No traffic control
Another special event spreading mayhem through beachside neighborhoods.
Hundreds of trucks speeding and running stop signs on my street from afternoon into the wee hours from Thursday into Sunday. Tires screeching, air horns blasting, and not a cop in sight for hours on end. I was tempted to call 911 or police station, but resisted as I knew it would get no results, as usual. Much of the nuisance traffic was funneled down certain streets, idiotically deemed by someone at the city to take the brunt of the assault.
(READ: Truck meet flooding area with monster trucks)
I have seen the grandstanding on State Road A1A with crowds on the sidewalks cheering on the juvenile antics of boys and their toys, fish tailing, and exhaust flames (until one day they kill a fan just inches from their machines). It is dangerous enough that any reasonable parent visiting the area with their kids would beeline it back to the safety of their hotels, away from the road and the beach, and never return here.
If the Daytona Beach Police Department can’t control the invaders, then don’t let them come. Let the Speedway babysit these showboats where they belong, at the track. The only thing they buy on the beachside is beer. Who needs ’em — the noise, the danger, the bottlenecks?
Doesn’t a huge portion of our local taxes to the Police Department and Fire Department, resulting in higher taxes than our neighboring cities pay — while they get much of the benefits?
It is apparent to any casual observer that the police cannot handle these road parties by trucks and T-rods. How much must the suffering residents pay for all the police overtime?
The police department cannot even handle normal weekend traffic. It’s just flat-out out of control, so stop it!
Judi Gentile, Daytona Beach
Embrace new event
I was disgusted over what I saw at the truck meet last weekend. Was it the lifted trucks, the occasional loud horn, the gridlocked traffic, or the large amount of people in town? No, it was the totally unwelcoming attitude the city of Daytona Beach put on. The law enforcement presence and zero-tolerance enforcement was just absurd. My disgust is not with the officers who actually policed the event; obviously their command staff and the city told them what to do and they followed their orders.
(READ: Police write 2,000 tickets during truck meet)
The city of Daytona Beach should be absolutely ashamed how they treated the truck meet visitors. The News-Journal reported over 2,000 traffic tickets and 77 arrests. On paper, this event sounds like it’s totally out of control.
I would like to see a breakdown of traffic tickets and arrests. I would bet most of the tickets were for equipment violations. I have been a local since 1984 and have never seen any group of visitors treated this way. Think if during Bike Week, Turkey Rod Run, or Speedweeks the police lined State Road A1A and stopped cars for every single equipment violation, no matter how minor, and ticketed them. The city has done study after study on beachside blight, and the majority of the core tourist areas, other than directly on the beach, are basically slum-like conditions. The city keeps wondering how to turn around the beach side, how to fix Main Street, how to fix Seabreeze Boulevard.
News flash: It is not by running off a new special event that brought tens of thousands of dollars into town. I rented a hotel and spent the weekend observing what happened for the truck meet. It appeared almost all the hotels were sold out, and at rates similar to other special-event weekends. Restaurants were packed all over the beachside and International Speedway Boulevard. The truck meet visitors were of all ages. I saw middle-age people, young people, and families. I did not see mass lawlessness, nudity or trash on the streets. I would wager it was a very profitable weekend for the local economy. Let’s treat the truck meet visitors with the same respect as the other special events.
Wake up, Daytona Beach. The city has been handed a great new special event. Embrace it versus killing it.
Byron Hebert, Ormond Beach
Clash of events
We headed to our granddaughter’s graduation ceremony at the Ocean Center on June 2.We bought tickets and a parking pass ahead to save time. The graduation started at 12:30 p.m., and we thought leaving at 11:20 a.m. would give us plenty of time. Wrong! Who made the idiotic decision to schedule the truck meet in Daytona Beach the same weekend as graduation?
We were locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic, circling the full parking lots, when a policeman finally directed us to the parking garage. It was already 12:20 p.m., and there was a line of cars trying to get into the garage. My family texted me and said they were in the nosebleed section of the Ocean Center, three rows from the top. My husband has had open heart surgery and has atrial fibrillation, so he let me out to attend the ceremony and went home (he couldn’t climb all those stairs).
