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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2008

Let's Take Back Streets

I applaud Pinellas County for passing an ordinance that will hopefully put an end to people using their roadways and medians to collect money and/or sell goods. It is an eyesore, and for obvious reasons it is very unsafe for everyone involved.

While there may be good causes that will suffer, such as the fireman who collect money for charity in their boots, I believe there are many more people who are out there just to make beer and cigarette money for themselves.

And then don't even get me started on the masses of "beggars" who misrepresent themselves by collecting for bogus churches just for some pocket change.

While panhandling may be OK according to the Constitution, I don't think our forefathers envisioned eight-lane intersections with traffic whizzing by while pedestrians stand in each median and walk in between cars with buckets asking people to throw change out their windows.

To the Hillsborough County Commission and Tampa City Council: I beg you to consider a similar ordinance so drivers and homeowners can finally take back our streets. Please give the sheriff's office and police departments the tools they need to end soliciting in the streets, which has somehow swelled to epidemic proportions.

STEVE ROSS

Tampa

Digging A Bigger Hole

I am a high school junior. I am writing in response to Sen. Mel Martinez's view on the bailout plan ("A Rescue Plan For America" (Another View, Oct. 7). Are you confident this plan will work?

I don't understand how cutting taxes will help this economy get out of debt. Wouldn't we be digging ourselves into an even bigger hole? We'll have less revenue for things like student loans and still have to pay back the government.

Oh, I know, we can get the money from the good people who work two or three jobs and pay their taxes on time. Even if the government bails out the banks now, in another year this could happen again. Eventually, the bailouts have to stop, and businesses need to be responsible for their own decisions.

In two years I will be able to vote, but the choices we make now will affect me the rest of my life.

NICK FREEMAN

Tampa

Where Was Martinez?

Sen. Martinez's article attempts to justify his vote supporting the $700 billion bailout. Where were he and his comrades on the Banking Committee as Wall Street ran out of control?

Also, this is not my idea of the American dream. It might be yours but not anyone else I know.

JIM NELSON

Tampa

They Should Resign First

We the people should be outraged. We are paying our senators to run for president and vice president (at least one) when they are neglecting their duties. Our economy is a disaster while they spend two years flying around the country wasting fuel, and all they are doing is pointing their fingers at each other.

They run back to Washington, D.C., to cast a bailout vote that was clearly not the will of the people. Then it's back on the campaign trail, bragging what a great job they are doing. What a joke!

We should demand that if they want to run for another office, they must resign from their current position first. How many of us can take two years looking for another job? Oh, by the way, if you don't get that job, you lose nothing.

It is time for real change in Washington.

JUANITA MARTIN

Land O' Lakes

'Camelot' Was Misnamed

Our current presidential race has eerie parallels to the presidential race of 1960. That race pitted the sweaty, nervous-looking, paranoid, foreign policy expert (see China) Richard Nixon against the Harvard-educated, philandering, inexperienced liberal, John F. Kennedy. Most experts agree the race was won on the televised debates because of the appearance of Kennedy.

That decisive election began the 1960s, when only two years later the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis nearly triggered the destruction of the continental United States through nuclear attack because of Kennedy's clear lack of understanding and decisiveness on foreign policy.

The '60s continued with assassinations (J. Kennedy, R. Kennedy, M.L. King), social upheaval and the Vietnam war, which continued for 12 years under Democratic administrations and ended under a Republican in the early 1970s. Camelot? Please. Those were not good years.

The world is far more dangerous and volatile today. Electing Barack Obama will make the U.S. and its population more vulnerable than ever. John McCain is not the greatest choice, but he is the only choice this Election Day.

Young people, please read up on and into history. It does repeat itself. Vote McCain.

BOB CONFORTE

Riverview

Paying Taxes Is Patriotic

Thanks to Tom Friedman for highlighting the moral bankruptcy of the tax rants of John McCain and Sarah Palin ("Palin's Strange Brand Of Patriotism" Other Views, Oct. 9).

Americans value a strong nation, a secure economy and future, adequate health care and, consistent with our values, a nation that ensures these things for all citizens. Paying taxes commensurate with our prosperity in order to strengthen our nation is a defining American value. It is the sacrifice we all can make for our nation and our commitment to creating and supporting a strong, cohesive, safe and fair United States.

Palin's insistence that selfless sacrifice and contribution to the common strength and defense of our nation are illnesses requiring relief is unpatriotic and un-American. It appeals to selfishness, to an empty, me-first hedonistic society where anything goes, self-interest runs amok, businesses enrich themselves and the lives of the American people are left in ruins.

It exhorts us to turn our back on American tradition.

JACK DARKES

Temple terrace

Let's Ride Industry

Thomas Friedman's idea of being patriotic by paying more taxes is not my idea. I am also from Minnesota, and in the 1960s the governor asked to have a sales tax started and in five years the state income tax would be ended, That was almost 50 years ago, and the state still has a state tax along with the sales tax. It's just one lie after another to get more money to spend on pet projects.

If the taxpayers are not patriotic by paying more taxes, then what about Congress voting not to fund our military? Was that being patriotic?

If our government would spend the money for things the people and country need, I would not object. But Nancy Pelosi wanting a 747 to ride around in - that's too much.

We are in a mess right now, and who put us there? Not the taxpayer but our great leaders who have been around since the 1970s, when we were told that oil was in short commodity. It's now time for Congress to get its head out of the sand and let private industry do their thing.

B. PETERSON

Lakeland

Make Up Mind, State

Apparently the Tribune has forgotten why Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson is spending vast amounts of money on this year's election. Since the 2000 hanging-chads debacle and the 2006 Sarasota contested and protracted congressional race, Johnson has been forced to purchase entirely new voting machines and train workers and apprise the voting public on their usage.

If the Florida Legislature could make up its collective minds and quit bending in the wind to every challenge to voting equipment, perhaps Florida voters, who, in turn, are taxpayers, would not have to be bearing the burden of millions spent on the latest voting devices and innovations.

EARL A. MYERS JR.

Tampa

Get It Over With

"They're back." On your TV, in the paper, you can't escape from what "he" says about him or what "him" says about "he" or what "they" say about "he" or "him" and what "she" says about either. And so on to ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

Yes, I would like a change from all this. Just stop. I don't want to think about how much money could be used for change. My chances of achieving such a change is the same as my standing in front of a hurricane and changing its path by waving a fan.

BERNARD LAX

Wesley Chapel

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