Put barriers at grade-level crossings to keep people from going around gates
To prevent those who think they are faster than a speeding train from trying to prove it, install two gates on each side to block going around or pour a concrete median about a foot high up to the gate. Maybe 30 feet in length so a vehicle cannot cross over to the other side. Paint it all yellow. Can’t be that expensive and will save lives. Maybe just use those preformed concrete barriers.
Most who have been killed were those who thought they can beat the train or just wanted to commit suicide. The train itself is not the problem.
Daniel Zielinski, Port St. Lucie
Have time for a few questions? Survey-happy retailers are becoming an annoyance
Retailers and service providers have become survey-happy to the degree of annoyance. Sometimes it seems that if you pull a tissue from a box to blow your nose, you will receive a 10-question survey to evaluate the experience.
Should you make an online purchase, you will likely receive a request to “make your opinion known.” Not that terrible if you are using a new provider or making a first time purchase. Chances are that if you repurchase the same product from that supplier, you will again receive the same opinion survey. That is often true even after buying that product over and over again. It should be obvious that if I didn’t like the vendor or the product, I would not have reordered it — six times.
Maintenance or repair service at auto dealerships is another example. When you pick up your vehicle, you will be reminded that a survey will be sent within a few days. In addition, you will be asked to rate each question the highest value listed or the employee or dealership will be forced to suffer some awful consequence. Why bother? How valid can this survey be, especially if the same question is asked three different times in the same questionnaire?
I understand that survey questions are designed to cross-check a previous one but the repetition is sometimes quite ridiculous. Chances are that if you return this particular survey, you will receive one or two more for the same appointment. These “opportunities to provide opinion” are really getting out of hand. From now on, my opinion will be provided only by my future use of a product or service. How I feel should become very apparent.
Gary M. Lavorgna, Vero Beach
The question, decade after decade, is the same— which books should be banned?
“To Kill a Mockingbird” won author Harper Lee the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. The storyline, which occurs over the course of three years, is set in Alabama during the 1930s and is narrated by Scout, the 6-year-old daughter of local attorney, and widower, Atticus Finch.
Scout and her slightly older brother Jem circulate in their small-town microcosm, observing the world through innocent eyes and learning a series of practical lessons involving compassion, prejudice, independent thinking, and courage.
Controversy about the book includes its use of racial slurs and courtroom discussion of an alleged rape, both of which only punctuate the ignorance, faulty presumptions and injustice they embody.
Atticus tells Jem, “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ’em all away from you. That’s never possible.”
Perhaps the best we can do is to consider them in the context of what is right. This is a book that should continue to be read by and discussed among all generations, because the social issues at the story’s core are timeless and important.
Dedicated to librarians everywhere who provide us the opportunity to better understand our world, and ourselves.
Tom Fucigna, Hobe Sound
President Biden’s Afghanistan disaster was the impetus for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
A recent letter would have you believe that President Trump and some Fox News personalities are “cheering” Vladimir Putin. Maybe the writer thinks CNN is a real news outlet and its talking heads are not just cheerleaders for the progressive left.
The point they were actually making was that compared with the ineptness of the current administration led by President Biden, Vladimir Putin and many other heads of state for that matter look like they are playing in a different league.
The State of the Union message showed Biden thinking we were leading a global response to the Ukrainian invasion. In actuality the Ukrainian president has said we are almost at a point of too little too late. Biden addressed our domestic issues by just stating we should magically lower the cost of goods and services and pharmaceuticals again, while offering no tangible plan.
In reality Biden shut off much domestic oil production that had kept prices low in favor of importing oil. That decision has helped fuel the current inflation we are seeing.
The disaster that was the Afghanistan exodus is what gave Putin the impetus to go into Ukraine. He saw how ill-prepared our leadership was to deal with any serious threats. The administration would have us believe the sanctions are having an effect but they have not imposed other sanctions that would seriously impact Russia’s energy production.
Biden talks about the sovereignty of borders and protecting democracy. Maybe he should look no further than our southern border which has been an open door since he took office. Maybe “America first” wasn’t such a bad idea.
Bill Hammann, Port St. Lucie
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Letters to the Editor: March 11, 2022
