Support Florida Right to Clean Water

Concerning the possible some say inevitable collapse of the local marine environment unless substantial changes are made in a timely manner there is some good news to report We the public are the key to it all by getting involved in an easy to do but vital service for our environmental future statewide

Here’s the deal if you like to fish boat swim, shell, surf, use a personal watercraft, row or just sit on the beach watching incredible gulf sunsets, the call is out, citizens of Florida! We need your help! These days millions across the nation feel frustrated invisible voiceless in the face of wasteful and intrusive big government, big money politics, incredible corruption, lawlessness and nowadays a politically charged media that too often helps cover it up No secret the enemy of clean water is green money and the big polluters spend lots of it each year to promote their agenda

Guest Commentary

I m sure the readers of this month s Florida Sportsman Magazine have read the recent extremely important article titled “The Right to Clean and Healthy Water ” I’ll gladly borrow a few important facts to pass on to non-readers

According to the article by Senior Editor Blair Wickstrom two major Florida polluters, the sugar and phosphate mining industry, spend millions yearly, as in $11 million last round, employing teams of lobbyists all to serve their corporate profit interests with Florida’s environment our environment always the causality

Certainly Southwest Florida has been getting the bad end of the east west Caloosahatchee River summer flow from contaminated Lake Okeechobee and its ongoing Army Corps mismanagement Once again I applaud the positive environmental efforts by Gov Ron DeSantis but now it’s time for the public to get seriously involved get things moving along helping make real change or leave nothing for future generations Picket? March? Sit-ins? No, nothing that strenuous The power is simply in your hand and the pen you hold in it

We the voiceless have the power through the state petition process to actually change the state Constitution

It s time yet again for citizens to do the work our legislators choose to ignore, Wickstrom says We need the Right To Clean and Healthy Water written into the state constitu- tion”

This Florida petition process is not new and in the past has proved highly successful in the positive management of our environment and the creatures in it trying to survive the profit based war against them

Starting in 1994 concerned Floridians collected nearly a half million signed petitions which resulted in the great net ban legislation

A few more times petition drives like this resulted in other incredibly important constitutional changes in Florida s law favoring our environment

“Under this amendment a person corporation nonprofit or other entity could sue the state for harming water by introducing pathogens, contaminants, or toxins or disrupting the natural water flow, processes, or functions, Wickstrom writes

At the present rate of habitat loss steps currently being taken by the state of Florida further hampered by politics (spelled money interests) may be too little, too late

The plan, to amend the state constitution, the Florida Supreme Court must first review the wording To make that happen 223 000 signatures must be presented by March 1 2023

To qualify for the 2024 ballot we ll need a total of 892,000 signatures by Nov 30, 2023

To print your form, please go to: floridarighttocleanwater org Please fill it out and send it before the end of the month to: Florida Right to Clean Water

13300 S Cleveland Ave

Suite 56 Fort Myers, FL 33907

Time is short but the task has certainly shown to be doable requiring minimal time and effort on your part Please spread the word sign and get friends to sign then mail those petitions helping make a real and lasting change for the environment and for we the people, guaranteed to us forever by the Florida constitution

Capt George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide whose weekly fishing column appears in The Breeze You can contact him at 239-282-9434 or via email at captgeorget3@ aol com

Letters To The Editor

Trust Council to do the right thing

To the editor:

As a councilwoman for the City of Cape Coral, I want to express my stance on the upcoming renewal of the city manager s contract After careful consideration, I had decided to vote to not extend the city manager’s contract

I understand that this is a significant decision and I take my role as a councilwoman very seriously I am committed to working with my fellow council members to find the best solution for the city, one that will benefit our residents and help the city continue to grow and prosper

I appreciate your understanding and support as we work together to find a solution that will serve the best interests of our community

Patty Cummings District 4

City manager does need to go

To the editor: The City Council made the right decision in not renewing the City Manager’s contract Rob Hernandez’s tenure as city manager has been anything but stellar To even describe it as average per the performance review of the PREVIOUS City Council (it should be note that there is a new Council with two new members, both of whom voted not to renew the City Manager’s contract) is perhaps an overstatement

Over the past three years under Rob Hernandez’s “leadership ” Waste Pro entered into a lawsuit with us millions of taxpayer dollars were appropriated to big business (during a period of inflation), parks have been delayed and the Yacht Club is far over-budget and unrecognizable to the original plan

According to Council discussion at the special meeting at which the vote was taken to not renew his contract Hernandez failed to apply for state funding for a burrowing owl sanctuary, a priority for Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife The funding, mind you, was for burrowing owl sanctuaries, and was created with Cape Coral in mind

