Sugar strikes Stuart; ignoring Vero Beach; deny SEAL Museum plan in St Lucie | Letters
- Residents voice concerns over sugar cane burning, SEAL museum expansion, and inadequate representation from Tallahassee officials.
- A reader questions the intent behind a column about EV protests.
- Concerns are raised about the potential negative impacts of tax cuts and Trump's economic policies.
- A reader criticizes the Trump administration's handling of classified information.
Continued sugar cane burning unacceptable
Big Sugar has contributed to the pollution of our St. Lucie River water and dirties the air … and nothing gets done about it.
With a west wind, the ash from burning sugar cane falls on Stuart. It actually deposits a fine ash on autos that is very hard to remove once wet with a morning dew.
Paul Vallier, Stuart
Veteran: Deny SEAL museum expansion request
I am a veteran who proudly served in the U.S. military. As such, I support veterans organizations to include the Navy SEAL Museum. However, as an owner of a unit in Sea Palms Condominium, which is next door to the museum, we have several concerns regarding the proposed expansion of the museum property, as follows:
- One of the of enjoyments of living at Sea Palms is the peaceful quietness one experiences. The sounds of the ocean waves as they come ashore are both relaxing and beautiful. The museum expansion project, if allowed to proceed, will adversely impact this peacefulness by noise from social events, loud music and increase in traffic up until and most likely after 11 p.m.
- Potentially hundreds of people could attend one of these social gatherings. Where would they park their vehicles? Is there not a safety concern if people need to cross State Road A1A to go to and from their cars?
- During certain months of the year, we are required to keep lights during darkness at a minimum. This is for sea turtle nesting. Will this requirement be followed?
We respectfully request this expansion proposal be denied. Let's keep this area beautiful, safe and tranquil.
Bobby Sullivan, North Hutchinson Island
Vero Beach, area residents get lip service from Tallahassee representatives
Anyone reading the messages from our local representatives in Tallahassee will not be comforted to find that their priorities right now are to re-name the Gulf of Mexico and to make harder the process for citizens filing petition initiatives. That's it.
Facing financial and insurance trials ever more damaging to homeowners and renters, state Sen. Debbie Mayfield is doing nothing to help you. Sen. Erin Grall and Rep. Robbie Brackett are doing the same.
It's hard to imagine the city of Vero Beach being in any worse situation itself right now, and all the city gets is happy talk and a kick in the pants (which it well deserves, in the opinion of many) when requesting aid. There appears to be little hope for fiscal responsibility, local home rule or lower taxes.
Voting matters. Please look beyond party, beyond rhetoric and see what your representatives are doing. For you, not for themselves.
Lynne Larkin, Vero Beach
Jacques column on torching EVs April Fool's joke?
While reading Ingrid Jacques' column in this newspaper ("Make it make sense: Liberals torch EVs to fight Trump, Musk") April 1, I had to assume it was an April Fool's joke.
Does she not remember Jan. 6, 2021, when the "law and order, law enforcement supporting" MAGAs stormed the Capitol, caused millions of dollars in damage to the lawmaking institution of the United States, and assaulted police officers with flag poles and bear spray?
If this was not Jacques attempt at an April Fool's joke, then it was hypocrisy of the highest order.
Cathy Hubbard, Vero Beach
Feeling local tariffs impact
Thanks to the Trump Tariff War, my 401K is now a 201K.
Spike Vrusho, Vero Beach
Lifelong Republican: Continued tax cuts will destroy nation
As a lifelong "traditional" Republican (think minimize government spending back in the day), I need to go on record as saying my view of the upcoming extension of the trillions of dollars in federal tax cuts will only massively add to the tens of trillions of dollars in federal debt we have already egregiously rung up. This is madness.
This cash grab by the very and moderately wealthy (and supported by clueless citizenry who will never see real money) and not remotely countered by the majority of our congressional representatives, previews an imminent horror show that can no longer be deferred to future generations. Unfortunately for America, we are fast-tracking our arrival to the grave we dug ourselves. It was all so avoidable.
In the pursuit of financial gain by our representatives, who evidently lack other viable career paths, they have sold us out for their massive personal benefit and our country's accelerated demise. Incompetence by our leaders is no longer relevant. They have chosen to burn the house down.
I see darkness — and I'm an optimist.
Randy Green, Port St. Lucie
Don't let Trump bring nation to its knees
The implementation of new President Donald Trump tariffs will almost certainly touch off a recession. This outcome is unsurprising, as it aligns with established strategies of authoritarian regimes.
