Letters from Venice to the editor of September 28, 2022 | Letters to the Editor
I miss the Silver Sneakers program at the YMCA
The YMCA of Southwest Florida (SKY Family Y) ended its participation in the Silver Sneakers insurance program, which paid for exercise, social interaction and maintaining the health of seniors.
Scheduled to end on December 31, 2021, a month has been added to allow for farewells. Older people do not always adapt easily to change.
When I first learned of this decision, I wrote Shannon Matthews, Senior Vice President, to appeal, but heard nothing back. Silver Sneakers made an alternate arrangement at a local gym business that didn’t charge as much.
It’s a good place to exercise, but it can’t compete with the generous facilities Venice’s donors have provided on Center Road. I stopped twice at the Y looking for familiar faces, but saw few old people. There is plenty of quiet space.
Looks like the Y’s new Inclusion branding doesn’t include seniors.
There was a Suncoast Humane Society billboard at the Circus Bridge as I entered Venice from the south that caught my eye.
It depicted a dog with an uplifting message. “My life is in your hands. Please don’t forget me.
Every time I passed this billboard, I thought of other images that could replace this beautiful dog… an unborn baby, an innocent child, a lonely teenager, a struggling parent, an unemployed neighbor, a homeless citizen, someone with an opposite opinion, a lonely senior, the stranger in front of me in the queue.
We are all the same in different ways.
The billboard’s simple message is a call for help and a call to action. This may be the solution to resolve the chaos that surrounds me.
I begin by examining myself and my own personal behaviors. How tolerant am I of inappropriate and negative behavior?
Fulton Sheen once said, “Moral principles don’t depend on a majority vote. Evil is evil, even if everyone is wrong. The right is the right, even if no one is right. (I wish I could share this message with all the politicians!)
Change starts with me. I can change my way of reacting to selfishness, disrespect, immorality, intolerance. I can thank God for my abilities.
I cannot hope for a return to civility and a society that values life, respect, dignity and love unless I start to act differently.
Do you want to join me? The lives of others are in our hands. Please don’t forget them.
AirBnB rentals threaten neighborhoods
One of the most unpleasant things that happens to our established residential neighborhoods is the AirBnB. Someone sells his house, located in a peaceful area, and unbeknownst to him, the buyer does not move in. They invest in a company, an AirBnB.
The new owner then rents it out to vacationers, sometimes for a month, sometimes for a week, sometimes for a day. Yes, Florida is a tourist state, but not every square inch should be a hotel.
People have retired here. People raise their children here. It is their house. Now they have no idea who is in the next house from week to week.
I won’t even go into the late night parties, extra traffic and noise.
Long term rentals are no problem. Perhaps limiting the rental period of a residential home to one person to no less than three months would be the solution.
There are communities here that do that. As it stands, AirBnBs are diverting business from hotels and resorts, turning residential areas into mixed-use areas, and disrupting once-quiet neighborhoods.
Maybe they will end up reducing property values even further. Something has to change.
This is the other side of student loan debt
Right-wing critics have attacked the Biden administration for its plan to erase some student debt. They say, “We didn’t tell anyone to borrow this money”; and “These borrowers are deadbeats.” Apparently, these critics just don’t get it.
For decades, this country’s college-aged population has been sold as a commodity. The media – newspapers, magazines and television – told us: “Go to university; obtain a diploma (or another diploma). You will qualify for good jobs and earn more money.
So we went to borrow money for the high school fees. When we graduated, we learned the terrible truth: there were no “good jobs” for us. No one warned us about this.
We applied, and applied, and got the same tired stories: “There’s a shortage of jobs right now”; or “You majored in the wrong subject, we don’t need it;” or “You have a good degree, but you lack experience;” or “You are overqualified;” etc
To survive, we went back to low-paying jobs, only now we had huge debts to pay off on our almost useless degrees. These debts cannot be discharged in the event of bankruptcy; we will have them for the rest of our lives.
Some of us have simply given up and defaulted. Others are still struggling to make payments. Ironically, I will never live long enough to pay off my debt.
Even with Biden’s modest pardon, I, like many others, will still carry a crushing burden. Unless I can live to be 140, I’ll just die a deadbeat.
Election is democracy against authoritarian fascism
The November election is no longer Democrats versus Republicans, left versus right, or liberal versus conservative. It is democracy against authoritarian fascism.
Republicans are unable to legislate. They do nothing to boost clean energy or fix America’s crumbling infrastructure. Nothing to deal with rising tuition fees or to reduce the cost of health care.
Nothing to address the existential climate crises that threaten America and the world. Nothing at all to help or protect the American people.
Instead, they move toward voter suppression, takeover of the electoral machine, ending women’s reproductive rights, book bans, classroom educational restrictions, and assaults on those of one race. , religious belief or sexual orientation that does not correspond to their narrow views. .
Social security and health insurance are under attack. Violence has become acceptable to them against anyone who does not adhere to their authoritarian agenda.
Straight out of the fascist playbook. They chip away at your constitutional rights and freedoms. Democracies do not all die suddenly, but gradually until a certain irreversible threshold is crossed.
This threshold is very close! November’s choice — it’s democracy or authoritarian fascism. There can be no compromise between the two, no middle ground.
We cannot allow this diabolical “republican” party to return to power. Never!
Biden and the Democrats are working tirelessly for all Americans. They are our only option, the only chance for normalcy, truth and survival. The only hope democracy has in America.
Voting directly Democratic for the survival of our democracy is not partisan. It’s patriotic.
Seek the truth to free yourself
Even as today’s MAGA Republicans continue their fascist tactics of suppressing our votes and stealing our freedoms, we still see the imaginings of yet another far-right letter writer based on nothing but propaganda / lies.
His words talk about destroying our economy, but in fact unemployment is at its lowest since the 1970s. He imagines that our southern border is open, yet it is no more so than during the last administration.
He imagines that the prices of fuel and other raw materials are caused by our president, but the prices will remain high until people stop paying.
To do this, try carpooling; start a garden, or eat a hamburger instead of a steak, or stock up on vegetables; try to hang on to your current car and so many other ways to save money and rob companies of their excess profits.
He imagines that the freedom to marry whoever you love destroys the family nucleus. Apparently, his view of a family is severely altered. As for separating people, the GOP gets that award.
They constantly talk about their hatred, mostly phrased in more flowery terms. As DeSantis bans the books, usurps the authority of the school board, and announces that he will only allow far-right imaginations to be taught, your reader imagines teaching the truth about American history is divisive. .
But the truth sets us free.
Hiding our fear-filled past keeps us from overcoming it. Wake up people. Look to the springs that have kept us free for two centuries.
Read the newspaper. Watch the real news: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS.
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