Donald Trump and his advisers must have known about House committee’s finding on Gaetz | Opinion
An oversight?
The United States House Committee on Ethics investigation reported that former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz, of Florida, paid thousands of dollars for drugs and prostitutes, including a 17-year-old girl who had just completed her junior year of high school.
President-elect Donald Trump and/or his advisors must have known this when Gaetz was nominated for U.S. Attorney General. What a shame.
Harry B. Schrier,
Miami
Underage teen
Reporter Michael Wilner’s Dec. 24 story on Matt Gaetz states that the former congressman paid a 17-year old girl to have sex with him and “the minor was one of 12 women whom Gaetz personally paid.”
The minor — by definition — was below the legal age of adulthood. She was not a woman, she was a child.
Brett Graff,
Key Biscayne
Boating tragedy
Re: the Dec. 20 Miami Herald online story, “How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe of boat crash that killed teen girl.”
I have known the Fernandez and Pino families for many years and they are dear friends. I deeply share the immense sorrow of the loss of the precious life of Lucy and the disabling neurologic injuries of Katie Puig.
George Pino is an outstanding young man with an impeccable reputation in our community, and a loving family man.
In your article you strongly imply that Pino was impaired by alcohol as the cause of this tragic accident but neglect to inform or sufficiently emphasize the following information for your readers:
1) Many of the liquor bottles on the boat were given to Pino by the 36 people at Elliot Key (including the parents of some of the girls on the boat) so he could dispose of them as he was going to Ocean Reef to continue the celebration of his daughter’s 18th birthday.
2) You infer from the statement of the witness who arrived at the scene immediately after the accident that he appeared impaired by alcohol. Pino had suffered a major head injury which caused temporary loss of consciousness, a head wound needing 15 stitches, the loss of two front teeth and almost assuredly a concussion.
3) Neither the Coast Guard officers who interviewed Pino soon after nor the doctors at the Baptist ER noted that Pino was impaired nor had alcohol in his breath. He stated he had had two beers, not enough to cause any impairment of judgment.
The strong implication in your article that the cause of this horrendous accident was that Pino was impaired by alcohol is irresponsible and may unfairly influence public opinion against him. In this country, one is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Julio C Pita, M.D.
Coral Gables
Commander Musk
Perhaps my memory fails my old brain, but I do not recall voting for SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be our president. I do not recall his name on the ballot. Yet he seems to be in charge.
Miles D. Woolley,
Kendall
Boat accident
The 2022 Labor Day boating accident involving Realtor George Pino stresses again how very tragic it was for the Fernández, Puig and even the Pino families. Without Miami-Dade County Firefighter Matthew Smiley’s testimony and Miami Herald reporters investigating and pursuing the truth, the full extent of that accident would never have been known.
Clearly, political connections (and not the truth) were at work in this case. If I or one of my children had been involved in a similar accident, how different would we be treated?
Teresa Fernandez,
South Miami
A proper name
President-elect Donald Trump now wants to change the name of Mt. Denali back to Mt. McKinley. Of course, this is much more important than the economy or anything of real importance.
Turns out, I am so surprised. William McKinley was a Republican president from 1897-1901 and the mountain’s name was changed from his to Denali by, uh oh, a Democrat named Obama. The Alaskan natives preferred Denali, which is “The Great One” in their language.
I wonder if Trump also plans to change Cape Canaveral back to Cape Kennedy, to honor a previous president. Oops, I forgot, he was a Democrat, so, no.
George Lipp,
Cooper City
Foley’s folly
If there is such a thing as the worst of a bad policy in Haiti, it’s embodied in the person of James B. Foley and his tenure as U.S. ambassador from 2003-2005. As a staunch backer of the 2004 coup and the corrupt oligarchy it maintained in power, Foley has already bloodied his hands by overseeing policies that brought Haiti to its current miserable situation. Now he wants President-elect Donald Trump to double down on this previous fiasco with another U.S. military intervention.
With ongoing operations against gangs by an already controversial alliance of the Police Nationale d’Haiti and the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti, and a fickle U.S. economy, the U.S. can ill-afford deeper military involvement, either with troops or paying for hired mercenaries, as Foley also proposes.
What Haiti needs is a real commitment by Trump to stop the flow of illegal weapons from the U.S. to the gangs. The U.S. Coast Guard must also interdict more watercraft carrying these weapons to Haiti’s shores.
Foley’s proposed solution for “A small U.S. contingent, [which] after freeing key infrastructure in Port-au-Prince from gang control, could rapidly give way to private military contractors” is as unrealistic as it is ridiculous. Rather than a way forward, this represents backward interventionist thinking similar to the George W. Bush administration that unnecessarily squandered so many resources and innumerable lives in Haiti.
Hopefully, Foley’s ridiculous suggestions are the last we’ll hear from this dying clique of interventionist sycophants in the foreseeable future. They’ve already done enough to “help” Haiti.
Kevin Pina,
journalist, filmmaker,
founding editor,
Haiti Information Project,
Hayward, CA
Comeuppance
According to the U.S. House Ethics Committee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz is a repeat sexual offender and drug user.
No doubt, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whom Gaetz toppled in a sordid political coup, most likely is celebrating that Gaetz finally is getting what he deserves.
Denny Freidenrich,
Laguna Beach, CA
Winter opus
Winter’s chill and lengthening nights create a tropical canvas for art in South Florida. Attending galleries, museums, theaters and music festivals, we long to be connected to transformational works, performed by ingenious artists.
A French scholar was asked to compare France’s love of art to ours. She said, “In France, art is the state.” In South Florida, winter is the season for art. Bathed in seasonal light, the shortening days and lack of sunshine bursts into a spectacular array of creativity, warming hearts and lightening burdens.
Writers open windows that allow us to see ourselves from a different perspective. Poets and playwrights help us view love as a connection of souls, more than just a coupling. Science invites wonder, not mere technology. The visual arts expresses beauty, often commercially. Music literally moves us. And education, instruction in the combined arts, provides the nourishment for human fulfillment, not merely a proxy for acquiring a job, status or wealth.
Arts’ highest function mirrors life, allowing us to see ourselves at our heavenly best and beastly worst. The Romans defined justice as “the art of doing what is good and fair.” Shakespeare artfully used the word “Turk” instead of “infidel,” not wanting to trigger his audience, opening avenues for human exploration, not condemnation.
We speak of values, but fail to discuss their application, not in judgment, but in establishing the rules for human engagement. Art is “the room where it happens.”
Shunning light because we do not like what we see keeps us in the dark. Not knowing how we appear, we lack a frame of reference to see, hear and move, missing the delight of dancing to winter’s composition.
Phil Beasley,
Plantation