Pollution’s the problem
To the editor:
I am writing about the weird weather we are currently experiencing. Hot days in January, freezing temperatures in a state like Florida, what gives?
Most importantly, I’m writing about the fatal weather lately, hurricanes, tornadoes, stuff like that. I’m tired of seeing lives destroyed, families torn apart, even little babies among the casualties. I do believe that it all can be linked to all the pollution that’s in the world today, just like acid rain, it all comes from pollutants that react with our atmosphere. Just look what Al Gore said in his lecture, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Same thing. Just like global warming. That is something we can’t afford to find out when it’s too late.
Now I know that we depend on our factories to supply our way of life, but there are things more important. I say put more restrictions on them or shut them down. We need to be more careful of how we use our resources, and need to depend on people like chemists to find a way to use them more properly (I think increasing their salaries might help, too). The time to act is now.
Brent Thompson
St. Cloud

Support
To the editor:
The president of these United States governs in difficult times whomever he may be.
Yes, he has plenty of advisors and support, which goes with the job, even access to a psychiatrist, yet he, in that lonely position at the top, needs maternal understanding and response from motherly women all over the nation to be a “mother” to him.
Women alone know what is being said, the male wants mothering, needs it though will not admit it. The president’s programs and issues can be treated separately, but he still is the head man of our country trying to do the best job he can. It’s tough. Maternal women, in your own way, show our president, that you would hold his hand, wipe his tears, warm a glass of milk if you could. You may be what he and our people need.
Gene Marciniak
Kissimmee

Good news
To the editor:
On behalf of the Kissimmee taxpayers, I would like to thank Mark Durbin, Kissimmee city manager, for recommending NOT to increase their property taxes this coming year.
Mr. Durbin said, “We can’t go back to the residents year after year and ask for more money,” and the city would “make do with what we've got.”  
These are very refreshing statements to come from one of our local managers.
The majority of the St. Cloud City Council held the line this past budget cycle, which helped reduce foreclosures. We may even witness a turnaround in Osceola County, if all our local taxing authorities would agree not to increase any tax rates and learn to live with what they got.
Thank you Mark Durbin and thanks again to the three wise men of the St. Cloud City Council.
Tom Long
St. Cloud