Alexander’s folly
“Poly Folly” is alive and well. The gouge on the taxpayer lives on. I am speaking about your two articles last week, the last being “Poly students remain confident.”
God love the ability of students to see good when the train wreck may be approaching. This was a disaster from the start when JD Alexander and crowd wanted a stand-alone university. The university had it made prior to this thought. Being under USF, Florida Polytechnic had accreditation, and that is what it is looking to get now.
Instead of putting Poly under either USF or another school with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs and lowering the administrative cost, they had to have their own stand-alone university. Then came the accreditation process, and it’s a long one. They did not make the deadline for this year. Next year is a maybe.
Then there is enrollment — 911 students. We need to really see a cost per student analysis to figure out how much this place is costing taxpayers.
Then there is the problem of the goal of having 5,000 students in 10 years. This is at a time when the school has an admitted capacity of only 1,700. Again, where are the statistics on the cost per student?
The Florida Board of Governors seems to be out of touch with the real world. They had this school on the fast track to accreditation, and it failed to materialize. That should not have been a surprise to them.
We now see USF is handing over some functions it did for them. Good. Let them do all their own work. But taxpayer, beware: This is a folly in the making — a money grab for no good reason.
Frank Popeleski
Seffner
John 3:16 says it all
I swear, every time I read a position of Tribune columnist Joe Henderson having to do with religion, he tries to rewrite the Bible (“Mixing religion with the law,” Metro, April 3):
First of all, he claims to be a person of faith — which faith I am at a loss to guess. I’ll start by saying I do agree with him regarding the mixing of law with religion and the chaos that results.
Laws that tend to dictate morals and mutual respect between human beings do not work. They only create more dissension.
As for the rights of the people of LGBT persuasion, they should have the same rights as the rest of us, no more and no less. They should not have the right to impose their sinful behavior on the general public. And my stance on that has nothing to do with bigotry. It has to do with my loyalty and commitment to my faith that tells me that those participating in drunkenness, fornication, homosexuality, etc., will not inherit the kingdom of God. For legislators to override God’s law puts us all at a disadvantage.
It is true that God commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. We do love them, but we don’t love their sin. We are not bigots for opposing this sin. We are acknowledging God’s order.
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God loves the sinner and sacrificed his son in a horrible crucifixion to take away our sins, and in its place offer us a place with him in heaven. John 3:16 says it all. Read it.
And stop calling Christians bigots because we do not support sinful behavior.
We still pray for each other.
Darwin Vance
Spring Hill
Addressing VA’s ills
Regarding “In fixing VA, don’t forget Lincoln’s pledge” (Letter of the Day, April 3):
The proposals to improve the VA were not just my suggestions; they also appeared in the Disabled American Veteran (DAV) magazine (April-May 2016).
Many of the VA’s problems started in 2009 when President Obama signed an executive order allowing VA enrollment of those veterans with no service- connected disability and with sufficient income and assets. This executive order is contrary to established policy and “Priority 8 VA Guidelines for VA Eligibility.” This, in addition to the large number of combat service-connected disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe injuries, has over-burdened the VA health care system and caused many of the VA’s problems that we have today.
It is well known that not every veteran is entitled to medical care from the VA. Contrary to what some believe, the term “free health care for life” does not apply to all veterans, but applies to those military retirees who served for 20 years or more and was established as an incentive to keep military personnel in the service.
Of the two VA improvement proposals, I personally would prefer the proposal stating “VA should only focus on operating specialized Centers of Excellence.” Convert the VA from a full-service health system into a few centers of excellence, focusing only on service-connected injuries and illnesses like post-traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, blindness, amputations and burns.
Routine care needs would be sent into the private sector.
Something else not considered is the fact that very soon we will have a critical shortage of doctors and other medical personnel.
With this proposal in effect, it would free up the VA doctors and other medical professionals for the private medical sector.
Chuck Graham
Pinellas Park
Needed in Tally
Thanks to Theo Hinrichs for his excellent letter and suggestion that Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican leaders offer homeowners a tax break for installing solar water heaters instead of the corporate tax breaks they like to offer (“Rethink economic strategy,” Your Views, April 4).
He is right in that it would create more jobs and benefit taxpayers statewide more than the old corporate welfare method.
It’s too bad that we don’t have intelligence like his in Tallahassee.
Roger McAllister
Sebring