Who are we kidding?

Seventy mph, 75 mph — what difference does it make?

Everyone will continue to drive between 80 mph and 85 mph.

Bonnie Allen, Jacksonville


An appreciation

With all the negative stories about health care for veterans, I would like readers to know it is not all bad.

My husband was with the St. Augustine VA clinic when they found his lung cancer that turned into bone cancer. His care was great.

Now my son is under VA care in St. Augustine and Gainesville.

Everyone is simply fantastic. During our first trip to Gainesville, we no more than walked in the door before people were asking if we needed help. We did

All the doctors we see are great, and my son’s primary care doctor in St. Augustine listens to you. In Gainesville you may find the waiting time a little long, but the care you get is great.

If there is a fault in the system, I believe it stems from not enough help or the hospital being too small. They need more doctors and room.

The nurses work 12-hour shifts, and if you could see the people they have to work on, you would know what mental strain they must be under.

Parking in Gainesville is very limited, but they have many shuttle buses.

We cannot keep having these wars that mangle both body and mind without proper care.

I believe from what I have seen, they are doing the best they can with what they have.

No system (our own government, for example) is perfect.

We need to get behind what we have and work to fix any problems that come up.

Mary Nissen, St. Augustine


Term is misused

I am perplexed by the constant reference to planned attacks as tragedies.

What is the difference in the sinking of the Titanic and an event that is a planned attack as in Sept. 11, 2001?

Both of these events resulted in death and destruction. Why are both referred to as a tragedy? Was the Holocaust a tragedy? Was World War II?

In my humble opinion, using the term “tragedy” to describe terrorist attacks is giving a sense of a Shakespearean play and a “that’s so sad” meaning to the attacks.

I get so incensed when I hear people, news media, refer to Sept. 11, 2001, as a “tragedy” or Benghazi as a “tragedy.”

These examples were “attacks,” not accidents, not mistakes, not chances of fate, nor preordained by a higher power. They were planned, prepared and executed acts done with hate and malice.

I will not ever refer to these or anything else like these events as “a tragedy.”

How do I know the event in Benghazi was planned and prepared?

I don’t for sure!

Someone knows.

I want to know.

Michael Hendry, Orange Park


Waste of time

Pleading to Boko Haram via Twitter to “#Bring Back Our Girls” is like making a wish after blowing out candles on a birthday cake — a wish to be fulfilled by a bunch of extremists living in a country fraught with corruption.

Action by the Nigerian government is the only hope there is of returning those kidnapped girls.

The U.S. and other countries should offer high-tech assistance in locating the girls as well as their kidnappers, and the oil rich nation of Nigeria should solely undertake all rescue operations.

If Nigeria elects not to aggressively undertake rescue operations, the country should be ostracized and economically sanctioned by the rest of the world as compatriots of Boko Haram.

Tony Spuria, Ponte Vedra Beach


The hypocrisy

The NBA banned Donald Sterling for life from attending any basketball games. Nobody should have the right to do that, nor should the NBA force Sterling to sell his team unless he so desires.

Where are his rights?

Sterling has been giving money and support for years to support black kids in trouble. The NAACP had scheduled him for an award for all he had done.

Now after all this totally asinine behavior of the NBA officials, they declined to honor him in the wake of this insanity.

What a terrible way to find out who your friends are.

Renate Ogle, Orange Park


Out of control

Thank goodness recent GOP political ads have finally revealed the real individual responsible for the second worst economic collapse in U.S. history — former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist — when all along, we thought it was George W. Bush?

Crist was such a powerful influence in Florida he apparently aggrandized his impact to encompass the entire world economy just by using “mind control” techniques we normal humans don’t command.

Now how many of you realize my premise is an outrage? Are you just as outraged over the current GOP political ads?

As soon as a candidate campaigns in a positive, truthful manner regardless of party, I will probably support that person over all others simply because of his or her honesty.

Art Costa, Jacksonville