Letters to the Editor for Sunday, Feb. 3

Donald Trump and Super Bowl commentary from Andy Marlette

MAGA isn't hate speech

Make America Great Again (MAGA) has been referred to by the left as hate speech. Ever since my birth early during the “Great Depression,” Americans have worked and sacrificed to make America and their personal lives better.

We took pride in our personal responsibility, opportunity, independence, and reputation. We established families, helped build businesses as employees, investors, or creators. Advanced education was a means to economic and social advancement, but it required applicants to meet strict academic standards for admission, study, and graduation.

When America was under attack, we served. The military reinforced individual and group responsibility, discipline, respect, and patriotism. Today we need individuals to adopt these characteristics if we are to have a civil nation.

Much has changed in America since my birth. Social Security was established to provide some retirement income to those who paid into the plan. The plan was never properly funded, invested, or established on an actuarial basis. Today, these funds are distributed to people who never paid into the plan.

President Johnson’s “Great Society” created a dependency constituency that is fed by a political party which relies on this group to vote them into power.

Education provided diversity for ideas and thought. Today universities and education degrees have been minimized. Many are now social and political propaganda factories.

The military has embraced social policies which reduce efficiency.

Socialism and impeachment are the Democratic Party goals.

President Trump is fighting for America and for you. An outsider fighting the press and political swamp. Evaluate his agenda and accomplishments. President Donald Trump, capitalism, and strong borders will Make America Great Again.

Frank W. Pliml, Naples

Media obsession 

Your Jan. 26 report, “Even with Trump absent, discord rules Davos,” illustrates the U.S. media’s obsession with criticism of President Trump.

This article was about the Davos Economic Forum which Trump did not attend. The headline however introduced an adverse comment about Trump. It is another pathetic attempt by the media to make adverse comments about Trump at every conceivable opportunity rather than just reporting events. Your readers deserve better than this.

 David Olsen, Naples

Fines, not walls

Walls do not work. The Berlin Wall and Great Wall of China are examples.

Immigrants wager on how swiftly they can scale the present wall.

Solution:  Increase the present immigration quota to fill the need for workers in the various jobs where unskilled labors are needed; such as construction, lawn crews, waitresses, etc. Fill those jobs with legal immigrants, then fine the businesses that employ illegals. Unavailable employment will discourage illegal entry. No green card, no work.

The fine for employing illegals needs to be significant. It will take a while to attain this goal. It will be worth it and far less costly than building a useless wall. A huge, costly, grotesque wall will be a constant reminder of our stupidity. 

Ev Duthoy, Naples

Bird watching 

Ornithologists believe one species of hawks may be extinct. It is the Republican Deficit Hawk. It was last spotted during the Obama administration.

Richard Coddington, Naples, FL and Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Disastrous coverage 

I was dismayed to see the photo of the disastrous train accident on page 1B of Monday’s paper. And from the headlines, it looked like President Trump had something to do with it. I could foresee an uptick in the cries of “Impeach!” “Election Tampering!” “Hate!” “Disaster!” in response to such a debacle.

I read the caption, and then I read it again. The date on the photo was 2014. As I recall, Barack Obama was president at that time. As he was, of course, unimpeachable, adored, revered, protected and far above reproach, one would never connect such a photo with any of his failed policies. We sucked it up and respected the fact that he won the election.

Then I turned the page and enjoyed the Editorial cartoon. It was the “24 Hour News”, loudly proclaiming anonymous sources, unverified claims, out of context videos, which “if true” are huge news. I said to myself, “How appropriate.”

Here’s a concept: Take a break from the vitriol against our duly elected president. How about doing it for a month? A week? A day? An hour? Surely there are important issues in this world, which President Trump is dealing with, by the way, as he promised in his campaign. Give it a rest folks, please!

Nancy Beights, Naples

Hitting on all cylinders

Letter writer Anton Selkowitz believes that Barack Obama is responsible for today's economic success. If he believes that, then he also believes in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

The only thing Obama left Trump was, aside from $10 trillion of debt, was an eight-cylinder automobile running on one cylinder. That car is now running on eight cylinders and the economy is humming.

When Trump took office he declared he was business friendly and it gave the business world hope. He backed it up by removing job-killing regulations and huge tax cuts for corporations, small business and individuals. His economic policies have greatly improved GDP from the puny GDP for the eight years of Obama.

Mr. Selkowitz should stop watching MSNBC and CNN and get the real news so he can be properly informed.

In spite of the Democrats and left-leaning media attempts to destroy the Trump presidency, the best is yet to come.

Stay tuned.
J.N. Miranda, Naples

Thank you 

My husband and I have been coming to Naples for almost 50 years. We love it here.

And now we love the people, too.

The other night we were walking home from Tin City to our apartment on Fifth Avenue South after having dinner at Pincher’s.

Ed's shoe must have caught on something and he fell flat on his face. Blood was all over the ground and he was out cold. I had forgotten to bring my phone and didn't know what to do. Suddenly, a group of five or six women were all around us.

"Don't worry," one of them said, "we'll help you." They called 911, stayed with us until the ambulance they arrived and helped me in so many ways. I just couldn't believe it.

Of course, in all the excitement, I didn't get any of their names, so I'd love to thank them in the Naples Daily News.

They were awesome and wonderful.

Naomi and Ed Singer, Naples and Cleveland

A Thought

We all know over the last number of years during the Bush, Clinton, Obama and Trump administrations, there have been yes votes on a security barrier. The majority of votes were always yes votes to develop border security.

Last year there were lengthy discussions and tentative poll voting for electing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for another term.

Even President Trump for obvious reasons wanted her in. Preliminary polls showed there was not a lot of interest in Nancy Pelosi taking the gavel for another term.

What happened? Nancy Pelosi was voted in for another term. Why do you think this happened? Here is a thought. Nancy Pelosi is not very competent on her feet talking and making the wrong decisions. Nancy Pelosi does not portray a comfort zone on the TV screen to her audience. However, she is very skillful as a thesaurus when it comes to describing a wall versus a barrier or good versus bad.

There were several Democrats last year who said they did not want Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. They were concerned about her making decisions that were totally contrary to the wants and needs of their home state. They had re-election concerns. How did they solve their problem? They had a scapegoat they could elect. Nancy Pelosi really wanted that gavel back. And a number of Democratic representatives needed and wanted to take a deep breath, knowing their constituents would not be up in arms and calling them.
They had a scapegoat in Nancy Pelosi.

Bill Schoeler, Naples