Friday's letters: Support local skate parks, arming everybody, political PR, more

Support future Olympic skateboarders

I thank the Sarasota city commissioners and staff for declaring May 16 as Jake and Nate Ilardi Day.

Jake represented the USA in the 2021 Summer Olympics for skateboarding. Hailing from Osprey, he credits his success to his grandmother. For years, she drove the twin brothers up to Payne Park, Bradenton Riverwalk, St. Pete, Tampa and beyond to chase Jake's dream of becoming a pro.

In recent years, our neighboring counties and cities have built nearly a dozen skateboard parks. These parks cater to many forms of recreation (BMX, mountain bike, scooter) and will be the training grounds for the next generation.

More: How to send a letter to the editor

Sarasota County contains only two skate parks: Payne Park, which Jake is trying to repair and expand with his own money, and the North Port Skate Park, which needs more than maintenance.

Here's my point: Jake cannot train the next era of Olympic athletes in Sarasota County without support from the public. I am asking that local agencies, P3s and developers consider skate parks as normal park features and incorporate them methodically.

See The Skatepark Project website to learn more, https://skatepark.org/start.

Joey O’Mahoney, Sarasota

Open carry: Game of who’s the perp

In the May 16 Herald-Tribune, guest columnist Luis Valdes left out a very important reason to not allow the open carry of firearms (“Give Florida gun owners the right to fully protect themselves”).

He’s quite thorough in listing statistics. He even cites research from the Crime Prevention Research Center that “states tend to see a decrease in violent crime and a statistically significant drop in the murder rate” after passing constitutional carry laws.

Mr. Valdes brings his experience as a Florida law enforcement officer to his argument. However, he neglects to mention an important argument against open carry. If everyone is carrying a gun, how do the police know who the perpetrator is?

Valdes also didn’t address the possibility of the gunmen wearing body armor. The security guard at Tops supermarket, a retired police officer, fired at the Buffalo shooter, but could not stop him because of body armor.

Can you imagine the mayhem and bodily injury if everyone carrying a firearm began shooting? It would’ve been interesting to see how Mr. Valdes would have handled the situation upon arriving at a supermarket mass shooting where everyone is shooting.

Joe Martinez, Bradenton

Shooting massacre, constitutional carry

In his majority opinion for the Supreme Court in the Heller case, the late Justice Antonin Scalia said this: “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

The May 16 issue of the Herald-Tribune contains a troubling juxtaposition that sheds light on Scalia’s cogent and reasonable statement.

The front page leads with a report on the gunfire massacre carried out in Buffalo, New York, by a young white supremacist (“Buffalo mourns after massacre”). The Opinion page carries a column by Luis Valdes, who advocates for “constitutional carry” of firearms (“Let's make Florida the 'Gunshine State’”).

The Buffalo obscenity was not the only such instance over the weekend. Deadly mass shootings also occurred at a Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods, California, a flea market near Houston and locations in several other cities.

Valdes, an ex-police officer who serves as the state director for Gun Owners of America, writes that he wants to “make the Sunshine State the ‘Gunshine State’" and argues against what he calls the “unhinged rantings of radicals.”

Too many have died for Americans to continue to tolerate the “unhinged rantings of radicals” on both sides of the firearms debate.

Richard J. Strafford, Bradenton

Divisive to ID who nominated judges

I am puzzled by the Herald-Tribune’s compulsion to identify the president who nominated a federal judge mentioned in an article. This is a recent “addition” to your articles.

In this time of divisiveness, stirred by all the forms of the information media, I see this identification as another stirring the problem.

Readers who dislike a president will be more inclined to disrespect a judge and disagree with his rulings if said president is identified.

These judges are sworn to uphold the Constitution and are not beholden to a president or a political party. 

Richard Dunlap, Sarasota

Column is politically biased PR

The May 15 column titled “Florida leads the nation in flood resilience” is a politically biased PR piece that makes a minimal effort to appear to be meaningful lipstick on a pig.

Showing differing viewpoints is one thing but presenting political PR is the mark of a failing newspaper.

John J. LiMarzi, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: More skate parks needed in Sarasota County, open carry arms everybody