MiamiHerald.com: Letters to the Editor

Too many ballots

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

I sympathize with Rochelle Lessner, who wrote the Feb. 6 letter Polling irregularities. As a 2011 candidate in a municipal election, one of my poll watchers saw a voter receiving two ballots. It was not obvious until the voter went to the voting machine to insert the ballots and still had one in hand after inserting the first one.

Fire this teacher

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Re the Feb. 4 story Blanche Ely teacher accused of calling Haitian-American student ‘little chocolate boy’: With Leslie Rainier’s history of hateful conduct, she should be fired, not just suspended for three days. If a white person were to call a student similar bigoted epithets, a politically correct termination almost certainly would occur — immediately. But because Rainier is black she only gets a slap on the wrist?

Support Cuba’s dissidents, commissioners

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:49 EST

Among Cubans and Cuban Americans, a number of foreign companies have earned a place in the “hall of infamy” for their outright complicity with the Castro dictatorship. These include Spain’s Sol-Melia hotel chain and Canada’s Sherritt mining company for profiting from long years of the Castros’ apartheid brand of tourism and exploitation of Cuba’s natural resources.

Cleanliness matters

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:49 EST

Two ships from Princess Cruise Lines returned to Port Everglades with outbreaks of norovirus. We recently took a cruise on the Emerald Princess and were surprised at the lack of hand sanitizers. When I asked an officer about it, I was told that when passengers use hand sanitizers, they “don’t wash their hands as much.”

I obey the law

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:49 EST

I will never be killed by police because I obey the law. I have never been asked by police to show my hands, but if I am, I will. If anyone wants to do a background check on me, they will find that I have no rap sheet.

More than one

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:48 EST

The writer of the Feb. 3 letter Inappropriate use is offended by another writer’s use of the word “holocaust” in referring to the killing of birds by wind turbines.There are two definitions of the word in the dictionary. The first means wholesale or mass destruction of any kind. The second, “Holocaust” — with a capital H — describes the one that occurred between 1933 and 1945 by the Nazis.

End embargo

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:48 EST

Re the Feb. 8 letter Leaving Cuba: Unlike the letter writer, I do go back to Cuba, since my country is not to blame for its regime — and neither are my relatives or friends left behind. I hope this embargo will end in order to ease the difficulties on the island and to accelerate the democratic process there.

Gathering storm over insurance bill

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:46 EST

OUR OPINION: Don’t let unregulated insurers into Florida

Health team can detect child abuse

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:14 EST

The Jan. 30 story Judge: Abused boy looks like concentration camp victim, about the neglect and abuse of a 9-year-old boy in North Miami Beach, is a poignant reminder of how inadequate our current systems for treating mental health and child abuse are and how desperately our community needs innovative approaches to these problems.

A home’s real value

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:07 EST

Re the Feb. 7 story Citizens boosted home values to raise premiums, suit says: This practice is rampant throughout the insurance industry in Florida. It has been going on for years. As usual, insurance commissioners have done nothing to stop this nonsense. The concept is completely flawed. The policy value should reflect the rebuild cost of the home, not the market value. Market value includes land value. Obviously land value should not be considered.

The rules are different in Tallahassee

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:12 EST

It amazes me how the media write stories and blog posts about how contentious some of our debates on the Broward County Commission dais get on any given Tuesday during our meetings. Something they do not realize is that a Florida law forces that to happen. It is called the Sunshine Law.

Police overkill

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:12 EST

There were four — count ’em, four — cops surrounding a young woman in Hollywood sitting on the curb in a photo on the front page of the Feb. 7 Local section.

Santorum, Republicans in Congress want to replay Cold War in Latin America

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Rick Santorum’s recent electoral victories aren’t welcome news in most of Latin America. Nor is the increasingly hostile rhetoric coming out of Republicans in Congress.

Stop Super Pacs with a fair-elections amendment

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

The 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case is fast becoming as explosive as Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) or Roe v. Wade (1973). It took almost 60 years before the Supreme Court reversed the Plessy endorsement of “separate but equal” treatment of the races in Brown v. Board of Education, and opponents of abortion are still waiting (probably in vain) for Roe to go.

American’s bankruptcy hurts middle class

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

In its Dec. 4 editorial, Up in the air, The Miami Herald said that American Airlines will restructure and come out of bankruptcy stronger. But it neglected to state that 9,000 local families who directly work for American and thousands more indirectly will be devastated financially. And our local economy gets a direct hit with personal bankruptcies, foreclosures, car repossessions and unaffordable healthcare. Not to mention the unemployment benefits and food assistance as other workers from around the country come to Miami and displace local workers sending money earned here to other states where they reside.

Inspiring views

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Kudos to The Miami Herald for an inspiring and meaningful series of opinion pages from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2. The week began with an inspirational column by Leonard Abess Jr. tracing the history of integration at the University of Miami. It included personal memories of growing up in a segregated Miami.

Shame on Russia, China

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Pictures of tanks and field artillery bombing civilians in major cities of Syria are made worse by the fact that it is their own government that is killing them. Three thoughts came to mind in the last few days when seeing these pictures:

Can’t be trusted

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

What kind of a school system would keep Leslie Rainer as a teacher? She’s already shown she can’t be trusted with Haitian children. As far as I am concerned, she isn’t fit to be any child’s teacher. Just imagine if she had targeted a Muslim child in her class and the outrage there would be.

U.N. a waste

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Why does our government continue to support the United Nations when the Security Council can’t even pass a nonbinding resolution blaming the Syrian government for killing of thousands of protestors and innocent civilians?

Schools bill empowers business, not parents

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

When it comes to deceiving voters, Florida politicians earn an A+ every time. The Parent Empowerment Act or “parent trigger” promoted as “opening the door to a whole new level of communication between parents and the schools,” is nothing more than another bait-and-switch scheme like the Florida Lottery.

Church and politics

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Kathleen Parker may be confusing President Obama with some of his Republican counterparts ( For Catholics, it’s about freedom of conscience, Feb. 8, Other Views). He is running for reelection, yes, but perhaps not all of his positions are based on the road of political safety or popularity. He may indeed make decisions, tough as they may be politically, on the basis of fairness to the masses.

Broader view

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00 EST

Often, after reading the news or observing the world, it is difficult for me to believe that no man is an island, a part of the main. There’s a big problem in Indianapolis with private jet jams. Infants are freezing to death this winter in Afghanistan. Americans are selling some of their vital assets to pay heating bills. Multimillionaires are saying nasty things about one another in hopes of becoming president.