Beware claims of mailers citing Martin County way of life
Recently, mailers supporting Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith and Susan Gibbs Thomas, candidate for the District 3 seat, showed up sounding the same theme: how dedicated they are to protecting the Martin County way of life.
“Doug Smith is protecting our most precious places from excessive growth and out-of-control development,” read Smith’s mailer.
Smith rarely meets a development proposal he doesn’t like. He voted for comprehensive plan amendments to facilitate more and denser development. He voted to jump the urban service district boundary and create the “rural lifestyle” land use; in December, he voted in favor of a proposal to permit development more than a mile into existing farmland.
This makes sense when you consider Smith, whose campaign has raised $164,541, got much of it from developers and development-related interests like land use attorneys, construction companies and others.
Do we really expect Smith to bite the hand that feeds him?
If anything, the Gibbs Thomas mailer was even more ludicrous. She will “Put a stop to growth and protect our Martin County way of life,” it reads.
Thomas has raised $78,574 and gotten an even greater percentage of that cash from developers, home builders, real estate investors and the like than Smith.
Worse, her mailer was paid for by a political action committee, Keep Martin Green, which state records show got all its money from another PAC, Accountability in Government. That PAC got $482,000 from a third PAC, Fight for Florida, which gets most of its money from developers, homebuilders and construction firms.
So this is how it works; slick mailers make you think these candidates oppose “sprawl,” but the candidates are funded by the sprawl industry, guaranteeing sprawl will continue.
And that, unfortunately, has indeed become the “Martin County way of life.”
Gil Smart, Jensen Beach, is executive director of VoteWater, a Sewall’s Point-based clean-water advocacy group.
Epstein case in Palm Beach County should have been reviewed years ago
Although I applaud Rep. Lois Frankel for delving into the Epstein case and its failings, I think she and many others are quite a bit late in speaking up.
"It's an embarrassment to our justice system," she said. "Back then, I thought the same way."
Too bad her thoughts weren't put into action.
There were so many reports in respect to this travesty, yet no one spoke up. Why?
It was well reported and open knowledge that Epstein was given preferential treatment before, during and after his aberrant behavior and subsequent sentence.
Among them, exclusive housing while "incarcerated," given hours away from his cell without supervision and then the prosecutors used their underhanded tactics to further humiliate the victims.
What kind of influence, if any, did Epstein have on Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and then-State Attorney Barry Krischer to impel them to act in this manner? Their silence speaks volumes.
But as of today, I remain unaware of any investigation or action taken against Bradshaw or attorneys Krischer, Lanna Belohlavek and Mary Ann Duggan.Why is that? What'sbeing hidden?
It's nice Frankel wants to strengthen victims' rights, but what good are they if there is no enforcement of the ones already in place?
Thanks to Frankel for finally speaking up, but perhaps had she taken action sooner we would have witnessed a far different outcome, than "a reprehensible abuse of power" and the continued shame and degradation these girls suffered.
Jan Belwood, Palm City
Here's a hurricane tip they don't tell you
All the pamphlets and publications neglect to inform the public that in advance of hurricane flooding that every chemical, paint and fertilizer on your garage floor or on the ground should be disposed of, if warranted, or stored at few feet off the ground.
Should your property flood, you don't want to add all those dangerous and harmful chemicals into our local waterways.
Sharon McGinnis, Stuart
Keep open mind when it comes to electing sheriff
I want to express my jubilation that a true crime fighter who came up through the ranks at the department he leads is running for sheriff.
Sheriff Keith Pearson is not a politician. He is not a polished political mouthpiece. His expertise is fighting crime.
An example of this is how he publicly releases messages that criminals understand, telling them they should not come to St. Lucie County because they will be caught and prosecuted. The message is not intended for politicians who don’t understand.
Please pay attention to the smoke and mirrors about Pearson’s ethic. If he had as much as a parking ticket or warning in his records, it would be on billboards along Interstate 95.
I have no relationship with Pearson and am not involved in politics at all. I have worked in law enforcement. I have worked for chiefs who were real policemen and chiefs who were politicians. It is amazing what goes on behind the scenes on how the two deal with preventing and prosecuting crime.
I always admired the real police chief because he wanted criminals arrested and was not so concerned about what it looked like in the paper. The politician chief was concerned about what things looked like in the paper and not locking criminals up.
I am shocked to see a candidate for sheriff would put up an “adolescent” website depicting Pearson as a bad person. When has a news article become evidence? It has been beaten to death in the media, but the bottom line is Pearson has no charges filed against him. Does the statement, “We cannot file charges,” mean innocence? I think so.
The election is getting bizarre. Please keep an open mind.
Russell Pieper, Fort Pierce
Use amendment to replace Biden with Harris
So, the elites in the Democratic Party get to anoint Kamala Harris as the next president. As only the vice president, she becomes the most powerful executive in the free world while Joe Biden is a lame duck. Why? Because she's next in line.
Kings inherit their thrones. Politiciansdo not. Even the so-called family dynasties had to stand for re-election.
Harris is only next in line upon the president's death or removal via the 25th Amendment, and Biden was not removed. The sitting president is still the president, although diminished.He served notice of quitting when his term ended. Like it or not, he's the only president wehave. We don't have two.
However, the president all but admitted he is too diminished to run for election. Why should the nation be saddled with a "diminished" president who, in his diminished state, will make decisions that might affect the nation forever? Or will Kamala or those minions around Biden gaslight him?
Congressshould demand the Cabinetuse the 25th Amendment to remove Biden. Get a clean slate, as the Constitution envisioned.Then Harris can get the job legitimately and take her chances in the election.
Just a thought.
Jim Grant, Jensen Beach
Use science, not partisan bias, to form opinion
Letter writer Paul Vallier declared: “Beyond one or two millimeters … a year, there is no threatening sea level rise … (and) there is no imminent climate catastrophe.”
Vallier is misinformed.As I wrote previously: “As sea levels rise along the Texas coast, the Army Corps of Engineers has a $57 billion plan to build a higher dike around Galveston due to higher tides and stronger, more frequent hurricanes.” And Venice, Italy is at risk of rising sea levels.
The half-meter sea level rise forecasted over the coming decades doesn’t take into account glacial collapse.For example, Scientific American reports, if Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier collapses it alone could raise sea levels by two feet within two years.
Thwaites is nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” because “its collapse could cause catastrophic sea level rise.” Roughly the size of Florida, Thwaites is the world’s widest glacier.
That’s not all.Thwaites acts as a bulwark to the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
“Thwaites’ collapse would undermine the stability of the ice sheet,” CNN reported. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise the world’s oceans by at least 10 additional feet.
Vallier speaks in incremental terms of millimeters per year.He would be wise to acknowledge slight changes in any environment can portend tragic results. An analogy: Small cracks often predict the possibility of significant catastrophes. In 2021, telltale cracks in support pillars of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside foretold an impending disaster. That’s why significant steps must be taken immediately to drastically reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels to avoid the catastrophic consequences of global warming.
When writers express opinions based on partisan biases, they do us a disservice.For an example of objective, nonpartisan analysis, read Frank Wacha Jr.’s letter published in this publication.
Cray Little, Vero Beach
Harris positive voice for nation's future
The honorable Joe Biden has stepped down from campaigning for the presidency and thrown his support to his vice president, Kamala Harris. I commend him for his love of country in coming to this decision; it's difficult, as we age, to admit to some of our infirmities, but he rose above his ego and chose to think of country first.
Now, this is a true dedication to our country, not some campaign jingle the GOP has come up with to try to fool the public concerning their cultish leader.
Harris is smart and well-spoken, dedicated to serving justice as she did in California as attorney general and, best of all, she has a great attitude about our country's future. Compare her thoughts to those of the former president who does nothing but cast aspersions on our country and push the fear factor.
I choose optimism over pessimism. I choose confidence over daily hateful diatribes. I choose a younger individual over an old, tired, hateful and nasty elderly has-been. I choose happiness over deadly gloom. I choose a better world for my grandchildren in which to live and flourish. I choose Kamala.
Hopefully, you will choose the same. Let's finally elect an intelligent and graceful woman to this very important office; it's well overdue.
Perhaps the women who had previously scorned Hillary Clinton will see the error of their ways and vote for sanity this time around. Donald Trump has shown his stripes time and time again; we all should know just who he is now and that is a lying convicted felon.
Sharon E. Garland, Hobe Sound
Democrats manipulate the minions
There was a heavy dose of anti-Trump rhetoric in a recent letters package in this publication.
Let me assure Cray Little Republicans were always willing to admit Donald Trump’s faults. Can the Democrats say the same? Especially now that they are rebranding Kamala Harris and more than willing to forget that she was not open with Americans about Joe Biden’s abilities.
Along with Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and possibly Barack Obama, who can’t seem to leave Washington, Harris shows to be the power-hungry, far-left San Francisco liberal we know her to be. The gaslighting has begun, however, aided and abetted by the same mainstream media that shielded Biden for almost four years.
Why haven’t we stopped supporting Trump? Open borders, wars in foreign countries, rising inflation, crime, DEI and the biggest “threat to Democracy,” as the Democrats love saying about Trump, the use of lawfare against political opponents. It’s all been obvious, but the left doesn’t seem to care because it has been led to believe that Trump is Enemy No. 1.
We hear from another writer that Republicans are “fascist-leaning” and “foisting” Trump on the nation. Is she serious? What’s more fascist than the current administration trying to control the media, persecuting political enemies and opening our southern borders?
Overwrought Hillary Clinton didn’t get elected, Democrats have been manipulated and lied to ever since. As long as there is a D on their ballot, many will push it no matter who it represents.Fascists on the right? Nice try.
Patricia A. Perrone, Stuart
The Lord has not saved Trump from justice, voters
I do not know what is more depressing: the lack of knowledge of basic facts or the blind religious devotion to a simpleton grifter.
A letter writer claims God saved Donald Trump; it was divine intervention. God did save Trump. God runs the show. Perhaps God saved Trump so Trump can stand trial for his crimes.
Many people who believe in the same God feel God had a different plan for Trump, and it’s the big house and not the White House. The right in this country does not speak for God, nor does the right in this country speak for the majority.
The right may think it does. The right may throw a temper tantrum when it realizes it does not. Remember Jan. 6.
The right is going to lose this election again and the majority will go back to prosecuting Trump. God may have saved Trump from an assassin's bullets, but God will not save Trump from the American voter.
Don Whisman, Stuart
