Making the flamingo Florida’s state bird? What a terrible idea | Opinion

For the birds

Re: the May 6 Miami Herald story, “Retirement plan for Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill: make the flamingo Florida’s state bird.” Zoo Miami’s retiring spokesperson wants to make the flamingo Florida’s state bird?

I cannot think of a worse idea. The northern mockingbird has been Florida’s state bird for nearly 100 years. It can be found singing its cheerful melodious songs at every residential property in every Florida county and is well known to every resident, from children to adults. Even its Latin name, Mimus polyglottos, refers to mimicking many songs.

The American flamingo, on the other hand, is not a year-round Florida resident; it is mostly only found in Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park during the winter months, migrating from Mexico, the Bahamas, or the Greater Antilles. The American flamingo did historically nest in South Florida, but were wiped out by plume hunters by the early 1900s. Since then, they typically can only be seen in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties as winter migrants.

If the American flamingo does become our state bird, to see one in Florida in the spring or summer, one would have to go to a local zoo or a tourist attraction. How absurd is that?

Roger Hammer,

Homestead

Ballroom blitz

President Trump has assured us, with characteristic modesty, that his grand ballroom will be funded entirely through the generosity of donors — not a single taxpayer dollar required. One marvels at such fiscal restraint.

Yet, curiously, some Congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to provide $1 billion — for a ballroom! — in public funding for this very project. Apparently, the donor pipeline has proven less robust than advertised.

I offer a modest suggestion. If these enthusiastic legislators believe so fervently that American taxpayers should foot the bill for presidential entertaining space, perhaps they might lead by example. Congressional salaries run roughly $174,000 per year. These members could forgo their own taxpayer-funded compensation and donate it directly to Trump’s ballroom fund. At that rate, it would only take each of them a few thousand years to close the gap — but one appreciates the gesture.

The rest of us, meanwhile, will be busy funding schools, roads and veterans’ care with our tax dollars. Quaint priorities, perhaps, but ones we hold dear.

George A. Minski,

Surfside

Why the hate?

I recently participated in a discussion in my Osher Lifelong Learning class at the University of Miami on the question of why there is so much hatred in our nation now when just a few decades ago disagreement was much more restrained. We batted-around a few ideas but it wasn’t until I got home that I realized a possible reason.

When Walter Cronkite died, his obituary revealed he was a lifelong Democrat, much to the surprise of the millions of listeners to his CBS TV newscasts. In those days, there were just three major networks and they all presented the news in a rather objective, straight-forward way, void, usually, of political machinations.

Today, we have multiple networks committed to a political bias in their “reporting” and millions of folks who listen to just their singular choice of news, compounding their inability to see the other side of issues, resulting in the quagmire we now have.

Roger Shatanoff,

Coral Gables

Who’s profiting?

The United States is petroleum and gas self-sufficient. We export more than a million barrels of oil per day. The companies doing this were making a profit before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The closure has pushed oil and gas prices sky-high, meaning windfall profits for these companies. And pain for all of us at the pump.

It would be quite interesting to know how many members of Congress and the Trump administration have significant investments in the oil and gas market. Also interesting to know is how many are involved in the petroleum futures markets and using predictive apps like Kalshi.

In other words, who is profiting at the public’s expense?

During World War II, price controls were placed on gasoline and other products to protect consumers and prevent profiteering. Perhaps it is time to consider them again. Set gas prices back to pre-conflict levels, where the companies were still not operating at a loss.

Michael Marmesh,

Miami

Broken Spirit

Re: the May 7 Miami Herald editorial, “We mocked Spirit’s no-frills misery, then watched an affordable travel option die.” While the carrier’s closure marks the end of a budget era, the true tragedy is the human cost.

Spirit’s collapse has displaced roughly 17,000 employees, including thousands of pilots and flight attendants. Given the airline industry’s history of elusive profitability, we must ask: Is there a more humane way to mitigate such massive job losses before it is too late?

The Miami Herald’s initiative to reach out to these displaced workers with its “Did you lose your job?” appeal is a commendable hallmark of social responsibility and an example of community support that other institutions should follow, as thousands of families navigate this sudden instability.

Atul Karnik,

Woodside, NY

Metrorail maintenance

Several recent Miami Herald stories have focused on the success of Metrorail transporting soccer fans to the Miami Intermodal Station, which is close to Nu Stadium.

Another story focused on the efforts to extend Metrorail into the Northeast Corridor of Miami-Dade. Several other stories have focused on the disappointment in establishing the MetroExpress Bus Rapid Transit system, instead of extending Metrorail further south to Homestead and Florida City.

However, I have yet to see a recent story about Metrorail’s chronically out-of-service elevators, escalators, turnstiles, filthy train and elevator windows or about the poor, desperate souls who seek shelter for a few hours of sleep next to all their belongings. Elevators and escalators remain constantly out-of-service, even the recently installed ones at Douglas and Coconut Grove Station.

On Feb. 7, at the Grove Station, I witnessed four city of Miami Fire and Rescue officers forcing the platform elevator door open to free a trapped senior bike commuter. Needless to say, he was pretty stressed out after being in there for half an hour. Now is the time to figure out how best to improve passengers’ experience, increase ridership and generate more revenue.

Providing timely preventative maintenance and expansion of the system is crucial. Our community deserves better, if we actually desire to live up to the county’s slogan, “Delivering Excellence Every Day.”

Harry Emilio Gottlieb,

Coconut Grove

Delcy’s delicate balance

Apparently, Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodriguez will stay in power for now, irrespective of her political views.

Perhaps this is because of increased flows of oil and the fact that she did not win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Richard F. Katz,

Cooper City

By the numbers

Former FBI Director James Comey is being prosecuted for posting a picture of seashells arranged on a beach to form “8647.”

A commonly used restaurant slang for an item that is out of stock or removed from a menu is “86.” The number 47 allegedly refers to our 47th president, Donald Trump.

Frankly, it is a bit of a stretch to see how one can be criminally charged for posting an image of seashells that were arranged by an unidentified person or persons.

By pure coincidence, adding the four digits together equals 25, as in the 25th Amendment, which empowers our leaders to remove a president from office. Oh, the irony!

Miles Woolley,

Kendall

This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 12:39 PM.