Don’t ban responsible boaters from anchoring overnight in Biscayne Bay | Opinion
Anchoring boats
“Conservative” state legislators, and the mayors and council members of Miami and Miami Beach, are trying to pass legislation and ordinances to ban responsible boaters from anchoring overnight in Biscayne Bay, allegedly due to safety issues, derelict boats and pollution concerns, mostly caused by a very few irresponsible boat owners.
Conservatives believe that responsible, law-abiding gun owners shouldn’t be punished because of the actions of a few irresponsible and evil gun owners and that a minor liberty should not be sacrificed even if many die in a mass shooting.
Why is it different with regard to boats anchoring overnight in open waterways?
Boats, like guns, don’t kill people, but bad laws do kill liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
Do lawmakers truly prize the U.S. Constitution and the principles our great nation was founded on?
Michael Raphael,
Miami
In the daylight
Re: the March 15 story, “Centners pull out of $10 million Biscayne Park deal amid pushback.” The Centners’ giveaway is a prime example of how often we see, hear or read about some sweetheart deal negotiated behind closed doors without sunshine between some private organization and national, state or local government.
Thankfully, some segment of the media universe exposes it and the public is saved while those who would take advantage scurry away from public scrutiny.
Bruce Shpiner,
Miami
Smells rotten
An attempt to revive the foul odor of greedy developers and corrupt politicians is in the works, according to a recent Miami Herald story about the American Dream Miami mall. Fortunately, most of the county officials who voted in favor of this ill-conceived plan are no longer in office.
Another light at the end of the tunnel is that the lone dissenter of the plan’s 2018 approval is now our county mayor. She has become very adept at detecting and destroying projects that clearly should never have escaped the drawing board.
Tourism and hospitality businesses need additional workforce competition like they need a hole in the head. Major highways leading toward the proposed project are clearly overburdened.
The 2018 county commission’s approval at least included a provision prohibiting public funds being spent to assist this development. Now, one commissioner has proposed to lift that ban.
Developers, lobbyists and politicians who got into the business with an expectation they could buy approval for projects destined to fail or have heavy negative impacts on communities are now finding themselves facing serious criminal and civil penalties.
South Florida is already a huge draw for tourists or for relocation. There are many acres of existing malls in need of re-purposing due to shifts in the retail industry.
Michael S. Mills,
West Kendall
Corruption in Cuba
Fidel and Raul Castro had been “winking at corruption” for decades, but isn’t it clear that the real challenge facing Cubans on the island today is all about tackling corruption?
Cuba hasn’t been communist for decades. Its kleptocracy is based on unlimited corruption coupled with near total impunity for those authorized to loot by the thief-in-chief — the head of state.
How hypocritical to condemn Cuba’s corrupt leaders while simultaneously supporting Donald Trump’s equally corrupt, kleptocratic behavior that includes, but is not limited to, appointing family members to powerful jobs they’re not qualified to hold; firing officials investigating scandals; musing about prosecuting a defeated rival and entangling his business empire with the presidency to such a degree that he’ll literally profit from his time in the White House.
Joanne Tomarchio,
Miami
Taking stock
Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump predicted that if Joe Biden was elected, the stock market would fail.
How does he account for the fact the markets are now at all-time highs?
Ray Turner,
Kendall
What’s scarier?
It is mind-boggling that so many people are terrified of people crossing our southern border to pick green beans but don’t seem concerned at all about groups of neo-Nazis parading down the main streets of our cities while carrying Nazi flags and wearing swastika armbands.
Judith A. Hooker,
Pembroke Pines
Partisan education
It is refreshing to see someone not completely blaming one political party for the flaws in our education system, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote in his March 6 Times opinion, “The school issues we’re battling over aren’t the ones that matter.”
Our country’s political parties are so divided, they don’t realize how badly they are trampling over children’s education to get a point across.
Lawmakers of both parties aren’t prioritizing education and it’s going to set our future generations back even further than they already have been.
Since when has the purpose of our government been to overthrow the opposing political party?
This will harm the children in the long run. I agree that excessive school closure during the pandemic set our education back tremendously, a fault of Democrats. I also agree that Republicans are at fault for starting “culture wars’‘ and abusing censorship, which is also setting the school system back.
Schools are now about what our children can learn, instead of prioritizing if our children are actually learning.
Aalia Arencibia,
Miami
‘True’ candidate
Our presidential election process has turned into a “popularity” contest at a time when America is facing crisis after crisis. Today’s presidential candidates appear to be trying to determine which way the wind is blowing before they take a position on anything. Then they change course if they think they guessed wrong. This approach is doomed to fail as it is impossible to please everyone.
I am looking for a frank, smart leader who identifies and prioritizes each crisis and their proposed resolution(s), including a cost/benefit analysis. Americans are fully aware that the status of the country is far from “rosy” no matter how one tries to package it. Just tell it like it is and stop trying to humor Americans. We are smarter than that.
Fleta Stamen,
Miami
College boycott
I applaud the NAACP for their call to Black athletes to boycott Florida schools in response to racist policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. One can only imagine Republican millionaire donors sitting in their skyboxes in Gainesville and Tallahassee being embarrassed as their teams are no longer competitive.
Perhaps Black leaders should extend their call by asking Black entertainers to boycott Florida until such time as the state retracts its anti-DEI rules and other bigoted policies. Radical racial policies must be met by a strong and meaningful backlash, replacing hate with knowledge and understanding.
Martin Kleinbart,
Aventura
Bad blend
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has been trying to merge church and state by permitting clergy to function in our public schools.
Has our governor not read our nation’s history and the separation of church from state?
The founders enshrined that tenet within our Constitution to help assure our democracy’s longevity. However, like everything involving the Constitution, it is only meaningful if we the people educate ourselves and elect leaders of integrity and hold them to account if they try to take down democracies.
Why would DeSantis dishonor this critical tenet of the Constitution?
Every generation must fight for its own freedom, but all generations must push back against this latest nefarious attempt by DeSantis to once again mislead Floridians.
Rick Soskis,
Havana, FL
Pundits right
Many people say the upcoming 2024 election will be the most important election in our lifetime. I’ve heard the same said of every election I have voted in since 1960. This time, however, I think the pundits are right.
If Donald Trump wins, if the Trump Republicans get control of Congress, if the Supreme Court continues its extreme right wing agenda, we will be well on our way to creating an autocratic, one party state, with fascistic leanings.
I’d say the stakes are pretty high in this election.
Phillip Hubbart,
Miami
