TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Letters To The Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2008

Carrie Nation Redux

Regarding "A Reasonable Solution" (Letters, Feb. 19):

In a letter to Mother Trib, one of the advocates of sin taxes suggested another tax be placed on cigarettes of $1 per pack. Regardless of those advocates against tobacco, people in our country are still free to make choices in their lives and live with the consequences of those decisions.

The anti-tobacco advocates seem to think if you continue to tax all tobacco products, eventually everyone will call for it to be made federal law outlawing the very plant itself. Carrie Nation tried this with alcohol and we got Prohibition. Did it stop people from using alcoholic beverages? Of course not.

C. DONALD PROSSER

Tampa

A Taxable Commodity

In regard to the recent editorials and letters about the need to raise taxes on cigarettes being necessary to help pay medical expenses, as well as help deter adolescents from smoking, I can only say give me a break!

If people, especially politicians, really cared about the health of our young people as well as saving others from the diseases associated with smoking, they would stop tobacco companies from manufacturing their deadly product. But because of all the money they get in payola from these despicable corporations, it will never happen.

It is a proven fact that tobacco use kills and that these tobacco companies actually add nicotine to the cigarettes to ensure addiction. But Congress does nothing and people keep dying. It's all about money!

MAYR MALOOL

Lake Placid

Latest Plea Is A Joke

Regarding "Lionel Tate Takes Deal In Pizza Robbery Case" (Metro, Feb. 20):

I guess I'm not sure what shocked me more - the fact that this lifelong thug who has had more chances than humanly allowed is getting a deal or you guys burying it on page 6.

How on earth is Tate even getting an offer of a deal? Have we forgotten the "deal" that kept him from receiving a life sentence in jail? You would have thought after being given a second chance at life, this young thug would have cleaned his act up and thanked God. Yet he was offered another deal. Unreal.

I wonder what the public outcry would have been had they known of his latest courtroom plea deal. I can assure you I would have been very vocal calling this what it is: a joke.

ANDY GREENE

Tampa

Alternative Radio

Regarding "Format Is Getting Old" (Letters, Feb. 18):

The source of Cheryl Karpinecz's complaint is quite clear. The nauseating state of Tampa Bay radio and radio across our country is a direct result of profit-driven, monopolistic corporate control of radio stations by a few giant media conglomerates, all of which is sanctioned by the current Federal Communications Commission.

This may come as a shock to some, but the people of the United States of America own our country's airwaves. Unless and until we decide to take back our airwaves, we will continue under the same deplorable conditions. There's good news for Karpinecz, however.

We have WMNF 88.5 FM, a noncommercial, community radio station that has served our area's music and information needs for nearly 30 years. I invite her and all who are fed up with corporate-controlled radio to tune in. There's something for everyone.

JAMES WALTER

Tampa

A Right To Waste Time

Regarding the Feb. 20 commentary from the Miami Hurricane "Laptops Belong, Right Or Wrong" (Other Views):

Apparently the writer was one of the many students that got left behind some time ago. The attitude the student expresses of being forced to pay attention in class is exactly what one purpose of teachers teaching is. This attitude is in dire need of an adjustment and not down at the corner pub. Being responsible for oneself is just part of being educated and should have been learned long before any attempt at a facility of higher education.

The $30,000 tuition mentioned and the belief that he has the privilege to waste time in class is a classic case of ill manners. Also not mentioned was where the tuition dollars came from or by whom they were given. It is quite clear that he had little or no part in providing any of the money. Working for vs. having the tuition figuratively being handed over to dispense as one pleases lessens the responsibility to perform as a young adult.This mindset will surely be a nemesis in the real world where there will be bosses and maybe a security camera or two.

PAUL MITCHELL

Thonotosassa

Don't Check That Box

On the front page of the Feb. 18 Tampa Tribune, you ask, "Where Does That $3 Go?" Then you state apodictically "that little box serves a bigger purpose: to curb corruption by scaling back the role of private funding in elections." What a bunch of hooey! That may have been the "so-called" purpose of the law, but there is no statistical support, no empirical verification of such a promise.

In fact, the reverse is true, as the Tribune reports. Frighteningly, $100,000 went to the gadfly Dennis Kucinich and another $100,000 went to non-player Duncan Hunter. I am sure that the American people would be thrilled to know that their hard-earned money was spent on these two lightweights who were never going to be the president of the United States. What a travesty! But the worst is yet to come.

The Tribune also reports that almost $9 million went to John Edwards, whose net worth is in the realm of $30 million. It is enough to make one want to throw up, for crying out loud.

Where is it written that the people of the United States should send their hard-earned money for two losers and a multimillionaire who did not need the money in the first place?

Perhaps the best thing Americans should do to curb corruption when they are filing their income tax returns, is to refuse to check the Presidential Election Campaign fund box. It would be good for America!

THOMAS NEWCOMB HYDE

Tampa

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT