Ducks, vaccines, bribes: Here are our favorite letters from readers this year – Tampa Bay Times

Each month, the Tampa Bay Times selects a letter of the month. Several of the winners recently visited with us and learned more about the editorial board and the Times. Reprinted below are the winning letters from December 2018 through October. Lets keep the conversation going and the letters flowing in 2020.

Editorial: Let DNA testing remove doubt in death row cases | December 2019

I have firsthand knowledge of how difficult it is to get DNA tested for a death row inmate. My father, Thomas Arthur, was executed in Alabama on May 25, 2017, after more than 35 years on death row. He fought for years to test the DNA. There was a lot of it, blood, hair and more. He was not the best father and had been in prison. He got out and seemed to be a better man but was arrested for the murder that landed him on death row shortly after his release. Finding any sympathy or justice was an uphill battle. The biggest reason DNA was denied for so many years was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which created deadlines for inmates to file certain appeals.

In Alabama, you are not entitled to an attorney on death row and at the time he needed to file, there was no law library and he had no money to file anything. We were pretty poor. I will always wonder if he committed the murder that sent him back to prison and death row. The inmates family is treated badly. I had to walk into the execution chamber surrounded by reporters and to the laughter of several state and prison representatives. The families of both the victim and the inmate deserve to know for sure if the person really committed the crime. Denying inmates the right to test DNA is wrong, especially when the technology did not exist at the time of the crime. I said at my fathers execution I would like to see DNA testing mandatory in all cases in all states. Otherwise, everyone is stuck in limbo, unable to find closure. We have executed innocent people. My father may have been one of them. I will never know for certain. Thats the way the state prefers it.

Sherrie Stone, Riverview

Maxwell: The joy of reading, from father to son to daughter to grandsons | January 2019

Thank you, Bill Maxwell, for writing about the importance of reading in the home. I cried when I read it. I have been an elementary school teacher for 20 years 12 in Pinellas County and a mom for almost 18. I have said from the beginning of my career that learning begins with the parents, and that a solid foundation prior to starting school is a key to success in the classroom. Like Mr. Maxwell, my husband and I read to our daughter in utero, and as often as we could after she was born. My husband and I are both avid readers, so our daughter has always had access to books and magazines at home. She understands the importance of being a reader and values that skill. She thrived as a result of her early, constant exposure to language, both in print and conversation.

Being a parent carries with it an enormous responsibility. That responsibility includes engaging your child from the very beginning with letters, sounds and words. The myriad programs our public schools have put forth in an effort to close the academic gap will continue to fail because the bottom line is learning has to start from day one, and it has to start with parents.

Jana Bailey, St. Petersburg

February 2019

The seriousness of a persons social gaffe should be judged, not by todays standards, but in the context of societal standards at the time and place where the gaffe occurred. As an example of how standards evolve, consider the following: In the late 30s and early 40s, my fathers church would stage minstrels in which the performers appeared in blackface, and no one seemed to think much about it. I feel that it was done more out of ignorance, at that time, of the feelings of black people rather than of any malice or hatred.

Today such behavior would be thought abhorrent. By the mid-40s, my father was a champion of integration to the extent that he received threats upon his life and on the lives of his family. Awareness of the feelings of others can and does evolve, and a persons behavior in the past should be judged by the standards of the past, and that persons character should be judged by the totality of their behavior, past and present.

Tom Hagler, Wesley Chapel

College admissions scandal: Whos Mark Riddell, the Florida man and really smart guy who took tests for kids? | March 2019

What a mess. One coach allegedly took a $400,000 bribe to place a student on her team roster to help her get into Yale. As a mother of two teenagers attending a private university in Florida, all I can think of is thats exactly how much my kids college tuition costs for both of their four-year degrees. Money that this middle-class family didnt have. An issue that kept me awake night after night, but I had faith it was going to get resolved. I just didnt know how. Fast forward three years. My children went to college, but not because we paid any shady company to help them cheat on their test scores or to make them the top athletes. What did happen was a lot of hard work, hours of practicing and tutoring. And they did get their good test scores, and they did get accepted to their college of choice, and they also did get merit-based scholarships.

