Dear editor,

Despite its claims, the Democratic Party doesn’t have a monopoly on mercy.

Matt Gaetz is one of Florida’s most conservative legislators, but he’s also one of the most caring, and time and again he’s stood up for the voiceless and most vulnerable among us. That includes the unborn, for whom he has been a stalwart defender, and it also includes animals.

In 2013, Gaetz sponsored Florida HB 851, a bill that holds animal abusers accountable for every act of cruelty they commit.

More recently, he’s led efforts to crack down on greyhound racing, a costly, government-mandated pastime that results in the senseless deaths of scores of dogs each year in front of empty grandstands.

As an attorney, Gaetz sued Okaloosa County to stop a proposed tax on pet owners that would have made it harder for seniors on fixed incomes to care for their family pets. He did this not for votes, but based on a strong conviction that people and animals deserve decency.

Now, it’s time to restore common sense to Washington, and also a little compassion.

On Aug. 30, I’d encourage all Republicans with conscience to cast their votes for Matt Gaetz.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Republicans — vote with your conscience

Once again it is time to vote, and the voters in Northwest Florida are getting their big “R” rubber stamps ready for use.

Too bad they don’t investigate the candidates before they vote.

Marco Rubio has decided to run for re-election — big surprise after he refused to do what the Florida voters paid him to do.

He missed more Senate votes than any other candidate to date. He also made the statement that the Senate was boring to him. By all means, vote for him again.

In the last 15 years, how many times has Jeff Miller done anything for the people who put him in office? Answer: never.

All he ever did was rubber stamp what the RNC told him to do. Please do not put another Jeff Miller in office!

Get smart, people. Vote for someone who is not beholden to a political party!

Floyd Pollaski, USN (Ret.)

Cantonment 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Vote outside political parties

Dear editor,

I recently moved from Homestead, Florida to El Paso, Texas. Along the way I stopped to spend the night in Crestview, where I still own a home.

Over the course of over 1,900 miles, the most expensive gas station and hotel that I paid for was in Crestview.

When I departed, Miami gas was $2.26 a gallon. Two days later, filling up in Crestview, gas was $2.39 a gallon. Meanwhile, the average hotel cost was $140 a night, except in Crestview where it was $189.

Can someone explain to me how Crestview is so much more expensive than every place I stopped, and yet there is no money to fix the traffic problem or develop the town out of its Mayberry status?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Where does Crestview’s money go?

Dear Editor: 

What ever happened to the good old days when our worst worries on the 4th of July were traffic jams and wayward fireworks?

A well-warranted worry, according to the Department of Agriculture’s Meat & Poultry Hotline, is food poisoning by nasty E. coli and Salmonella "bugs" hiding in hot dogs and hamburgers at millions of backyard barbecues.  The Hotline’s advice is to grill them longer and hotter. Of course, they avoid mentioning that the high-temperature grilling that kills the bugs also happens to form cancer-causing compounds.

Fortunately, some forward-thinking U.S. food manufacturers have solved these issues for us by creating an amazing assortment of healthy and delicious veggie burgers and soy dogs. No nasty pathogens or cancer-causing compounds in these tasty plant-based foods. They don’t even carry cholesterol, saturated fats, antibiotics, or pesticides. And, they are conveniently waiting for us at almost any supermarket.

This 4th of July offers a great opportunity to declare our independence from the meat industry and to share wholesome veggie burgers and soy dogs with our family and friends.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Beware of barbecued 'bugs'

Dear editor,

Democrats are again blaming guns, illegal guns and unstable people possessing guns for the Orlando, Fla., shooting.

Yet the perpetrator, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, registered Democrat, had a G type Florida gun license because of his security job, which allowed him greater freedom with his guns.

He was twice investigated by the FBI for his Islamic terror connections but he had no criminal record, so his ability for a gun license was never revoked. Even government couldn't, or didn't, determine this person as being unstable, which government thinks it can do.

Obviously, this government can't determine much of anything.

So the gun didn't shoot these people, the gun wasn't illegal, but Omar was religiously unstable due to his anti-gay views, views of women and minorities — exposed by his ex-wife, coworkers and others — contained in his Islam religion.

Homosexuality is not politely portrayed in the Christian religion, either, but the religion itself has gotten past this point of death as society's cure for nature's developmental failures.

   Now, the Democrats’ only option is to remove guns from the hands of all legal gun owners. As for illegal guns, you can't remove something you don't know they possess!

Removing guns from America will only create a criminal black market for criminals to continuously have guns, just like the black drug market. The 9/11 event that brought down the Twin Towers had no guns involved in the takeover of the aircrafts. They used box cutters and killed almost 3,000 people.

   Ninety-eight percent or more of the Islamic and the LGBT communities support the political left wing of the Democrat Party because of the promised freedom each community believes they are receiving.

These supposed freedoms collided this weekend in Orlando, Florida.

STEVEN M. KING

Milton

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Is another 50 dead Americans enough yet?

Editor’s Note: The need for suicide prevention takes focus in the Crestview area, particularly after Iraq War veteran and Hub City resident Drew Winkler’s unexpected death.

●●●

Dear editor,

Suicide is one of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States, and it's preventable.

Nine out of 10 people who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental health condition, like depression, at the time of their death. Together, we can help people who struggle to seek help, improve the quality of their lives, and stop this tragic loss of life.

I volunteer with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to raise awareness and teach our communities ways all of us can help to prevent suicide.

