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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2009

Keep Workers On Job

Like others, I am completely appalled about the layoffs of so many hardworking Americans recently. I am talking about principles, not racisms. Companies such as Bank of America, Citibank, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have been consistently outsourcing thousands of jobs overseas. Imagine all the possibilities for us Americans if these companies and others would keep the jobs in the U.S.

I think taking our jobs overseas is one of the main reasons that the U.S. is in this recession right now. If you lose your job, it's only a matter of time before you can't afford your mortgage, your car, paying bills or the most basic necessity - buying food.

I went on a career-builder Web site for Express India. The site is www.careerbuilder.co.in/IN/. Any person can do these jobs. Think about all the American people who don't have a college education who would bend over backwards for an opportunity. Since these companies feel so comfortable with not having these "employees" in the local office, I don't see why they companies just don't let more Americans telecommute these positions from home.

So, please, whoever is in charge of deciding whether someone's job is going to be lost, only for that position to be transferred, think about this: Think how your life would be affected if it were you, and not because you did a bad job but because the books would look "better."

Shame on these companies.

ANDREA PUIDA

Land O' Lakes

Constitutional Questions
Regarding Dennis Miller's letter "Busy President," Jan. 25:

It never ceases to amaze me just how little faith and trust so many American citizens have in our Constitution. After all the generations the document has served so well, somehow we now think it is a danger rather than a safeguard.

Miller noted his concern that the terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay would have protection under our Constitution if the prison there is closed as planned. I have always been under the impression that our Constitution did not give protection to the bad guys; it gave protection to the good guys. I always thought it was a way to prevent the government and various enforcement agencies from overstepping authority and trampling on rights granted by the document.

Are we so afraid our government has violated our Constitution that people guilty of terrorism will go free? Or have we come to the point where we are willing to accept the circumvention of the Constitution to the point that we could not convict terrorists in our own country?

Like Miller, I do not feel safer either, but not because we have a new president. I do not feel safer because our country, after decades and decades of holding ourselves out as the world beacon of human rights, and publicly scolding or punishing so many other countries for their human rights violations, have stooped to the level as other countries with poor human rights records.

LEO DOUGHERTY

Brooksville

Time To Speak Out

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." JFK said that Jan. 20, 1961. I always thought that was the craziest, neo-romantic noble idea I had ever heard.

What can a single citizen really do other than vote, pay taxes and obey the law? Sure, you can donate time or money to your church, community and favorite charity. I thought progress and real change takes planning, money and action by local, state and federal government.

Today, I think there really is something you, I and every other citizen can do. It's time each one of us steps on our own soap box and says very simply and bluntly to every politician of the land that you are revolted and disgusted by the fact that our economy - the richest, strongest economy on Earth - has been plundered by "fellow Americans" with the aid of "fellow American" elected officials.

This was not an "oops, I'm sorry moment" in American history. This is an atomic bomb, red-flag moment. In the spirit of the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and freedom of speech, stand up and speak your mind, Americans.

JOSEPH MEERBOTT

Lake Worth

Employer Of Last Resort

Unemployment compensation returns little of substance back to the economy. More viewers for daytime soap operas do boost audience numbers for the near-endless commercials, but idled workers facing impending termination of unemployment compensation are not likely to boost the sales figures of advertisers.

Unemployment compensation is also too short in duration to bolster self-confidence within the private sector. While unemployment compensation is sometimes extended for short periods of time, there is no predictability to such extensions. Without that predictability, the private sector has no means by which to gauge how long unemployed workers will continue to be able to buy their products or services beyond an initial six months of entitlement.

The federal government needs to take on the role as an employer of last resort.

JOHN B. HUBER

Sebring

Auto Industry Truths

Just the facts regarding U.S. auto companies vs. Asian and German companies:

U.S. auto companies building tanks, jeeps and planes was a deciding factor in defeating the Japanese and Germans. After Sept. 11, American companies and workers contributed $12 million and 30 new vehicles. There was nothing from Japanese or German companies.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby berated U.S. auto companies but didn't mention that Alabama gave $400 million to Japanese and German auto companies to locate there.

A Cadillac sells for about $40,000 in the U.S. but $100,000 in Japan due to import charges.