We only did what a normal parent does. We provided moral and emotional support, continuous and unbiased guidance, and we paid for their exam fees. We also stayed up with them during their studying times so that they would feel like we had their back no matter what the results. I dont feel bad for those parents involved in this scandal. I do feel bad for their children.

Marielys Camacho-Reyes, Haines City

Florida House passes bill allowing teachers to be armed, sending it to Gov. DeSantis | April 2019

I am a nobody. I have no voice. I, along with thousands of people directly involved with education such as educators, PTAs, communities and unions, wrote, emailed, called and visited legislators asking that teachers not be armed. Those contacts were ignored.

Florida voters overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, which gave voting rights to felons who have completed the terms of their sentences. Legislators have decided to alter what voters wanted by adding restrictions, which now might make felons pay court costs and fees before being able to vote. Floridians spoke about money that was earmarked to be given specifically to public schools. But legislators, in their ploy to dismantle traditional public schools in order to promote charter schools, disregarded the will of the people, giving more money to charter schools in spite of the fact that charter schools are not held to the same rules. This year I am a nobody. But eventually, my voice will be heard.

Marilyn Warner, Clearwater

May 2019

Dont wait for the glossy postcards to appear in your mailbox at election time, all bearing your legislators versions of their record. Find out now how they voted, which is easily done, online. Did they vote to strip money from traditional public schools, diverting it to private firms and charters, including the entire budgeted amount for school repairs? Did they support the measure that leaves Floridas teachers among the poorest-paid in the nation, yet still call themselves pro-education? Did they ignore the voters again, steering $270 million away from the Forever Florida amendment and into the states bureaucracy? Did they contribute to rigging the electorate, once again, by virtually nullifying Amendment 4s voting rights restoration? How did they vote on the road to nowhere, a project designed to line the pockets of rich landowners at our expense? Did they support the unconstitutional flow of state tax money into vouchers for private and religious schools? At campaign time, my own senator sings a different tune about his record; his votes tell the truth. Now is the time, voters, to look at reality.

Stephen Phillips, St. Petersburg

Measles cases are on the rise, but some Tampa Bay parents wont vaccinate their kids | June 2019

The article on vaccination was well done. In my 50 years as a practicing physician, I am still baffled by the mindset that ignores valid science and replaces it with unscientific nonsense. And the people who fall into this category are often intelligent, educated and generally nice people. So what makes them ignore science and put their faith in often dangerous misinformation? I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but it seems to me that this situation requires accentuation of a number of basic human emotions, and among these two stand out: fear and paranoia. But what makes these people use the fruits of science in everyday life cellphones, computers, air travel, etc., yet go back centuries into a nonscientific period when it comes to health issues? Many years ago I had a patient, the wife of an airline pilot, ask me what I thought about alternative treatment for her malignancy. I told her to ask her husband what he thought about alternatives to the instrument landing system. These people have found a way to divorce health science from other science. There is no good reason for this. The sadness and frustration over child health issues is very understandable. We always look for a cause when bad things happen. The well-known fallacy post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) seems inherent to the human condition, but such reasoning is often fallacious. This is why rigid scientific trials exist. The availability of previously unimaginable amounts of data are now available on the internet, which is both wonderful and dangerous. With regard to medicine, we must adopt the attitude of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). There is no sign to tell you whether your internet search is yielding treasure or trash. The famous physician William Osler summed up the anti-vaccination stance in 1915. He proposed taking 10 vaccinated and 10 unvaccinated people with him to work in the next epidemic. Osler said, And I will make this promise neither to jeer or to jibe when they catch the disease, but to look after them as brothers; and for the three or four who are certain to die I will try to arrange the funerals with all the pomp and ceremony of an anti-vaccination demonstration. Have we learned nothing in 100 years?

Dr. John Clarke, St. Petersburg

Trumps racist rant requires a collective response | Editorial | July 2019

I was 6 when I was told by a parent of a white classmate to go back to where I came from. It was confusing because I was born in this country. Throughout my life, whether in school or playing sports, I can recall several instances where I was told to go back to Africa, usually followed by the N-word. If you ask any person of color, whether born here or not, most will tell you of similar experiences.

