- April 25, 2024
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Send your letter to [email protected]. Include first and last name, as well as city of residence. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.
Dear Editor:
It’s time for responsible parents to step in and say no. I do not care how much training a teacher might have. A pistol in the hands of a frightened, confused, adrenalin-charged teacher may be as dangerous to students as it is to the shooter. Is a teacher, making about $50,000 per year, going to stand there calmly facing a shooter with an AR-15 spraying .223 caliber rounds at a rate of up to several hundred per minute with an extended magazine? Even the police officers first on the scene in Uvalde declined to face the shooter with their Glocks. Why would we expect a classroom teacher with screaming kids and a chaotic scenario to do so?
How about teachers running into a hallway and searching for the shooter? Will Sheriff Rick Staly train teachers to do this? I mean, they aren't Marines. And will law enforcement officers know the difference between a young teacher and a young shooter?
This is an insane uber-right-wing distraction to avoid needed gun regulations. And children's lives are of less importance than their perceived Second Amendment rights.
Mike Cocchiola
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I had to laugh out loud at the letters bewailing the party switching tactic encouraged by a previous writer. All of the respondents seemed to feel that the Democrats were cheating by using this tactic. Did it ever occur to any of them that this was in response to the cheating and lying done by the Republican party?
Until the Republican party returns to a legitimate, honest and sane party again, expect people to do what they can to bring about a better set of candidates. I'm personally not going to change back and forth with my party affiliation, but if others feel it's necessary, I'm not going to condemn them.
Adela Masteller
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I read your recent "March for Our Lives" article, and, looking at the pictures of the marchers, I'm glad none of them live in my neighborhood. I wouldn't appreciate one or more of them "red flagging" or ratting me out because they disapprove of my "weapons of war.”
Carrying a sign proclaiming they don't like guns isn't the most brilliant thing you can do. I wear an NRA hat; I have NRA decals on my car and in the window beside my door. I want anyone thinking about doing me harm to know that I'm armed and dangerous. Back in the day, I could fight and was pretty good at it, but now I'm old and brittle and slow; I do good to walk, much less run. Now I rely on my arsenal to even the odds; as the old saying goes, "God didn't make everyone equal, Sam Colt did.”
So when push comes to shove, and you are waiting for the police to answer your 911 call because some gangbanger is kicking in your door, I'll be pulling some gangbanger out of my house to keep him from bleeding all over my rug.
Gun owners are not gun-toting, knuckle-dragging, blood-thirsty maniacs. We are people who appreciate the fact that patriots died to ensure we have the God-given right to defend ourselves. Notice I did not say the state gave me this right; I was born with it!
Douglas R. Glover
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Theresa Carli Pontieri is anything but a problematic candidate in the Palm Coast City Council District 2 race. It’s especially important during this time for people to base their opinions on actual events rather than on media reports.
The facts are crystal clear and must be placed in full view of all voters. Pontieri decided to resign from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in a polite and amicable fashion after long, hard discussions with all parties involved. Our sheriff bore no ill will toward her as information came to light on her pro-police positions shared on social media, yet there was a concern that should a controversy arise, it might attract undeserved negative attention. That was not a position that Pontieri wanted to put our Sheriff’s Office in.
It's important to note that the comments made by Pontieri were before she was hired and installed by oath. She discontinued her constitutionally protected commentary prior to her hiring process; however, she is was subsequently held to account for her past actions while in their employment.
No one disagrees that Sheriff Staly’s concern was valid: He couldn’t risk the safety or reputation of his deputies or provide any reason for the public to call into question the split-second decisions they are asked to make on a daily basis.
Pontieri’s support of law enforcement was outspoken and steadfast. If that is a crime, then she is guilty. If she were sounding the alarm on the facts regarding many controversial topics from a left-leaning perspective, she would be celebrated. Instead, it is a settled fact that her boldness to discuss media bias against our men and women in blue led to her resignation.
Being pro-police in an anti-police climate may limit an employee who works for a law enforcement agency from chiming in on their legitimate concerns. But Pontieri expressed those pro-police sentiments long before she was identified as the superior candidate for her distinguished position in the Sheriff’s Office. The facts — rather than false rhetoric — show Theresa Carli Pontieri is the least problematic candidate that Palm Coast has had for a council seat in recent memory.
Nicholas S. DeSantis
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Are some of our neighbors just so self-absorbed that they are oblivious to the annoyance they are causing each year around July 4 with the incessant window-rattling fireworks explosions? Are these neighbors not cognizant enough of their surroundings to understand who and what they co-exist with? Do they realize how frightening it must be to wildlife? Do they understand the fire danger? Do they not understand that their "peace and quiet" loving neighbors are cursing them with each nerve-shattering boom at all hours and especially late at night? Are they not aware that many of us wonder about the bizarre obsession with creating extraordinarily loud noises and view it as rather peculiar behavior? Or do these neighbors simply not care that they are being inconsiderate and annoying? Either way, oblivious or fully aware of their actions, they make for bad neighbors.
Roger Stein
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: Florida law allows residents to set off fireworks on the Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, unless there is a local ordinance prohibiting fireworks. Locally, that means fireworks are prohibited by ordinance in the cities of Palm Coast and Flagler Beach.
Dear Editor:
My granddaughter and her paternal grandparents were visiting Flagler Beach recently. They were by the pier, where there were numerous lifeguards. My granddaughter went out to a sandbar; her grandma was worried and alerted one of the lifeguards. He wasn’t concerned, but he said that he would keep an eye on her. Sure enough she got caught in a rip current. She is not as strong a swimmer as she thought. She got into some difficulty, and the response was immediate and impressive. Four lifeguards were on their way, into the water, in a flash.
She was taken to shore, no real harm done, but I can’t tell you how impressed I was by the professional and competent job done by our Flagler Beach Lifeguard Squad. I am sorry that we did not get the names of these brave young men, who saved my granddaughter. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Andrea Levy
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
We, the people, meaning 66% of the residents, on Osceola Avenue, in The Hammock, strongly object to Flagler County’s purposed project, to pave our street. In addition, we have over 100 signatures from other residents who appreciate this area as it is now.
We presented our objections to the county commissioners, at the June 20 meeting. How can the Flagler County commissioners move forward with the project, when the greater majority of residents oppose it?
Residents on Osceola Avenue do not need, nor want, a paved street. Why won’t the county leave this small part of our earth, which we call home, alone, without covering it with yet more blacktop paving?
Marti Jewell
The Hammock
