PUBLISHED FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Children losing rights

While we send our young men and women to Iraq to restore human rights and freedom to the citizens, I find it ironic that in America our children have lost their rights in the criminal justice system.

Daniel Carter was barely 15 when he was awoken from his sleep in his bedroom, brutally attacked and beaten at the hands of a drug- and alcohol-impaired 40-year-old black belt. The child tried to escape and tried to call 911 but the attacker pulled the phone from the wall. The very authorities that Daniel was taught to call for help locked him up and charged him with first-degree murder. What is wrong with this picture?

The fate of Florida children is about more than the resolution of murder cases. It represents the sum total of Florida's digression into state-sponsored cruelty and brutality toward young children.

Clearly, our elected officials have lost sight that the children in this state are our future. What is this teaching them about respecting and trusting authority? The next election, I suggest we vote all those in charge of this abuse out of office! - Robbie Pasley, Pensacola

Banjanin is mistaken

Commissioner Tom Banjanin has told a number of people that I persuaded him that Via DeLuna Drive on Pensacola Beach should be four-laned. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have not had a conversation with Commissioner Banjanin since his 1998 election, after he broke his campaign promises concerning Pensacola Beach. He did speak to my wife last summer when she learned he was unaware that the SRIA had taken an initial vote on beach-road improvements. He has taken her remarks out of context when she said that the public had not yet expressed itself on whether the road should be two, three or four lanes.

My position has been consistent since I spoke at the County Commission meeting on June 20, 2002, to oppose spending public funds on unnecessary projects. There are no data that support the need for widening any roads on Pensacola Beach. There is no congestion now or forecasted which supports widening - except special-event days, when not even 10 lanes would accommodate beach traffic.

Our priority should be to provide more parking, fix drainage problems, provide bike paths and remove unsightly overhead utility lines. - Don Ayres, Pensacola Beach

Owes Roy apology

What fight was Don Jackson ("A corrupt sport," Letters, April 9) referring to when he said the trainers' scuffle was better?

Being a boxing fan that stopped watching when Ali retired, I have been excited about Roy Jones' fighting since Korea. Roy is a smart fighter. He's not an animal like some and this is the reason I love watching him fight, and haven't missed one fight since Korea. I'm also a woman who hates to see the street fight sort of boxing we've seen many times. I'm really at a loss as to what Jackson was really trying to say.

I'm sick and tired of Roy having to continually prove himself to people like Jackson. Not that he thinks he must prove himself, but for some strange reason no matter how great he fights, and he is a great fighter, there seems always to be someone who obviously has no idea about the boxing game except what he thinks he knows.

Roy is a good man, a great fighter and I hope some day he meets him and even though I've never had that pleasure, I'm positive he'd change his mind about him. Jackson's letter was totally unfair to Roy and he owes him an apology for his insult to the hard work he's done to be where he is today. Shame on Jackson! - Jacki Hawes, Pensacola

Drawing the line

Jack Kelly's rant against the commander in chief ("I back troops, but save us from Bush," Letters, April 8) rings hollow when he says that he "supports the troops." It packs all the sincerity of "the check's in the mail" "It's not about the money!" and other old, trite standbys. At what point would Kelley support or not support the effort? Is the line drawn just below the secretary of defense or just above the sergeants?

Bush' war? In 1958 I was a 20- year-old Marine being shot at in the same region and by the same players as today. That war still has not yet ended. Ike was my president then, but I couldn't vote until JFK came along. I served in the Army during Vietnam as a medic. The lack of support then was like a knife in my back.

It is my belief that in time of war one should express one's support or non-support in the voting booth. - Bob Dingley, Pace

Wasted tax money

This is a rebuttal to Barbara Swinehart's reference to my "attack" on the Blue Angels.

She, and I am sure others, let loyalty influence their thinking on the Blue Angels and other unnecessary and frivolous armed forces activities that have no tangible (again I stress tangible) contribution to anything but the egos of those in charge and nothing to the actual defense of our country.

My criticism was not an attack on individuals, it was an attack, if you choose to use that word, on the huge amounts of tax money spent on treating the Blues and others in non-defensive activities like prima donnas, e.g. is that big show band going to serenade the enemy to death? When was the last time the Blues did a show that would kill Saddam or Osama bin Laden? When has a parachute show team fought in Baghdad or landed in a cave in Afghanistan?

I am sure that the individuals that make up these non-contributing venues have given their share of "tangible" contributions before and after their duty in a flying circus or another superfluous activity. Give my tax money to the guy with the gun who, as Barbara said, defends my rights. - Jack DeGasparre, Pensacola

Can do better

On March 28 the News Journal reported the first drowning of the year at Pensacola Beach. The victim was swept from waist-high water by a churning undertow. A second person, a petite young woman, attempted to rescue him, barely escaping the desperate clutches of the drowning man.

Unfortunately, this scene with variables has often been repeated over the years and is likely to continue on the lifeguard-unattended beaches of the national seashore and the remaining section of Pensacola Beach without eye-line protection of guards, even in summer months, and their near absence despite numerous bathers in the spring.

I hope the SRIA will consider investing in mini lifeguard stands/cupboards at regular intervals on unprotected beach and stock them with circular life preservers, each with a 30-foot rope attachment. This might serve as a "life saver" both for potential rescuers and possible victims and provide an economical way to offer protection for an exceptionally wide beach. The preservers might be painted a vivid red to be identified as beach property so as to discourage unthinking persons from making off with them.

A life is still a terrible thing to lose, all the more so when we might do better. - Jim McGovern, Pensacola

We need it, too

It was reported in the April 2 issue of Time magazine that "the administration is drafting ambitious post-war plans that include providing health care to the entire Iraqi population." Does King George II have any idea that there are 32 million Iraqis?

Maybe we in the U.S. should attack ourselves so that the 40 million uninsured here at home can be provided health care. - Rod Parrish, Pensacola

Telling picture

A good example of "mixed blessings" can be found in the News Journal Tuesday, April 8.

The headlines tell of yet another tragic drowning on Pensacola Beach and the story continues about the flag warning system and how effective or ineffective it is. Then, when one turns to the Local section, front page, there is a picture of young children playing in the surf (picture titled "Wipeout!"), and there is a little bit of the red flag flying at the end of the pier.

It would have been a wonderful opportunity for the photographer to take a picture of children (with parental supervision), playing on the sand and not in the water because of the warning flag. Perhaps another choice could have been children enjoying the water on the soundside of the island where the water might be safer. - Barbara Grice, Pensacola Beach