As I got older, I came to realize these taunts came from small-minded bigoted individuals who put me down to make themselves feel superior and better about their lives. Sadly, I also can recall my teachers, coaches, clergy and friends who did not come to my defense and pretended the incident never happened. Racism and hate crimes are on the rise in America, and it is no coincidence. History has proven that silence is not golden, and this president has history with racism. Is this where we are with the GOP and this country?

Neil Armstrong, Tampa

August 2019

If you are a duck hunter you are required to use a plug that limits the magazine to three shells. This rule is intended to give ducks a fighting chance to evade being shot by a hunter armed with an autoload shotgun. We, as conservatives, (mostly) agree this is a good rule to avoid decimating the wild duck population while advancing a policy of skill and accuracy. Our Constitution prevents taking away peoples guns, but lets consider giving people the same consideration as wild ducks. For example: (1) permanently limit magazine capacity to three rounds; (2) allow only one magazine per gun; (3) possession of non-compliant magazines will be fined $10,000 per incident. The goal is not gun control but to give hunted people the same sporting chance we give wild ducks.

Bernard Waryas, Dunedin

Take me out to ballgame? Nah | Sept. 2019

Its just not true that the Rays lack fan support. Ironically, you report that the TV and radio ratings have spiked. The games have been getting the highest ratings in the market, and the share is among the best for all MLB markets. Not a surprise. Hundreds of thousands of baseball fans live here. The reason for low attendance is obvious and has been written about before. But it bears repeating. The problem lies with you, St. Petersburg, the location of the stadium and the above-ground nuclear fallout shelter you built to house baseball. Let me explain. I attended the final game against the Yankees. I left my home in Forest Hills, a north central Tampa neighborhood, at 5:45 p.m. to arrive at a 7:10 p.m. game. On a normal traffic day, its 30 miles and about 37 minutes. I arrived at the stadium at 7:35 p.m. and got to my seat about 7:45 after a long walk down a concrete corridor that blocked my view of the game, almost exactly two hours after I left home. I missed the first two innings, and Joey Wendles home run (an historically rare event in itself). Most of that drive time was spent on I-275 between the Ulmerton Road exit and the 38th Avenue N exit, a distance of just over 6 miles. That drive took just over 40 minutes.

The stadium is inaccessible for most of the fans in the Tampa Bay market. Its location makes it reasonably accessible to South Pinellas and South Tampa. The total population of those areas is a bit over 500,000. From Largo north in Pinellas and from Seminole Heights to the north and east, its impossible to get to a game for most working people. The distance and the bottleneck of routes to St. Petersburg has effectively cut the Rays off from the teams fans. The stadium is reasonably accessible to less than 20 percent of them.

Rex Henderson, Tampa

I am white, privileged and educated. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh summa cum laude, and I cannot afford to live in Tampa Bay, specifically, Bradenton. I was only able to live here because of the generosity of my parents for the last two years. Almost all of my friends live at home. We are in our 20s and 30s, working service-related jobs, because this area offers little to no professional work. At $11.87 an hour, I hustle 40 hours a week as a library assistant at Selby Library in downtown Sarasota, and on the weekends I babysit, dog-sit, cat-sit or just sit (as in doing laundry, grocery shopping, paying bills). I love Selby; I love books, my co-workers, the idealism and freedom that public libraries still offer. I dont love that anything costing over $10 takes considerable thought as to whether it is necessary or not. When trying to find affordable housing, I simply had to laugh because all I could budget for on my current salary is $250 a month; a cheap HOA fee for some. I am completely priced out. In a culture (still) deeply divided by race, class and gender, how are our black, brown, Latinx and queer residents getting by? I am not. They are not. We are not. So tip generously, act kindly and remember all of us invisible folk, the ones who serve you day after day. We are trying so hard to simply make ends meet. Vote to increase minimum wage and take a stand for us, for this community. Until then, I have to move to where the grass is greener on the other side (as in anywhere, but here).

Emily Grant, Bradenton

Read the original:

Ducks, vaccines, bribes: Here are our favorite letters from readers this year - Tampa Bay Times