Even worse according to one Councilmember he failed to apply for state and federal funding for the UEP As this wonderful paper recently reported, homeowners, UEP North 1 could be paying $34,000 per lot, or finance it with the city the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars

Most problematic though was Hernandez continuously trying to steer the agenda instead of allowing Council to steer it Mayor Gunter said it best when he asked if the dog (Council) was wagging the tail or the tail (Hernandez) was wagging the dog According to one Councilmember I spoke with Hernandez would often meet individually with Councilmembers who were opposed or on the fence to his particularly policy goals This was because Sunshine Laws prevent Councilmembers from meeting and coordinating privately, allowing him to use divide-and-conquer tactics

Multiple City Councilmembers have complained that Rob Hernandez would withhold information from the Council in presentations if that information would harm his policy goals with three Councilmembers stating he lied to them privately during the Special Meeting where they voted not to renew his contract ments

The DeSantis administration is already well known for banning pro-LGBTQ books, demanding textbook publishers remove anything the religious right deems too “woke ” and encouraging school boards dominated by conservatives to purge teachers who enforce COVID-19 prevention measures

Religious authoritarians hope that by undermining public schools and twisting the version of history we teach our children; they can control future generations making it easier for them to further harm marginalized communities and seize power at any cost

Christians have a sacred obligation to fight for racial justice -- work that includes lifting up Black voices and standing against the white Christian-nationalist leaders who try to hide the truth about our history

Dennis Raube Fort Myers

The ‘Free State of Florida’

To the editor: Gov Ron DeSantis is always talking about freedom and labels his bills and projects with freedom I see it only as a distraction from the freedoms he is taking away from Floridians No abortion no race in history Don’t Say Gay NO WOKE! Watch what you say at work, or keep on your bookshelf, especially if you re a trained teacher as hundreds of books are banned, or GO TO JAIL!

Freedom? Remove your mask! Investigate vaccines! even if 85 000 Floridians died from COVID

The Governor’s “Shoot from the hip” leadership (No permit required) will also dissolve the Reedy Creek District from Disney, the largest employer in central Florida, increasing the taxes of millions of Floridians as much as 30% and possibly saddling them with over $1 billion in debt just because DeSantis didn’t like that Disney was opposed to his discriminatory Don t Say Gay law

DeSantis wants to bring accountability to the higher education system? He wants to ban Christian values like diversity, equality and inclusion from our education system Real history like racism and slavery may not be “factual” according to the Governor So students are NOT FREE to study racism in history Yet it is OK for the governor to fire an elected state attorney for comments he made about bills that were not laws yet So much for the First Amendment

What the state needs most is accountability from the governor!

Why is he spending $10 million on election integrity when there is no evidence of election fraud? Why is he flying legal immigrants from Texas to another state with our tax dollars? ($12 million )

DeSantis isn’t here for Florida He’s working hard to be the “Golden Boy” for the Republican Party Floridians haven’t the time or money to allow an elected official (unknown only a few years ago) pander to his uneducated ignorant supporters at the risk of the state of Florida s established institutions and laws to support his political ambitions He is a danger to the institution of democracy!

At the end of the day it comes down to Rob not really knowing our city We do not want to be like Broward County or Miami or Orlando or Tampa We are Cape Coral and we want to REMAIN Cape Coral “Broward Bob” was trying to make us into something we aren t to reinvent Cape Coral in his own image He needs to go, and we need a City Manager who knows and loves this city

An outrageous attack

To the editor:

Breeze editorial Agree?

Sean Hartman Cape Coral

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis ban of Advanced Placement (AP) high-school class on Black History is an outrageous attack on Black Floridians, civil rights and academic freedom

Floridians are calling on DeSantis to change course

We urge DeSantis to not diminish dismantle and destroy the teaching of Black studies and do more research about the power of diversity, equality, and inclusion

Throughout history, dismantling public institutions (like education) and scapegoating people of color have always been hallmark tactics of authoritarian politicians and fascist move-

Oh! One last thing Don’t forget to send in your teenage daughter’s menstrual information or she can’t play sports FREEDOM!

Brad Turek

Cape Coral

Who’s the money par ty?

To the editor:

A common myth by the left is that the Republicans are for the rich A recent letter accused Republicans of this 1950 marketing idea by the Dems Also mentioned was the wasted money on the Pentagon and that this should be diverted to social issues Biden has already sent trillions of dollars to social issues mortgaging our financial future to promote socialism and buy votes with taxpayer money

Blue States have spent the most on social issues and they are in the worse shape Cost per citizen in the red states, Florida being a prime example is about half the cost per person for state government vs blue states With all that tax money the blue states have cities that are unsafe with rampant

See LETTERS, page 14A