Vero Beach vice mayor publicly apologized for personal issue; school board member blew it

Vero Beach vice mayor helps; her school board critic doesn't

Clearly, Dr. Gene Posca has lost perspective.

The Indian River County School Board member lacks appreciation for what Vero Beach Vice Mayor Linda Moore brings to the community named Vero Beach. He has taken a comment beyond what was intended and created a problem.

I was at Coffee with the Mayor a month ago when Moore formally apologized. I had thought and hoped the chapter was closed.

For me, Moore is committed to her carefully defined agenda. She runs a successful business, which conforms to the law; she serves on City Council and does her homework, and she is very active in the arts community, where she gives financially to bring interesting and diverse projects to fruition. She knows these projects make a difference in community engagement.

I plan to financially support her mural project, an endeavor I was involved in when I lived in Savannah. That project helped revitalize a section in Savannah and then spread. I am certain that could happen here in Vero. This is Linda’s vision.

In closing, I deeply regret Posca has brought Linda’s comment forward at the school board. I am grateful columnist Laurence Reisman is here to bring perspective to the table.

Barbara Ruddy, Vero Beach

Caitlin Clark great, but don't forget first woman drafted by NBA

As a native Iowan who has followed basketball my whole life, I’m thrilled to see how women’s basketball has exploded into the national news. Superstar Caitlin Clark from Des Moines is now a household name, capturing the attention of basketball fans nationwide after her performance in NCAA games.

But few people know about the original pioneer and phenomenon of women’s basketball from Iowa. In 1969, Denise Long was the first woman drafted by the San Francisco Warriors in the men’s NBA. (Unfortunately, she never played a game in the NBA when the commissioner vetoed the move.)

Long came from the small town of Whitten (population, 200), just 14 miles north of my hometown of Marshalltown.

She repeatedly scored 100 points a game and drew record crowds to the games at Union High School in Whitten. In fact, when 7-foot-1 Wilt Chamberlin told her in 2019 she had broken his triple-digit shooting record, the 5-foot-11 Long looked up at him and said, “I’m so sorry.”

Denise noted that for girls in small town Iowa, basketball could be a lifesaver.

Her record of 6,250 points scored in high school helped get her inducted into the Iowa Basketball Hall of Fame. During the 1968 championship game, her team drew 3.5 million viewers in nine midwestern states; the game was the biggest economic week for Des Moines merchants.

When my family and I visited Whitten several years ago, the only recognition we found of her greatness was a small sign about 8-by-12 inches.

So, let’s not forget the enormous impact that Denise Long, now 73 years old, had on women’s basketball in America.

Dale Grabenbauer, Sebastian

Stop hate U.S. universities teach to our youngsters

The greatest generation: The brave men and women who gave their all to eliminate a genocidal maniac responsible for the deaths of millions of Jewish people. More than 400,000 American soldiers, sailors and airmen died in defense of our freedom.

Sadly, our young people in this country have lost their way. Through no fault of theirs and through years of indoctrination of left-wing ideology dominating the halls of what were once our finest universities, this is not the America I grew up in.

It is painful to watch the riots on our college campuses.

The left chooses to call them ''mostly peaceful'' protesters speaking their minds. I am sorry, lowering the American flag and replacing it with the flag of Hamas, screaming "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" is not a peaceful protest. There is no place for antisemitism in this country.

The greatest generation should never be lost to the left-wing idiots filling our children with hate. The sad thing is our federal government endows millions of dollars to these schools. I can only pray that we as a nation can stop the hatred being taught to our children.

Jim Wilson, Port St. Lucie

Electric cars really good for the environment?

Recently the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a mandate that by 2032, two-thirds of all new cars and trucks produced must be electric. Let's see how that works.

Some of the minerals come from China or Africa, and much of the labor in Africa is done by children. And when you buy an electric car, China makes the most money.

The cheapest Tesla battery, Model Y, sells on the internet for $4,999, plus shipping and installation. The battery weighs 1,000 pounds. Imagine how much the shipping is. And just for kicks, here are the costs for the other Telsa batteries:

Model 3 $14.000; Model S, $13,000-$20,000; Model X, $13,000. It takes seven years for an electric car to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions. The lifespan of the battery is 10 years, so only in the last three years does one begin to reduce one's carbon footprint, then you start over, negating the gains made.

So, by all means, go and get an electric car, but don't tell me how amazing you are for the environment.

Ray Mancari, Vero Beach

Some good ways to use hearts, minds

As human beings, it's great to use our hearts and minds. What are some great ways individuals use hearts?

1) By being a good friend. Being a dedicated friend is an act of using one's heart. Being part of a great friendship is wonderful.

2) Coloring pictures of hearts.

3) Take walks visiting beloved places — healthy environments.

How about using our minds?

1) One way to use one's mind is by practicing games like word sort/word differentiate. Word sort/word differentiate is a game where the participant is given two sets of beginning sounds. For example, the beginning sounds: "le" and "la." The participant is then given a set of words like "lady," "left," "lake" and "lent." The goal is to sort out the words between the two sets.

2) What about playing "beginning, middle or end"? The word game "beginning, middle and end" consists of reading sounds that come from either the beginning, middle or end of a word.