Trump has been working to tank the economy since his return to power, knowing significant economic hardship can render the population more manageable. Dictators exploit feelings of physical or economic insecurity. Moving forward, Trump's policies will perpetuate greater insecurity. As always, he will blame others, thus initiating an authoritarian spiral.
Will he succeed in this endeavor? Only if we let him.
The authoritarian playbook, which Trump is following, has been employed in various countries worldwide ― with Hungary and Turkey as just the latest examples. Initially, this strategy aims to demoralize the opposition, rendering it ineffective. However, as people eventually become disillusioned with the loss of their freedom and other once-cherished rights and finally mobilize, they are often too late to turn back the totalitarian tide due to the capture and intimidation of civil society and the instruments of government.
We are in quicksand and sinking fast, but we can resist and rise above.
It is essential we push back now. I’m afraid the only viable solution is highly disruptive resistance. By this, I mean massive protests and general strikes that bring the country to a standstill.
As a former labor union leader, I am hopeful that unions will spearhead this movement. Democracy has served us well for over two centuries. It should not be given up without a fight.
Mike Milz, Vero Beach
Signal scandal shows Trump administration incompetence
Donald Trump reached a degree of notoriety in the reality TV show “The Apprentice.” He was noted primarily for uttering the words: “You’re fired.”
This is ironic because Trump refuses to fire incompetent Cabinet-level officials he’s appointed. To do so, of course, would be an admission of his own incompetence because he’s told us he hires only the “best and brightest” to serve in his administration. (Such is the behavior of insecure “leaders” who surround themselves with incompetent, back-slapping toadies.)
On March 24, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he was included in a highly sensitive Cabinet-level discussion about Yemeni war plans. Those who participated in the conversation included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
This discussion of top-secret information was conducted on the commercial chat app Signal, an extraordinary blunder by high-level officials. This is an example of gross incompetence by political appointees who were well aware they were discussing critically sensitive war plans on a commercial application used by the general public.
(If only the actors in “Animal House” had access to social media when it was filmed.)
Trump declared: “I don’t know anything about it.” His submissive press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, gushed: “President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team.”
He might, but he’s foolish.
Even stupider is the fact that, as the chat continued, a White House official in Moscow joined the conversation. As far as we know, this individual wasn’t in the U.S. Embassy’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, where all such highly confidential discussions are required to be held. Russia routinely conducts sophisticated surveillance of all American officials visiting Moscow.
Everyone knows this.
How can any intelligent American consider this administration competent?
Cray Little, Vero Beach
DOGE efforts necessary to fix Democrat-caused spending problems
A year ago, Elon Musk was one of the heroes of the Democrats and their leftist buddies.
For anyone living under a rock for the past 20 years, Musk founded PayPal, Open AI, Starlink, Tesla and Space X. In fact, Tesla is the leader in electric vehicle production.
Because he agreed with President Donald Trump’s agenda, Musk became a Republican before the election. Seeing how smart Musk is, Trump asked him to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. (A comprehensive audit is long overdue.)
Naturally, his stone-turning ruffled a few feathers within the bureaucracy. The left and Democratic groups responded with demonstrations. There has been violence against Tesla owners, dealers and charging stations — including firebombs and torching Teslas.
In general, Democrats refuse to criticize such behavior. Property value declines are bad enough, but sooner or later, someone will be killed.
During a Brent Baer interview, a member of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, Musk’s audit group) said only 0.15% of those laid-off were done involuntarily. The rest took early retirement.
If you are worried DOGE will cut your Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, relax. DOGE is seeking to rid abuse so the United States can eventually balance the budget and pay down the national debt.
The way Democrats spend, we need extreme measures to keep the United States solvent. Remember Trump’s favorite quote: “Promises made, promises kept.”
Tom Miller, Vero Beach
Trump leads us down imaginary path
Admittedly, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, so forgive me if I have to sound this out out loud.
Donald Trump has imposed tariffs he, his own government and everyone else on the face of the planet agree will raise prices for every consumer in America. What Trump would like you to believe is eventually manufacturing will move back to America and these prices will go down. Thus, Trump would like you to believe something that has never happened in the history of mankind: He tells you prices will drop.
I ask you in your lifetime, in the history of mankind, when have prices ever dropped for anything once they’ve been raised and people are paying them? The answer is never.
The Trump administration is betting the entire American economy on something that has never happened. What the American public is about to witness is the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. All that extra money the Americans consumer is about to shell out, honestly, where do you think that money is going to end up?
I can venture a fairly educated guess. It will end up in the pockets of very same billionaires who stood on the stage with Trump when he was inaugurated.
My God, we are dumb. Conned by a simpleton. We deserve all we have sown.
Don Whisman, Stuart