Letters to the Editor, Sunday, April 23, 2017

Play not anti-Semitic

I was intrigued by letter-writer Dorothy Hourihan's take on the "giant lighted cross" at the end of "The Merchant of Venice" at the Gulfshore Playhouse.

Far from seeing it as anti-Semitic, I was struck by its strong reproach to Christians in power. The abuse and humiliation of Shylock through forced conversion revealed a bullying misuse of the cross as a tool for stomping on the weak.

I would love to hear how other people responded to this imagery.

Laurie Cherbonnier, Naples

Variety needed

I have been a seasonal resident for many years and enjoy reading the Naples Daily News when here.

I am writing regarding the “Today’s birthdays” column. On Thursday, the birthdays mentioned were for an actor, actor, actor, actor, musician, actor, singer, drummer, actress, actress, actress-comedian, actor, singer, actor, singer and singer. In other papers where I read similar columns, in addition to show business folks, also included are notable people such as scientists, explorers, inventors, writers, statesmen, educators, etc.

May I recommend that you do likewise? I would find that much more interesting.

Janet Cassise, Bonita Springs and Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Congress’ dog and pony show

Do you remember going to the circus and watching the dog and pony demonstration in the big circle?

The pony comes out and the little dog jumps on the back of the pony that goes around in a continuous circle. It appears that the dog is directing the pony, but that is not the case. It is an illusion. The pony is being directed by a shadow trainer outside of the ring and the pony just keeps going around in circles.

This is a lot like our Congress. The ringmaster snaps his whip and the pony runs in circles, but the control is outside of the circle.

Congress is really run by a shadow group of lobbyists mostly unseen by the public. Congress just runs around in the ring making noise for those back home, but with little action except to name a few post offices, cut environmental regulations and try to cut health insurance for the 24 million of us who voted to put them in office. Talk about a conundrum.

It's no wonder Congress has an approval rating slightly higher than hemorrhoid medicine. We send them to legislate and they act like middle school teenagers having a food fight in the cafeteria.

That's apparent for both political parties.

Stop the ideology and political philosophy and get to work on clean water, pollution, health care, disease prevention and repairing infrastructure.

Let’s see, where did my wife put my hemorrhoid medicine when I need it?

Richard A. Ferreira, Bonita Springs

Economic advantage to renewable energy

Letter-writer Dale Griffin recently revived several debunked arguments against climate science.

Nope, Mr. Griffin, it's not just liberals who are convinced by vast accumulated science showing that climate change bears great risks and recently is largely human-driven. So are prominent conservatives, many from the business sector, including venture capital and fossil fuel companies, as well as the vast majority of scientists in relevant fields.

Yes, there have been thousands of cycles of climate change predating any human influence. However, the fact that humans were not involved earlier in no way precludes they’re being so in the current one. Today is a new ball game. Furthermore, those earlier cycles are the core of climate science, which studies their causes and compares them to current conditions.

Yes, carbon dioxide is necessary for food production. However, numerous laboratory studies indicate that the results of adding more CO2 vary by crop (weeds often being the primary beneficiaries), while in real life additional CO2 drives more heat and erratic floods and droughts with negative effects on yields. American farmers have a good deal to say about that.

Yes, CO2 constitutes a small fraction of the atmosphere. But since 1850, science has recognized the power of minute amounts as a warming agent. In chemistry, tiny is often mighty.

Griffin suggests our economy will be devastated by acting against climate change, though he doesn't explain how. Conservative and liberal economists, politicians and businessmen, including the Chinese and Indians, increasingly see an economic advantage in moving to renewable power sources which increasingly are cheaper than fossil fuels and which minimize super-costly negative effects of climate change.

Alan Keller, Naples

If not Obama, who?

It seems a recent letter by Philip Kingston may have been written a bit prematurely.

He cites the fact that President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk stating "The Buck Stops Here" and says that he believes that most of our presidents have lived up to that saying until now. He states, "If the past two months are any indication, Donald Trump will announce that Obama must have stolen the 'buck.'"

