Letters to the Editor, Feb. 12
What is wrong with Collier County?
Why is Collier County so disorganized in distributing the COVID vaccine shots? We have gone online at 6 a.m. several times and at 7 and 9 to sign up.
We have never gotten through to even put our name on a list. I feel like I am playing the lottery and always losing. Every day I keep hearing friends up north in many different states including California who have gotten or have an appointment.
I know there are a lot of older people here, but why can’t you just put us on a list and email or call us to give us an appointment?
Nancy and Alan Wenstrand, Marco Island
Create a list, then call
Why have the county commissioners not created a master list of those folks in the county who desire a COVID inoculation?
Upon creating the list, sort it by age. At that point, start calling, emailing or texting each person to set up an appointment. Take the onus of this process from citizens and put it where it belongs: with our elected representatives. This has worked quite effectively in other locales.
I will be happy to help recruit a group of people to man the phones to make the contacts.
Please, no more of this endless computer lottery over and over. Take some responsibility. It is why we elected you.
David Davis, East Naples
‘We need statesmen, not politicians’
Lies are the problem as we deal with current threats to our democracy. The voter fraud lies and the COVID lies have left us with a threatened federal government and a nation suffering and dying from a pandemic.
The answer is simple.
Republicans in the House and Senate must tell the truth in no uncertain terms. We need statesmen and women, not politicians. We need patriots to tell their constituents the truth. After the truth is believed, the fear of bloodshed will diminish and the pandemic will come under control.
Truth is the human contribution to creation. Truth is when thoughts and words match reality. Without truth, humans become destructive.
Joe Haack, East Naples
Vaccination tough to get in Illinois too
Having just returned from Illinois, I can say the vaccine rollout there is almost identical to
that of Florida.
There are multiple websites to attempt to get a vaccine; each county has their own; Walgreens and Osco (the pharmacy connected to our grocery store). People get on the sites, never knowing when they will open up, and jockey for an appointment. The beginning has been as frustrating there, in a state run almost exclusively by Democrats, as here.
Little by little, spots are opening for more and more people all over. It’s unrealistic to expect we will all get the vaccine right away. We have waited almost a year. Please be patient for another month or two.
Judy Marconi, East Naples
Senators, honor your oath of office
Dear Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott: You must follow your oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the results of the election clearly made him an enemy of the Constitution. Therefore, it is your sworn duty to your country to convict him to prevent him from holding future office. It’s that simple.
To try to twist logic to fit the desire of your most low-information constituents is a dereliction of your duty. Will you uphold your oath or will you become a footnote in the history, yet to be written, of how a rogue president and his band of enablers and rabid followers tried to change the results of a free and fair election?
Randy Camp, Naples
Donalds too ‘partisan’ in key votes
Newly elected U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is proving to be an unserious partisan who takes opportunities to pander to the worst fringe elements of the Republican Party.
First, Donalds (of Naples) joined an unprincipled and antidemocratic effort to reject (one or two states’) results of the 2020 presidential election — (part of an effort by) an unelected autocrat (to remain) in the White House.
Later, Donalds voted to retain Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House Education and Labor Committee despite:
- Greene’s assertion that the murders of 17 students and (staffers) at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland by a deranged gunman were “staged”;
- Greene’s harassing of survivor David Hogg (who was a Parkland student).
Apparently, Donalds thinks a Q-Anon adherent who denies the facts of the Parkland massacre should be setting national education policy. Donalds’ vote for Greene insulted the memory of the Parkland victims, their families and the survivors. He should be ashamed.
In attacking the integrity of a free and fair U.S. election and supporting Greene, the congressman showed his lack of judgment and his penchant for putting blind partisanship before the interests of his constituents.
Richard Zelinka, Naples