Five letters: Medical nexus, school board prayer, Bova trial, Whiteview, First Amendment

Here's what your neighbors are talking in Palm Coast and Flagler County.


  • By
  • | 9:20 a.m. October 17, 2019
  • Palm Coast Observer
  • Opinion
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Medical nexus could be invaluable to community

Dear Editor:

Palm Coast's medical nexus concept is worthy of front page coverage. The only industries that seem to get attention in our community are housing, tourism and racing. It is exciting to see that the Palm Coast leadership has the vision to see the value of the medical education nexus. Yes, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Gainesville all provide invaluable medical services. But the need is still there, and growing. And Palm Coast has the resources to complement what exists by providing this educational resource.

Paul Pritchard

Palm Coast

 

Avoid sideshow of school board invocations

Dear Editor:

The continuing controversy over the Flagler County School Board having religious invocations at meetings is getting ridiculously out of hand and is becoming a sideshow.

Very simply, they should get back to the business they are supposed to do and quit causing unneeded contention among board members and the public and the potentiality of legal challenges by dragging up this decades old controversy.

Just two months ago, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Florida) ruled that it would be unconstitutional if a school board opened meetings with prayers solely from mainstream monotheistic faiths and excluded other religions.

At last count there were over 4,000 worldwide religions! That's a self-evident predicament for the board to consider.

Robert Gordon

Palm Coast

 

Use medians for Whiteview turn lanes

Dear Editor:

In response to his comments in the Oct. 3 edition of the Palm Coast Observer, I would like to thank Eddie Branquinho for using some common sense with regard to the proposed lane reduction of Whiteview Parkway.

Considering the increased level of traffic in the Palm Coast area, it does not seem logical or rational to reduce the traffic capacity on this significant artery between Belle Terre Parkway and U.S. 1.

Regarding the safety issues with making left hand turns onto side streets: If necessary, why not use the existing grass strips between the east and west bound lanes to construct turn lanes? The grass strips in the middle of Whiteview appear to be comparable in size to those on Belle Terre Parkway, where their turn lanes appear to work well.

If any significant construction is considered, it should be to extend the full four lanes all the way to Belle Terre Parkway.

Sincerely,

Bob Hibbert

Palm Coast

 

Justice served in Bova murder trial

Dear Editor:

The jury in the Joseph Bova case should be commended for a job well done in finding this monster guilty of the senseless murder of a mother of six, Zuheily Rosado. We should also congratulate the prosecutor for assembling an airtight case, despite years of foot-dragging by the defense. The jury saw through Bova's load of nonsense he attempted to shovel their way via his defense attorney. His actions clearly demonstrated that while possibly mentally ill, he was certainly not insane. He knew full well what he was doing and attempted to elude capture. These are not actions of an insane man.

The Rosado murder shocked this community to its core; savage in its brutality and senseless in its randomness. Six children have lost their mother. The verdict won't bring Rosado back, but hopefully, the family can find a new sense of normal and find comfort and closure in the fact that the justice system worked as designed and intended in this case.

William H. Powell

Palm Coast

 

Keep defending the press and First Amendment

Dear Editor:

I appreciated your Oct. 10 editorial piece about the importance of journalism, but I wished you had been a bit more outraged not only by the current efforts to trivialize or delegitimize news reporting by recklessly using the expression “fake news,” but also by those dangerously proclaiming that “the press is the enemy of the people.”

Both expressions are often deployed by politicians when they have been caught and reported on for misdeeds even when the reporting is spot on accurate. Using these extreme expressions is usually not an effort to simply disagree or provide a different spin on what is reported, but is usually a frighteningly blatantly effort to obliterate the truth, gaslight the public or silence the press. And it’s clearly a frontal attack on the importance of the First Amendment.

One well known national newspaper rightfully proclaims in their daily heading: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” And as you appear to have implied in your editorial, this newspaper’s proclamation is vitally important, applicable to all journalism (local and national) and should be a journalist's mantra.

Bob Gordon

Palm Coast

 

 

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