Quite obviously, the "buck" had been stolen by former President George W. Bush. How else could we possibly explain all that went so horribly wrong in former President Barack Obama’s White House?  If you recall, Obama constantly reminded us of the precarious position he'd been left in by the previous administration, which would lead us to the conclusion that the "buck" had already been stolen.

As to the prematurity of Kingston's letter, he predicted that President Trump would hold Obama responsible for the bugging of Trump Tower. Obama's minion, Susan Rice, is now under investigation for exactly that.

Kingston also predicted that Obama would be blamed for the recent gas attacks in Syria. Obama drew an imaginary red line regarding the use of chemical warfare in Syria and then backed down, leaving it to Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate the removal of the chemicals. Kind of like leaving the wolf to watch the henhouse. Then, Obama, Rice (who'd already deceived us about the attack in Benghazi, Libya) and former Secretary of State John Kerry all told us that 100 percent of the chemicals had been removed.

And so, Mr. Kingston, who's to blame for those gas attacks, if not the Obama administration?

Al Whiffen, Naples

Share beaches

No one owns the beach. Simple. If you want to build a million-dollar home near the beach, that's your stupidity.
Especially in a hurricane state. But you do not own the beach.

Oh, the tax collector will tell you that you can pay a tax for the replenishment of the beach, but that does not in any way give you the right to keep people off the beach. Keeping people off your private property, which is your house and yard, is fine. But that is as far as it goes.

Over and over we see signs of greed in this country. If they have money, they own it. Well, God put the beaches on the planet, so take it up with God. He is the owner of all the beaches, not you, not your condo regulators, not your homeowners' association and not you.

So the next time a person comes to sit on the beach near your home, suck it up.

Stop being greedy and claiming nature as yours.

Susan King, Fort Myers

Far from mediocre

Wow, letter-writer Eugene Santhin's comments suggesting that Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is a "mediocre appointment" screams that it's politics as usual with the Democrats.

Gorsuch has a top pedigree, graduating from Columbia, Harvard Law and Oxford. He was appointed in 2006 "unanimously" to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. How did the lawmakers in both parties confirm such a mediocre candidate in your mind, Mr. Santhin?

I also don't see him falling asleep at the next State of the Union message like some other justices have done in the past; that seems mediocre to me.

Did you forget that former Sen. Harry Reid invoked the "nuclear option" in 2013 to get the Democrats’ nominees through Congress? As former President Barack Obama stated, "Elections have consequences," and the Republicans won.

Dave Stauffer, Naples

History of Easter eggs

As a Christian, I recognize Easter as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, I wondered why the Easter egg was connected to this holiday. So, I checked with Wikipedia.

It turns out the dyed eggs were a way of celebrating, in early Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus. The egg symbol was that the shell represented the tomb in which his body was laid, but that there was life inside. The original dye color was always red to symbolized the blood of Christ.

In our modern society, when we or our children participate in Easter egg hunts or Easter egg rolls, how many of us recognize the original purpose of the symbol of the dyed Easter eggs? Unfortunately, it appears that the original symbol of the Easter eggs, just like at Christmas in the turning of the Christian St. Nicholas into the
jolly old Santa Claus, many of us have forgotten what Easter is all about.

Also, how many of us ever recognize how much our Western society is permeated and based on and blessed by Christian history, teachings and ideals.

Anyway, He is risen.

Wayne Sherman, Naples

This is science?

Kerry Emanuel is the MIT climatologist who wrote this primer on climate change in the fall of 2016: ftp://texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/PAPERS/Climate_Primer.pdf.

In it, he states that water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas, and its increase leads to further warming. He says that the distribution of water vapor is affected by many other variables besides temperature, so even here there is uncertainty. Lastly, he says that at present there is no generally accepted theory for how clouds respond to (or affect) climate change.

Cumulus cloud convection -- thunderstorms -- is the main way, other than radiation, that heat is transmitted vertically through the atmosphere. But cumulus clouds are too narrow and so "cannot possibly be simulated by models” (Emanuel's words). Nevertheless, they must be accounted for, and so they turn to a technique simply called guessing.

This is science? I think not. It’s no wonder that the computer models that predicted the catastrophic temperature increases are wrong.

Chuck Ryntz, Naples and Washington, Mich.