Letters to the editor: Responsive public health

Letter to the Editor

Responsive public health

"Health bill shifts duties to counties" (Metro, Feb. 7) reminds me of the time the reverse was true.

I was Hillsborough County Public Health director from 1993-95 when Gov. Lawton Chiles decided to disband Health and Rehabilitative Services districts to centralize Florida's main public health programs. This was accompanied with stripping district administrators and health directors of most of their authority at the county level.

True to progressive philosophy, knowledgeable public health professionals were placed under the domination of two citizens' boards, one of which was forbidden from including physicians by statute. The latter spent most of our exhausting meetings requiring more and different ways of explaining the budgets. The boards' first year of operation resulted not in a reduction of infant mortality, as was its goal, but in an increase in maternal mortality.

Now that it seems counties are going to have more say in what their health systems should be like, perhaps we will have a more responsive public health system to serve the public, not boards of cronies.

Luis Miranda

Tampa

Overrun by reptiles

There has been a lot of attention concerning Burmese pythons and declining native wildlife in the Florida Everglades. What is overlooked is the main reason why the Burmese pythons are a problem.

The blame is said to be snake owners turning them loose and the hurricanes that went through Florida. None of the news reports have asked how these snakes get here in the first place. The answer is simple: Federal and state fish and wildlife agencies issued permits to import them, just as they have for almost all invasive reptiles, fish and plants. Thanks to these agencies, Florida is being overrun with large lizards, large snakes, etc.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what results when these invasive species are introduced into our environment. Most people have no idea that pet dealers can get permits to import venomous reptiles. The most venomous snakes from all over the world have been imported and sold throughout the United States. It's only a matter of time until some of these turn up in the Everglades.

It's time for a complete overhaul of policy. Permits for all invasive species should only be issued to licensed zoos and not to private pet dealers.

Dave Serneels

Lutz

Room for sinners and saints

One of the more erroneous arguments given by those who do not want the expansion of casinos in Florida is that destination casinos will increase the crime rates. If that were the case, why is it that since 1994, with the expansion of gambling and the increase of 5 million people in Florida, crime rates have gone down every year to their lowest levels in almost 30 years? And more specifically in Hillsborough County, with horse tracks, dog tracks, poker rooms, Florida Lottery machines and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, crime rates have fallen consistently every year.

There is no reason why Florida cannot be a family friendly state and also have destination casinos. Let sinners gamble. And let saints go to church. We can have them both in a low-crime-rate state.

Lee Getter

New Port Richey

Dictating our diets

Although I respect state Sen. Ronda Storms and what she has done for our community, I do not agree with her proposal to prohibit food-stamp recipients from using them to purchase junk food. And Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed's rationale for opposing it is laughable.

Clarke-Reeds states the bill is demeaning and invasive and that it gives the impression that people on food stamps are not smart enough to choose healthy foods. What? Where was Clarke-Reed when our first lady started visiting our schools, "educating" our children and their parents on what foods to eat? Based on Clarke-Reed's rationale, one could assume the first lady doesn't think parents are smart enough to choose healthy foods for their children. How ludicrous.

The gist of the matter is that it's not the government's job to regulate what we eat or don't eat (food stamps or not) any more than it's the government's job to require us to purchase health insurance. The role of the government is to protect and ensure domestic tranquility. So unless a bunch of obese people start rioting and become a national security risk, the government doesn't have the right to dictate our diets, choices or religious affiliations. Can you say "socialism"?

Luisa Price

Tampa