3) Practicing balancing chemical equations.

4) Practicing trigonometric equations, like SOH CAH TOA (sine, cosine, tangent/sine is the opposite over hypotenuse; cosine equals adjacent over hypotenuse; tangent equals opposite over adjacent).

5) Read a book. Try "The Diary of Anne Frank," published by her dad, Otto.

6) Work on "order of operations" equations: "PEDMAS"is parentheses, exponents, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction.

7) Study historical facts using chronological order. Use a history book or your working memory of your own life.

8) Try to figure out species' relationships within the taxonomies of life/biology: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

9) Try using a Punnett Square. Study dominant and recessive traits, heterozygous and homozygous alleles.

10) Spell words like antidisestablishmentarianism and pneumoconiosis.

Be sure to do so with love and care.

Anna Santacroce, Fort Pierce

Look at history, next presidential choice is clear

I was not a Donald Trump fan until I considered his accomplishments and obstacles over the past nine years.

In 2016, he was accused of receiving Russian aid. He was exonerated by the Mueller report, and later the Durham report disclosed the story was concocted and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Trump was impeached over a phone conversation with hearsay testimony.

Meanwhile, he closed the southwestern border, cut anti-business regulation, rebuilt our military, made us energy independent and passed the largest federal income tax reduction in history. The result was an economic boom. Inflation was under 2%; mortgages about 3%. Diplomatically, he renewed major trade agreements, avoided new wars and got NATO countries to help shoulder their defense costs.

The pandemic came in 2019. Trump immediately cut travel to and from China. Then he negotiated deals with our pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine for COVID and had it distributed by the end of 2020 — a seemingly impossible feat.

Joe Biden reopened the southwestern border, embarrassed us in Afghanistan, ignored military preparedness, advanced “equity” ideas (contrasted with “equality”), pushed the Green New Deal, scrapped our energy infrastructure and paid people not to work. Inflation jumped to 6% annually; mortgages to 8%. It could get worse.  Biden promises new taxes and more spending. Our deficit is $35 trillion (about the same as our gross natiomal product).

Trump has had six court cases over the past year (two under appeal, one underway and three pending). Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz, a Democrat, calls them totally political. Trump still has enough energy to run for president. He did the right things last time, and the world didn’t fall apart, as the Democrats said it would.

Let’s try him again and elect a Republican Congress, too.

Tom Miller, Vero Beach

Vote to protect the rights our founders envisioned

So President Joe Biden, or whatever you want to call him, is doing a terrible a terrible job? Wake up, people.

He is keeping us out of another Civil War in the Middle East and possibly World War III. Have you forgotten the Korean crisis, Vietnam, Iraq? All civil wars, wars we got into we didn’t win because there was no winning. We lost so many young men. For what?

He vows to reinstate a woman’s right to choose. Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 50 years. He designates money to U.S. infrastructure, maintained rights to affordable care. Yes, the southern border is a true concern. Donald Trump did nothing to close the border in the four years he was president. This is a difficult humanitarian problem for us on both sides of the border.

Minimum wages have increased, allowing people a decent income encouraged by Biden and his administration.

Oil production has hit record highs under Biden, continuing to outpace rivals Saudi Arabia and Russia. Biden continues the fight to give aid to Ukraine, which desperately needs our support to keep Russian expansion under control.

Yes, food prices are high. Don’t they always increase? We rarely see food prices go down.

And most importantly, Biden fights for our democracy. Trump, if elected, would eliminate our democracy by becoming a declared dictator and will follow the world dictators he so admires.

And finally, Biden is a decent man. Biden? Trump? A crucial oxymoron. And yes, you still have the right to choose.

Please vote wisely. It’s about maintaining our rights in our democracy.

Mary Oliver, Jensen Beach

When will men become responsible for pregnancies?

Why is all the focus on women and their bodies?

It's time for those who cause pregnancies, often against the will of the women they impregnate, to step up to the knife and prevent pregnancies before they begin.

It is a simple and reversible procedure called a vasectomy.

Elizabeth Kay Gibson, Hutchinson Island

Past president's father put him through wringer, so ...

I feel tremendous compassion for the past president with charges coming at him in every direction.

This is a man who grew up with a fiercely dominant father who instilled into him that losing was never an option. He was encouraged to ridicule his brother for his lack of interest in the family business. That brother buried his pain in drink and died of alcoholism at a young age.

The domineering father was a racist who also drummed this into the future president. The old-fashioned ideas most of us grow up with, caring about others, did not exist in that household. It was to succeed at whatever the cost. If it meant destroying someone else in the obsession of winning, then so be it.

Imagine a childhood with very little love if any, only winning at everything as something to be admired. This sad, lonely child has become a desperately frightened, lonely, old man whose prejudices opened the floodgates for others to show their meanness, selfishness and hate.

I have to believe that most of us understand the beauty and fragility of democracy and that this country serves as an example of what can be achieved for all its citizens. I hope in this next election, the people of this country will show that fairness, kindness and love will overcome the nastiness we have witnessed for too long.

The world is watching us.

Susan Johnson, Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach's Moore unfairly bashed; school board member troublemaker