Property taxes needed for infrastructure
Nicole Huyer’s Sunday guest commentary (“Florida’s tax strategy sets a national example”) covered the governor’s plan to end property taxes. I expected her to give examples of how ending property taxes would help the residents of Florida, but I was disappointed. I expected her to say that we don’t have to worry about paving our city streets, funding firefighters or EMS teams. I was hoping she would say that we will still have libraries and parks.
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The street in front of my house is paved once every 10 years by the county. Patch and repair crews from the county fix the holes in between paving. To her I say, who is going to do these tasks if the cities and counties have no money? Maybe, she was thinking that the state of Florida in Tallahassee would pick up these tasks. That will never happen.
She has a master’s degree in economics, but it appears to me that she has no idea who gets the property-tax money and no idea what city and county government do. Floridians need to think hard and long about the plan to end property taxes. If you are leaving Florida in the next couple of years, then this plan is great. But if you plan to live in Florida for the next hundred years you don’t want Tallahassee running the entire show.
— Gus Ambler, Wedgefield
Was Israel’s response excessive?
In his guest commentary in Sunday’s Sentinel (“Holocaust Center ignores Oct. 7 Gaza attacks”), Samuel Flax castigates Orlando’s Holocaust Center about its failure to address Israel’s actions in Gaza following the October 7 massacre of 1,700 Israeli citizens. However, he makes the same mistake by making no mention whatsoever of the horrific reported acts of rape, mutilation and killing which led Israel to act. Innocent men, women children and the elderly were brutalized, and adding to what I see as the morally and legally inexcusable conduct on that day, noncombatants were kidnapped and held hostage, some for over a year.
Many people believe that Israel’s response to the nightmare of October 7 was excessive. Perhaps some of the responses were excessive. Yet, I ask: What would you have done if your wives or sisters or daughters had been victims of the atrocities committed by Hamas? But there is a more important question.
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In World War II, America practically leveled Dresden, Germany. Our bombs turned the city into a burning inferno and killed countless civilians. There was no public outcry of genocide at the time. While many agree that the bombing of Hiroshima was justified, there was no public outcry of genocide when the bomb fell on Nagasaki. These acts were the excesses of war. Yet, Israel is held to a different standard. Israel is expected to be the world’s angel. Why? So, I ask the question not asked by Mr. Flax. What would you have done?
— Mark O. Cooper, Altamonte Springs
Iran is Trump’s worthwhile distraction
I read the report in the evening edition of the Sentinel (“Top Pakistan mediator in Iran amid hints of progress in Iran peace talks,” May 22). At this point I suppose I am simply cynical about Iran peace talks. Trump doesn’t want the conflict with Iran to end because it continues to be a distraction away from the very damning Epstein files. Iran is improving its position almost daily while, I believe, making the U.S. look stupid; after all, so many of the men and women at the Pentagon who had critical thinking skills and thought strategically have been fired.
So, Americans, sit back. Gas prices aren’t coming down. Neither are grocery prices. Midwest farmers will continue to go bankrupt. This debacle is what happens when good people stay home from the polls on election days.
— Richard Sutherland, Winter Haven
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