U.S. companies pay health costs but units built in Japan have health care costs paid by the government. It's the same for Germany.

South Korea will not allow imports. Also, U.S. auto companies, directly or indirectly, support more than 15 million people.

We won the war and lost the peace.

A.R. CROCI

Spring Hill

Industry In Denial

Regarding "The Nation Needs Newspapers" (Other Views, Jan. 26):

Llewellyn King's commentary overlooks one important issue, one that has contributed as much as the Internet to the demise of newspapers: For many people, newspaper reading became a habit at a time when newspapers could be trusted to keep news and editorial commentary separate. That wall was breached beginning in the 1980s, and newspapers began to lose significant portions of their core readership.

Newspapers, particularly some of the stalwarts identified in the commentary, have become mere extensions of the causes near and dear to publishers.

While the Tribune has mercifully avoided the descent that has been experienced by The New York Times, its reliance on tainted syndicated copy from the Associated Press and the papers that symbolize the death of journalistic integrity has had an adverse impact even on a newspaper that has not overtly attached itself to whatever liberal cause has become popular.

The journalism industry is engaged in self-deception if it believes that its possible demise is attributable primarily to the growth of the Internet.

JEFF MEYER

Clearwater

A Prehistoric Rush

What criminal words Rush Limbaugh pronounced against our new president, Barack Obama, when he said "I hope he fails."

In other words, he hopes that the country fails.

Limbaugh is the "anti-Christ" of America because he always divided our people, especially now when our country needs to be united. He pushes hatred instead of love and peace.

What he needs to comprehend is that we are living in a new era, a renewed world, while he is living in prehistoric times.

If Limbaugh is a real and righteous man, he will apologize to our president, his family and the rest of the world for his ignorant statements.

ARMANDO GUERRA

Tampa

March Ignored

I am appalled that there was not one word in the Jan. 23 Tribune about the march for life in Washington, D.C.

By one estimate, 250,000 people of all denominations marched down Constitution Avenue asking respect for all life, born and unborn.

Is this not news? It might be to President Obama.

MARIE COPELAND

St. Petersburg

Inauguration Spectacular

The Jan. 21 edition of the Tribune was spectacular. I am saving my copy as a souvenir of the day's events, which we all hope will mark the beginning of a new America.

Good work!

ROBERT GRANT

Tampa

A Crowded Market

Regarding "USF Pharmacy School Is Right Prescription" (Our Opinion, Jan. 28):

There are some reasons cited for the need of additional pharmacy education in Florida in the editorial. Part of the problem is not so much a shortage of pharmacists but the existence of too many pharmacies. Every corner, chain grocery store or big-box store, etc., must have a pharmacy. The only reason for many of them is to capture or retain the business that might go to a competitor for non-pharmacy business.

The pharmacy is looked upon by the big corporate enterprises as a means to increase customer count, not to fill a real medical need for a given market area. There are many underperforming pharmacies that don't justify their economic existence based on the number of prescriptions filled, except to keep the customer or patient in the store to buy something else.

Secondly, the state of Florida could increase the number of pharmacists to fill job vacancies by stopping the self-interest rule that denies reciprocity of licenses to out-of-state pharmacists. This was instituted years ago by the state Board of Pharmacy in order to give job protection to local pharmacists against a flood of pharmacists from more northern areas.

If there truly is a shortage of pharmacists, changing this outdated policy, even if just temporarily or for a trial period of, perhaps, five years, would cost the colleges nothing. Nor would it require investment of millions of dollars to create these educational colleges.

WALTER C. DANIELS

Sebring

JOIN DISCUSSION

The Tribune welcomes letters and e-mails from readers. The text should be original and no longer than 150 words. By making a submission, you agree the Tribune may edit the letter for length and clarity, and publish it in any medium.

Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Mail to: P.O. Box 191, Tampa, FL 33601-0191. Or e-mail without attachments: tribletters@tampatrib.com.

Also, read and participate in the Tribune editorial board's blog, "Thinking Out Loud," at www.tboblogs.com/index.php/thinkoutloud/categories....

The writer is a retired quality assurance manager for Ford Motor Co. The wrier is a retired "snowbird" pharmacist from Pennsylvania who spends part of the year in Sebring.

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