The Aug. 15 editorial Melting pot America is still bubbling was excellent. Diversity, indeed, is good. But in your editorial there is a missing key ingredient to this successful mix.
In his Aug. 16 Other Views column Protect Florida's mortgage industry, Alex Sanchez, president of the Florida Bankers Association, would have us throw the baby out with the bathwater. He is correct in saying that many in the mortgage industry should not have been given licenses. And more needs to be done to ensure that qualified, honest brokers are the only ones allowed to provide such services.
If I didn't know that Fay was a tropical storm, I would have thought Monday was just another rainy day. All the hoopla and media hype resulted in a two-day shutdown of most government and business offices. This was an awful expense at a time of budget cuts.
I find it both humorous and scary that the right is trying to paint Barack Obama as a socialist. On C-Span recently, Jerome Corsi, author of Obama Nation, tried to paint Obama as the most left-wing socialist candidate we have ever had from a mainstream political party.
While I've read a lot of criticism about building a stadium for the Florida Marlins, has anyone asked how much local professional athletes and their families contribute to charitable organizations with their time and money -- even though most of them are not from this area?
How is it possible that U.S. intelligence did not anticipate Russia's invasion into Georgia? Our country is reaping what it has sown over the past seven years. Having exhausted our military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, depleted international prestige and squandered all moral currency by invading a sovereign country based on a fraud, America can only sit by and rattle sabers without blades as the Russians contemptuously pursue immoral military goals. It's a prelude, likely, to Russia's restoration...
When you cast your vote for a candidate, you should do it with the firm belief that the candidate is committed to resolving critical issues facing this country. It is sad that some voters might be casting their votes for the candidate of the opposing party just for revenge.
Recent reports said that 80 percent of money contributed to FPL's Sunshine Energy program went to marketing and administrative expenses.
In the Aug. 13 column, John Edwards is the new Clinton, Spitzer, Craig, Leonard Pitts Jr. appears to say that politicians' private sex lives should override all other considerations when judging fitness for office. By that standard, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and, of course, Bill Clinton, would have failed Pitts' puritanical test.
AIR TRAVEL
I've read with amusement stories about airlines and the terrible service they provide. As an airline pilot, I offer some food for thought:
CONGRESS
Congress is making 2008 a great year for the millions of Americans with breathing problems. Recently, lawmakers strongly overrode President Bush's veto of a Medicare legislation package. For patients like me with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the most exciting part of the Medicare package was the provision making pulmonary rehabilitation a permanent Medicare benefit.
TEACHING
I love my job, my school, my students and my colleagues. Teaching is the greatest job in the world. I love the first day of school. Monday will be my 16th ''first day,'' and I look forward to the challenges and joy of this year as much as any I have had.
STUDENTS
It seems that teachers have forgotten what summer vacation means. I have noticed the subtle switch from the summer break of yesterday to the summer prep-period that it has become. More schools send students off in June not with a sense of completion and relief after a hard year's work, but with enough assignments to squash any dreams of lazy, summer days on the hammock.
As we tally the medals won by U.S. Olympics teams, we should count the number of commercials endured by Olympics viewers. CONNIE GOODMAN-MILONE, Miami
I am the only survivor of an extended family of more than 40 people who perished during the Holocaust. I thank Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her tireless and difficult work in introducing The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act.
TRAFFIC SIGNALS
Last year, I was in Scottsdale, Az., a popular area that is part of the sprawling, congested Phoenix and Vicinity metroplex. Despite the latter being a major commuter region where mass transportation takes a back seat to personal vehicles, I was surprised at how easy it was to travel by car.
Did President Bush actually say that, ''We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected?'' Did he decry that the Russians were instigating regime change?
Re Alveda King's Aug. 2 letter, Too many abortions: The route to giving every fertilized egg, embryo and fetus the full legal rights of personhood requires the denial of every woman's human rights. To accomplish that, King and others impose names on aborted fetuses and make women the invisible participant in decisions about conception, pregnancy and birth. Otherwise, they cast women as uninformed, immoral, pathetic, coerced, selfish, too stupid to know what abortion really is, victimized or impaired...
The Aug. 5 story Scrambling features a photograph of Monica Chavez preparing a take-out breakfast at Denny's in Coral Gables. The food looks delicious, but I was surprised to see that she was working the food with bare hands. Where were the plastic gloves customarily worn by food handlers?
Re the Aug. 3 story Medicare Fraud rampant in South Florida: For too long the field of medical billing has gone unregulated, just like mortgage brokers. It's time for state and federal governments to bring under control individuals and organizations through licensing and regulations. Require background checks to keep people from pillaging social programs.
The Aug. 2 editorial Our caring community, which followed the release of the Corporation for National Service ranking South Florida 50th in volunteering rates among metropolitan areas, was on target about the spirit of giving in our community.
Re the Aug. 8 story Lesbian avoids deportation to Jamaica: If the United States grants asylum to homosexuals, women who say that they are victims of genital mutilation and Chinese nationals who say that they are victims of the one-child policy could make similar claims. Are we ready to absorb billions of people?
I'm glad to hear that the state finally got wise and ended the annual sales-tax break for back-to-school buyers. For the most part, they already benefit from tax-supported education and services for their children.
As school begins on Monday, we will find our public-education system in a tenuous position. Funding cuts have everyone concerned about the school district's ability to deliver on the promise of a top-quality education for all.
President Bush appears to be a hypocrite when it comes to proselytizing religious freedom and democracy to the Chinese government. You do not hear this rhetoric rolling off his lips when he visits his good friend, the king of Saudi Arabia.
