Letters to the Editor, Oct. 22 – Marco News

The trolley arguments

[Monday] night, the City Council majority, consisting of Councilors Erik Brechnitz, Joe Rola, Greg Folley and Claire Babrowski, acknowledged residents opinions and voted to stop trolley/transient expansion on Marco Island.Congratulations and thank you!

Councilors Jared Grifoni, Rich Blonna and Becky Irwin dissented. If I were to (hypothetically) award prizes for their dissenting arguments, heres how they might go:

Third prize to Councilor Grifoni whose interest in a brand-new Marco restaurant might have inspired him to favor increasing our islands visitor numbers.

Second prize to Councilor Blonna, who lectured that Marco residents had a moral duty (?) to grow Marco businesses because some are owned by Marco residents.

First and grand prize to Councilor Becky Irwin who proudly stated having received five emails supporting trolley/transient expansion plus about 230 emails opposing it.However, Ms. Irwin insisted that these impressive numbers did not really represent an opposing majority opinion because, (ready?), many, maybe most of the opposing emails, each from different people, contained exact or similar rationales.

The grand prize would be Beveridges Basic Math for Dummies with addendum: majority a number or percentage equaling more than half of a total (Webster).

Russ Colombo, Marco Island

I read the article on school board member Chris Patricca, wherein she shared some of the challenges of educating children arriving from Guatemala. Such students were an example of difficulties faced by educators here, where the system must acknowledge both the difficulties and the expectations for success. Unfortunately, rather than addressing the facts, certainboard members focused on investigating her for offending a community. That is simply nonsense! If we followed their rhetoric, we would move further from the truth and a potential solution set.

When are we going to stop making excuses and start implementing a solution to move such immigrants forward. Guatemalans have a proud heritage that doesnt want sympathy. Help them find the educational and cultural tools necessary and their value to the entire community will only increase. I look forward to a time when those that spend time pandering to a misguided political correctness argument that is hollow; change to implementing programmatic improvements and deliverables. The only offending being done here is to Chris Patricca.

John Tomlinson, Bonita Springs

There is a cure to Senator Joe Manchin's obstruction on meaningful infrastructure spending to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and alleviate some of the human factor in climate change. She is Val Demings, Democratic candidate for Florida's Senate seat up for election in 2022. Manchin is doing what he thinks the people in his state and the coal companies that finance his campaign want him to do. The only way to change that is to send more Democrats to the Senate so one senator cannot deny the whole country what it needs to prepare for the weather and economy of the future. Maybe we Floridians are more aware of the threats of rising sea levels and more powerful hurricanes, but the people of West Virginia will feel its effects as well the next time they get a few days of 100-year rains or a crippling blizzard and deep freeze. Until then, we will have to let Senator Manchin bury his head in the coal, and elect senators who understand the problems and want to work on solutions.

Karen Wentzel, Naples

Constant wildfires in the West; I call my relatives in California.The smoke often keeps them inside, but so far the fires are not on their doorstep.My granddaughters family in Brooklyn, N.Y., suffered a foot of water in the first floor of their building during the recent post-hurricane flooding; fortunately they live on an upper floor.Here, we have the seasonal worry about hurricanes, but now we are told they will likely be much worse.

Report targets economic risks from climate change was the heading on an Oct.16 report in the Naples Daily News.The report tells of potential changes in the mortgage process, stock market, retirement plans, federal procurement and budgeting.This problem is huge!

What can I do? I like to search for the root of the problem.Global warming causes these extremes in weather, and carbon emissions contribute to this warming.This planet has gone through climate change before, but never before at such a rapid pace. Industrial operations must stop feeding the atmosphere with carbon.

The government should place a fee on every ton of carbon emitted, and that fee should be increased each year.Companies would increase innovative ways to reduce carbon and global warming could be slowed.The net fees collected should be distributed to U.S. citizens.

Jean Prokopow, Naples

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Letters to the Editor, Oct. 22 - Marco News