From learning the risks and warning signs of suicide, to having an honest conversation with a loved one about seeking mental health help, we are dedicated to bringing people together to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.

I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. this month to tell my members of Congress how important this issue is to me. It is important to me because it affected me directly — I lost my father to suicide in 2007.

Please take five minutes right now to call your U.S. representative and senators at 202-224-3121, and tell them to make mental health a national priority and to fund suicide prevention research today.

Join me in this fight to #stopsuicide. Together we can make a difference.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet us.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Help fight suicide now, Northwest Florida

Dear editor,

To whoever was driving the black SUV with the Jesus bumper sticker I cut in front of on Avalon at around 3:15 p.m. on May 18:

I apologize for that. It was poor driving on my part.

Anyone who may know this driver, please let him know.

JAMES WHITTEMORE

Pace

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: An apology for cutting in traffic

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates there are more than five million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, including over 500,000 here in Florida. I am one of those people.

I was honored to participate with 1,200 others from across the country in the 28th annual Alzheimer’s Association Advocacy Forum in Washington D.C., where we appealed to Congress for action on Alzheimer’s disease.

 I'm the fourth generation within my family to have Alzheimer's disease. My great-grandmother, grandfather, and my mother all had Alzheimer's. I advocate on behalf of all those affected by Alzheimer's disease by bringing awareness and education to the public. I do this for the individuals that will come after me in hopes that something will be discovered to stop the progression, prevent the disease and finally to be a cure.

Thank you to Spencer Orenstein, Legislative Assistant to Representative Jeff Miller for meeting with our delegation to discuss the Alzheimer’s crisis. We're in great hopes that we can count on Representative Miller and his staff for their continued support.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet us.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Alzheimer's advocacy forum takes place

Dear Editor:

Come to Paradise — that is the gala at the Paradise Gardens. Learn how to Bee One In a Million.

The gala offers a lively discussion by Marie Harrison, a tour of a pollinator garden with refreshments, and plants one can purchase to encourage pollinators to visit your yard.

It takes place on May 14, 2016 between 2 and 4 p.m. and is located at Heritage Museum, 115 Westview Ave., Valparaiso.

Bee One In a Million is a challenge launched by groups of gardening and conservation organizations. The challenge hopes to foster and promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators. The goal is to register one million private and public individuals and or groups that work to support pollinators and to educate the general public of the roles and importance of these creatures.

Pollinators are creatures who move pollen to fertilize seeds. Cross pollination occurs when the pollen is transferred from their bodies when they move from plant to plant.

About 90 percent our flowering food plants require pollen transfer to produce their food products and it is said that one food bite out of three are due to our pollinators.

Pollinator creatures can be birds, insects, bats or small mammals numbering about 200,000 species. Insects such as beetles, ants, bees, wasps, butterflies and other insects are the predominant group.

Many in this group are at risk and their populations are declining. Habitat loss, disease and parasites as well as environmental contaminants are thought to be the primary reason for the population change.

Bee One In a Million and Paradise Gardens are proactive in the educational programs offered. Suggestions are provided on the Bee One in a Million website share.beefriendlyfarmer.org.

But if you come to Paradise Gardens, which is a project of the Valparaiso Garden Club, you will see a garden designed to be a butterfly habitat with identified host plants.

Marie Harrison, author of “The Plight of the Pollinators and Ways to Help” is presenting ideas at 2:15 on how to change your yard, porch or even workplace to benefit these pollinators. Mrs. Harrison is an excellent speaker and author, as well as a great educator with a cause. Valparaiso Garden Club hopes you can make it to Paradise.

For those interested, the Valparaiso Garden Club will have both plants and seed packets that are pollinator-friendly for sale.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: 'Bee One In a Million' and come to paradise

Dear Editor,

Yes, Hillary Clinton and President Obama want equal pay for women. It's very nasty to say — because women are given time off with pay from their jobs after a new baby is born and organize at the home, before returning to work — that they do not merit equal pay as men receive. After all, they are caring for the man's kids.

Also, there are many single women, or married with no children that deserve as much pay/salaries as men receive.

And by the way, school teachers, who, on many occasions, have a difficult time with teaching our children, should receive equal pay as men, too. And the summer time isn't their own time either. Teachers are spending hours preparing and sometimes attend classes in preparation of the next school year. If a woman is working just as many hours as a man and getting the job done properly, they deserve equal salaries.

Now about "climate change." There is definitely something happening with our planet's climate. Scientists know this because they have spent years researching, taking deep cores of ice from the Arctic and Antarctic glaciers/ice sheets.

If you just look at maps of our glaciers and compare to only as far as 2002, you can watch how much they are melting, while our politicians deny the oceans are rising.

The upper atmosphere is causing a greenhouse effect and the sun rays are trapped close to our Earth, causing all of our hot weather. The cause of clouding high in our stratosphere is the burning of oil, gas and coal, which in turn exhausts carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Grazing animals also exhaust carbon dioxide/fumes from their manure.

Politicians must begin to focus; instead of on whether young voters are voting for "free stuff," or that our country is becoming "socialist" or that scientists are wrong, and think about saving this planet.

Other nations are way ahead of us. Germany has solar panels installed on all structures. Denmark is using the giant windmills for electricity and heating.

The United States needs to start manufacturing solar panels, electric cars and rapid transit trains. There are jobs to be gotten with this technology. Recently, 175 nations have agreed to participate to reduce harmful gases/fumes into the sky. What about U.S.?

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet us.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Another look at women's pay and climate