that we must not give up the fight to pass a health care bill designed to reduce the deficit by reining in medical costs.
Reese Palley
Key West