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I appreciated Dominic Calabro's guest column Citizens must have easy access to public notices on Feb. 17. I belong to many environmental organizations and as conservation chair of one and government affairs representative of another I need to be able to access information about plans and meetings of the city of Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County, South Florida Water Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies plans that might affect the environment, our drinking water, waterways, the air we breathe. Also, changes that will affect wildlife, businesses, tourism and even our economy due to their policies that affect our surroundings.

There is not enough time each day to go on each of these and other organizations' websites, but I can find out their plans by checking your newspaper's public notices. If this stops, we all may suffer from not knowing what special interests may have gotten our public officials to do without our being able to have input. Please contact your state representative and ask them to continue to provide these important notices in the newspaper.

Diane Goldberg, Port St. Lucie

The West Corridor of Vero Beach is not being served fairly by the Indian River County Commission. Dozens of separate communities were approved and developed without any overall plan that includes mixed zoning, retail and business properties, as well as homes. Then these communities were left with limited county services such as parks, recreation programs and office buildings. The goal should be to provide citizens with these amenities without having to drive downtown.

To my knowledge there are no parks or recreation programs west of 58th Avenue. Additionally, infrastructure is non-existent or in poor repair. Examples include the horrible and dangerous condition of the 12th Avenue roadway; lack of adequate lighting on 74th Avenue south of SR 60, particularly at the bridge crossing at 14th Lane; the dangerous intersection at 74th Avenue and 16th Street, and the general lack of sidewalks and bike lanes throughout the West Corridor.

So, whats the solution? Tens of thousands of citizens are living in the West Corridor. We need to make our voices heard by getting involved in the commissions work. Additionally, lets support the movement to single-member districts rejected recently by the commission so we will know whom to hold accountable. Our commission argued that this would lead to provincialism. Perhaps that would be a good result given that our current elected-at-large commissioners are not serving the entire county equally.

Betty Hearn Morrow, Vero Beach

I appreciated Cray Littles Jan. 5letter, in which, in the context of a discussion about democracy, he wrote: Admitting our failures is painful, and Human behavior is addicted to pain avoidance. It is true that acknowledging anything less than genius of our sacrosanct Founding Fathers isnt always easy. Is it possible that the conditions surrounding the establishing of our election processes were unique, and that the authors were not thinking 200 years into the future?

True confession No.1: I probably wasnt paying as much attention as I should have been during high school civics class. And true confession No. 2: At the 2000 George Bush/Al Gore recount, my heart was too heavy with losing to notice that, recount or not, there were still more votes for Al Gore on a national level than ever would have made a recount necessary.

I hereby penitently admit, it took me years to notice that the election did not always go to the candidate achieving the most votes nationally. Time may or may not heal all wounds, but it does have a way of bringing illumination. I now understand that the Electoral College, so ominously and suddenly a player on election night, has never once in its long archaic history actually overturned an election.

I have to say: It is ironic that the racial inequalities meant to be addressed by the tradition of winner-take-all states are now heightened by it. Every Vote Counts! minorities are urged. And, Voting Matters! From sea to shining sea, however, two recent elections have proven that not every vote may count. Democracy is a matter of luck. Officially, it is little more than a mirage.

Until Electoral College reform is confronted, a country governed by its people is an option higher than the moon.

Chris Lowery, Palm City

The Feb. 21 article about "Stand Your Ground" laws is very misleading. Most importantly, the SYG law did not even apply in the George Zimmerman prosecution. The SYG law applies if you exercise your right of self-defense in public and it gives the prosecution a heavier burden of proving that you could have avoided the use of deadly force.

In the Trayvon Martin case, at the time Zimmerman drew his gun, Martin had him pinned to the ground and was banging Zimmerman's head on the sidewalk, placing him in fear for his life. That's what the jury heard and why there was an acquittal. There was no issue of whether Zimmerman could have withdrawn and avoided the use of force. The fact that Zimmerman approached Martin before the two became engaged in a struggle is not relevant. The only thing that is relevant is the situation at the time Zimmerman drew his weapon.

Tom Morris, Jensen Beach

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Letters to the Editor: Feb. 26, 2022 - TCPalm