TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Letters To The Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 21, 2008

No Sympathy Here

Regarding "Green Iguana Faces 'Flaming Shot' Suit" (Metro, July 17):

I have no sympathy for Shannon Hyman. She went into a bar and knowingly purchased something known as a "flaming shot." The name alone implies risk. She admits to getting scared and spitting the beverage back. Was she forced to try the drink? Was she forced to go into the bar? Let's remember that she wasn't a minor - she was 20 years old at the time.

This sounds to me like a college student who made a stupid choice and now wants to blame someone else for it. She says that she's suing because, "I should have never been let in." So much for personal responsibility!

DONAL DUFFY

Wesley Chapel

Take Responsibility

While I agree that underage drinking is a problem that needs to be better handled by restaurant establishments, I find it hard to have any sympathy for Shannon Hyman's choice to drink shots while underage.

Would Hyman have continued her underage drinking at other locations had this not happened? Would she be suing the Green Iguana for letting her in while underage to enjoy cocktails had she not burned herself? No, because if she wasn't "let in, none of the events would have happened."
Hyman should take responsibility and accountability for her actions - that is one of the things she has control over.

D. FISHER

St. Petersburg

She Wasn't A Child

I couldn't believe that this woman said, "If I weren't let in, none of the events would have happened."

This is just like the burglar who breaks a leg climbing in the window while breaking in and suing the homeowner because if he "wouldn't have been breaking in, he wouldn't have broken his leg."

This woman, regardless of how much pain and suffering she has gone through, needs to take responsibility for her actions and the consequences of those illegal actions. She was 20 years old when this happened; she wasn't a child. She knew she was not of the drinking age and she was over 18 and, regardless of who served her, she was the one who took the drink knowing she was not supposed to.

I don't think she was threatened with bodily harm if she did not take the drink. If nothing had happened, she would most likely have continued drinking and probably laughing to herself and to her friends that they were able to pull a fast one and get drinks even though they weren't supposed to.

DIANNE MURPHY

Hudson

Users Share Some Blame

The letter "Dealers Are Killers" (Letters, July 17) suggested that drug dealers be executed.

Execution is reserved for the very worst criminals, serial killers, for instance. It works for them, but wouldn't work for drug dealers. First, while "customers" of serial killers do not ask to be killed, customers of drug dealers do ask to be dealt to. Second, taking out a dealer leaves his customers anxious to find a new dealer. If the new dealer is also taken out, the street price will climb until it attracts an even more reckless man.

The remedy is to do what many states did when Prohibition ended in 1933. They began to sell liquor at a price low enough to bankrupt bootleggers but high enough to provide cash for the state, partly used for added social services to offset the effect of legalization.

PRISCILLA M. CHASE

Palm Harbor

Bring Back Free Market

Regarding "Wrong Path For Government" (Letter of the Day, July 16):

Thank you for publishing the letter by Thomas Cosenza.

The proposed government bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is indeed emblematic of a much larger problem, perhaps the Fed's tendency to try and keep sticking its heavily addicted nose into free markets.

A free market is the most powerful and efficient instrument of human progress ever devised.

If anyone is upset about this bailout, perhaps you might be reminded that the collapse of Medicare and Social Security is right around the corner, and those are going to be bailouts of such incredible proportions that they will diminish the lives of your children and your children's children.

Our federal government was prescribed to have certain areas of responsibility well over 200 years ago. In just about every case where it has strayed from those, it fails. It's helpful to think of the federal government as a guest at your home who is always very thankful for the invitation, but then invariably poops in your swimming pool.

Yes, we need "change," all right, but not the kind of change that we are hearing about from the candidates.

DAVE CHERRYHOLMES

Pinellas Park

New Middle East Dynamic

Regarding "U.S. Policies Weaken Influence In The Middle East" (Other Views, July 10):

Farooq Mitha contends that our effort in Iraq has "emboldened Iran," as we are "bogged down" there, thus giving the Mad Mullahs "free rein without fear of consequences," and we cannot deal with their nuclear ambitions as long as we're "trapped in Iraq." What an incredible piece of Islamist propaganda! This is no different than any other previous clash of diametrically opposed ideologies.

Far from being bogged down, we are in the process of inaugurating a new dynamic in the region right smack dab between the two most potent sources of regional strife: the arch-conservative Sunni Saudi society and the radical Shiite Iranian government. Both are now feeling the heat, and each knows full well that should present trends continue next door in Iraq, that heat will become a funeral pyre for the antediluvian status quo.

DWAYNE KEITH

Valrico

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT