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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

Helping Those At Risk

Regarding "Region Needs To Wake Up To Teen Sex Trafficking" (Our Opinion, July 13):

Thank you for your much-needed editorial on teen sex trafficking. I would just like to add that many prostitutes are sucked in as minors through psychological abuse, physical coercion and/or drug addiction, not to mention poverty; the coercion doesn't magically disappear when they turn 18.

Illegal prostitution means the police, traffickers and others can commit crimes against them with impunity. The problem is compounded for foreign prostitutes who don't know the laws or the language and fear deportation.

Neither our complete illegalization, nor the Netherlands' complete legalization, nor Sweden's decriminalization of the supply side is a perfect solution. In order to truly help, we all need to keep an open mind and put the victims' safety first, before our distaste for prostitution. I believe the most potential for improvement lies in helping those who are at risk out of poverty and drug addiction.

PRESLEY PIZZO

Tampa

Town Misrepresented

Regarding "Bittersweet Closure For An Everglades Town" (front page, July 13):

As a former resident of Clewiston, I was so excited on Saturday knowing that The Tampa Tribune would be featuring my hometown on the front page of the Sunday edition. I thought my friends, most of whom have never heard of Clewiston, would have the opportunity to read about "The Sweetest Town in America" and learn all the great things about the town where I grew up. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

As someone who was born, raised and educated in Clewiston, I was very disappointed and embarrassed by the way the community was presented to readers. The description of locals drinking in bars at 8 a.m. is hardly indicative of the average citizen of Clewiston. I believe a more balanced picture could have been painted by interviewing professionals and upstanding citizens who live and work in the area. Instead, the most colorful characters were interviewed and quoted.

HEATHER MESSENGER

Tampa

Not The State's Fault

Regarding "State Chided For Dip In Voter Registrations" (Metro, July 13):

I'm outraged that you would give Brian Kettering and ACORN a platform and allow him to chastise Florida for not enough people on public assistance or food stamps registering to vote.

First, I would like to see anyone who informs him or herself about the issues and candidates register and actually vote. But last time I checked, libraries, the Internet, DHSMV offices, clerk of court offices, etc., were open to all persons. My primary complaint is that ACORN is presented as a nonpartisan group only interested in increasing voter registration. In fact, they are interested in registering Democrat Party voters.

KEN W. MINTON

Riverview

Clear Case Of Greed

Regarding "State Farm Requests 47% Hike For Homes" (front page, July 17):

State Farm wants to rape the homeowner again.

How is it that when rates for homes my size were $500 to $600 only five years ago they were making money, and now for the same home they charge $2,600 and say they are losing money?

Today they pick and choose who they want to insure to make their profit margin even better. And in the past year or so the value of these homes has declined, making their losses even less.

They are just greedy, so say no to the rate increase.

ROBERT VANISTENDAL

Spring Hill

Better Off Later, Maybe

Regarding "American Workers: Still Getting Ahead...For Now" (Other Views, July 15):

You have to admire right-wing perception management types in their ability to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. In his article, James Sherk from the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, questions whether the economy is troubled when most people think they will be better off five years from now.

In five years, most expect to climb the ladder in their careers. Also, maybe they're hopeful of a change in the economy by then. Sherk says employers pay 50 percent more in health plans than eight years ago, but many, if not most employees, do also because the cost of health care has risen astronomically.

Sherk also complains that nobody will be able to get ahead financially if Obama succeeds in increasing the top marginal tax rate to over 50 percent, when actually Obama proposed returning to the former top rate of 39.5 percent and erasing the personal exemption for earners above $250,000. How many of us are going to agonize over that?

YOLANDE KERSEY

Tampa

Recession Is Real

Phil Gramm, ex-senator, now vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank, recently commented that we should stop whining, that there is no recession, it's all in our heads. We suffer from what he called "mental recession." It's obvious from these remarks that Gramm has had little contact with those of us in the middle class who go to work every day and are having a hard time keeping up with the increased prices we are now forced to pay for just about everything.

Gramm has been a close friend for many years of John McCain and has had a loud say in the economic policies of the McCain presidential campaign. The policies of both men are an extension of GOP trickle-down economic orthodoxy which certainly benefits the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor. It is this GOP economic policy that has put the federal government and ordinary American in debt up to their eyeballs. These men don't seem to recognize that the cost of the seemingly unending war in Iraq and oil prices that keep going up have added to our sense of paralysis.

ANTHONY D'ANGELO

Lake Placid

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