Can litter; respect the choice of mask wearers: Letters, August 7, 2022

Elementary student: It’s your right to smoke, but it’s not your right to litter

People have always smoked and I’ve always seen that and wondered why they did that. My parents told me it was unhealthy and I always thought it was so disgusting. You put smoke in your mouth. You’re just going to make it harder and harder to breathe. That’s how a lot of cancers started, because of smoking.

It’s your right to smoke, but it’s not your right to litter. I saw a guy smoking one day and he threw his cigarette out the car window onto the floor. It hurt me so much and made me feel horrible. I was so angry. Because of cigarette waste, people are hurting Mother Earth and making her dirtier and dirtier. People like to go to the beach and play, but guess what? There are cigarettes everywhere! Once I was walking on the beach with my friend and I stepped on a cigarette. I kept looking at the ground afterwards and saw so many more.

I don’t understand why people think it’s legal to throw their cigarettes on the floor. You litter and when you litter you are breaking a law.

Cora Ouellette, 9, Jensen Beach Elementary

Parents and community members took action to protect our children

The past few years have been unnecessarily difficult for parents, grandparents, teachers, community members and the administration of the Indian River County School District. Our students were forced to undergo rogue COVID-19 protocols; sexually explicit library books (still on the shelves); and the LGBTQ Admin Guide (just permanently deleted by our parents, grandparents, and community members).

Most of the opinion media have for years championed the “woke” school board and administration by giving opinions, not facts. On most 4-1 votes in recent years, Jacqueline Rosario was the constant voice of reason.

The left wing liberals are doing a fantastic job of trying to destroy our country through our children and we can’t allow that anymore. We see behind the curtain in education and while we seek to partner with school districts, we do not co-parent with government.

Our group has corrected illegal IRCSD state-level COVID-19 protocols. No more mandatory masking and quarantine of asymptomatic and healthy children. We will challenge approximately 200 library books for sexually explicit content once new state laws are implemented. We currently have the best curriculum for our children thanks to our parents, grandparents and community members and we will continue this year with the adoption of a new curriculum for science/social studies.

My best advice as a mom, a taxpayer, and someone who has held the district accountable for the past few years…keep your kids out of public school libraries for now. Beware of blanket authorizations that take away your right to direct custody of your child(ren) and review everything before signing.

Jennifer Pippin, Sebastian, is president of Indian River County’s Moms for Liberty chapter.

Don’t arm the teachers; equip classrooms with bulletproof doors

There are thousands of committees in this country whose main purpose is to decide how best to protect students from mass shootings. They spend billions on “experts”, “consultants” and such to come up with solutions, most of what I’ve read won’t work. Arm the professor! Well, a 50-year-old teacher armed with a 9mm against someone with an AR-15 and a bulletproof vest won’t last three seconds. More police protection! It didn’t work in Texas.

Most of those who killed him in schools were shot in classrooms. So the obvious solution is to protect the classroom. We spend tens of millions of dollars to build a school, so when you build it or renovate it, just put a bulletproof door on the classroom that automatically locks when closed. If he can’t get in or see who’s there, he’ll be stuck and have to move on. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.

Edward Marasi, Port Saint Lucie

Hide a personal choice now, but respect the decision of others to wear one

Recently, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, I walked into Publix. As I approached the sliding doors, an exiting man pointedly said, “Enough with the fucking masks, already.”

Aside from my issues with his lack of civility (which has long left much of the public discourse), I was frustrated because this man didn’t know my personal situation. Maybe I’m the caretaker for my grandmother with COPD who can’t be vaccinated; maybe I live with an immunocompromised relative; maybe I’m having chemo myself, leaving my own immune system weakened.

In my real case (and it’s certainly none of his business as he’s not my doctor, my confessor, or my partner), I was recently cured of COVID-19. Although probably not contagious, I still wanted to take precautions to protect those around me.

As masking has been left to personal choice, I would like to gently but sternly remind everyone in our community that we do not know the medical issues, conditions and requirements of our neighbors; keep your nose and your opinions out of other people’s medical decisions.

Micah HartowskiStuart

Vero Beach City Council not spending taxpayers’ money wisely

I’ve spoken at many state, regional, and local government meetings, but I’ve never seen a public comment period treated like those at Vero Beach City Council meetings. I spoke at their last meeting about the facts – they’re charging homeowners and businesses a new tax based on the amount of paving on properties and using federal COVID-19 money for a nebulous lagoon project, while pushing to dump tons more cement along the banks of the lagoon for a larger boat storage building and the construction of Three Corners. They also want to add more boat docks. They give the school district $1 million from the taxpayers, dollars they call “our money.” I argue that they raise taxes during tough times and they don’t spend the people’s money wisely.

Typically, during comment periods, you are there to give your opinion on a public matter or inform the board of information relating to a matter before it. If something is wrong, the head of the body may correct it on record after the speaker is finished, but that’s it. Now is not the time to debate the issue or to criticize.

I left early but should have stayed. At the end of the meeting, the mayor felt compelled to acknowledge my comments and call them politically motivated. My comments were directed to the entire board and were based on facts; they all voted on new taxes and spending.

I and many others around the community have expressed concerns about many issues, from the council’s management of Three Corners to the marina mess to their management of water and sewer services. Deprecating a commenter does not erase their vote record or cover it. If they can’t stand the heat, they should quit public service and stop complaining.

Susan Mehiel, Vero Beach

Editor’s note: Susan Mehiel’s recent email signature to the newspaper states that she “supports Dr. Karen Hiltz for FL House.” Hiltz’s opponent in the District 30 Republican primary: Vero Beach Mayor Robert Brackett.

Vero Beach submits Three Corners vote to Nov. 8 ballot; approval would pave the way for development

The Federal Reserve is trying to slow the economy without a recession

A recession is defined by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Not Fox News, MSNBC or the myriad talking heads, blogs, newspapers or magazines. But it grabs the listener’s attention, so we hear a lot about it. According to the NBER, a recession is “a significant decline in economic activity that spreads throughout the economy and lasts for more than a few months.” Variables that the committee typically tracks include real personal income less government transfers, employment, various forms of real consumer spending, and industrial production.

All of the indicators listed above are up with one exception. Industrial production was down 0.1% in June but up 6.1% over the quarter. Consumer spending is still up but moderating, which is exactly the Fed’s intention.

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates three times this year for a total of 2.25%. Their goal was to slow the economy, which they did – hence the two quarters of negative GDP growth. The economy was running too hot (5.67% growth in 2021, the strongest since the 1980s), which is one of the main reasons for inflation. After the worst of the pandemic, demand exploded and prices rose. The United States has the same problem as the rest of the world, along with other problems such as excessive corporate profit taking and shipping costs.

Jo Fuller, Port Saint Lucie

More in-person voting means dirtier car travel

Norman Grant, in his August 4 letter, expressed his suspicions that there were fewer rejections of mail-in ballots in 2020 than in previous years. It appeared to involve fraud, and he found statistics pointing to states run by “blue” Democrats. I waded around and found that people had gotten smarter: they designed better ballots, released them earlier, created websites for voters to learn and verify their ballot.

He wants every voter to get into a car, pollute the air, and stand in the heat to fill out a ballot that may or may not fit properly in the machine, and who knows who hands it to whom for counting?

We lived for 33 years in the second most Republican county in the United States, where you weren’t allowed to vote by mail unless seriously ill or out of the country. Our polling place changed, again and again, until it was too far to walk, or even ride a bike, and my husband had to take time off from work to drive me down a dangerous road to in high school, where there were very few parking spaces. , then back home! It occurred to me that someone could sneak around with voters, hide in a hallway or bathroom, commit a crime, and walk out later undetected.

Ben Franklin is credited with making the postal system work, and I appreciate his day-to-day common sense and belief in bringing people together to achieve more. Grant is dividing “We the People” and car travel is polluting our “little Earth spaceship,” as Democrat Adlai Stevenson described it to us.

Helen Frigo, Jensen Beach

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