After the ceremony, we went out for pictures in front of the Ocean Center and could hardly hear anyone because of the trucks and the loud music going by on State Road A1A. When we got to the lot where my daughter had parked, it took almost 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot. They had only one exit gate open, and they were letting people in for the next graduation as we were trying to get out. The whole thing was disappointing, and certainly could have been better handled.
Anyone wonder why the people who live here avoid going to the beachside?
Jean Thomas, Port Orange
Honor Vietnam vets
As I read the letters of June 5, I was struck by one that opined that this nation should not recognize the service of those who served in Vietnam. The writer went one step further, and said the true heroes were those who evaded military service, burning draft cards or going to Canada.
It was eerily reminiscent of those who opposed the war 50 years ago. Frustration with the war manifested itself with indifference or open hostility to those who wore the uniform and shouldered the burden of an unpopular war. The scars of that remained for years, and today many Vietnam veterans still struggle with it. There are valid reasons to question the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War — from those who feel that the political leaders lost the war by not fighting to win, to those who feel that the war was immoral in many ways. But it is one thing to question the conduct of that war and then to denigrate those who fought it. This is what happened during the war, and it is seared into the minds of Vietnam veterans.
No, Vietnam veterans absolutely belong to be honored, as are all veterans. To honor those who burned their draft cards or fled to Canada while again vilifying those who served is a bridge too far. It is a return to the past that we thought we were past, and I suspect will not have the support of the public.
Dr. Frank Farmer, Ormond Beach
Farmer served in the Army in Vietnam before attending medical school. He is a nationally recognized expert in the effects of Agent Orange and was appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush as Florida’s first surgeon general.
No check on power
Among other duties, the Senate and House of Representatives are intended to provide checks and balances for presidential power. The president is not a king or emperor who has complete autonomy. In the current uniformly Republican administration, this level of safety is absent. Those who currently control the government care not about the sovereignty of the United States or the Constitution, they care about their power and wealth. They can pledge allegiance to the NRA and support corporate welfare while their tenure lasts.
This opportunity afforded by the Republican trifecta may never occur again, so they must ride it to the finish line. But ultimately they depend on the sheep-like complacence and credulity of the masses to maintain their position of power. Be sure to remember those who served your interest in the next election.
Barbara Morgan, Daytona Beach
High school activism
This letter is in regard to a May 30 article in The News-Journal, written by Wilfredo Lee and Kelli Kennedy of the Associated Press. The article discusses David Hogg and his backers trying to register high school students to vote against any lawmakers who allegedly support the NRA by not enacting knee-jerk gun reform. They are blaming the NRA for recent school shootings. What does the NRA have to do with the shootings?
I do not belong to the NRA, so I have no meat in it, as they say. But who are the people backing Hogg, and why are they doing it? Where is he getting the money to travel all over the country? I believe there is more to this than meets the eye.
Too often in history, we have seen guns being taken away from people, resulting in “death” by control. Is this where we are heading? I believe in rights, but not setting up these biased voting groups in schools with the object to get voters to essentially take away guns. Will any of the kids ever vote for a president, governor or senator based on qualifications to lead and govern, or is their willingness to take away guns the only agenda? Have these kids thought about voting before and the responsibility that goes with it?
One last thought: How does David Hogg qualify to graduate, when he has spent so much time away from school and the learning and testing that are required by the state?
Deborah D’Onofrio, Edgewater
Maybe it’s time
Another senseless shooting at a school takes the lives of 10 innocents. How many is that this year? Some have reported that this is the 28th school shooting this year. What a sad commentary on the U.S.
What’s to blame this time? Society, mental illness, inattentive parents, lack of security, too many guns, too few guns, the NRA, the missed signs? I don’t care. We have reached “excuse overload.”
Face the fact that perhaps the root of the problem is the Second Amendment, since it’s always raised as the stumbling block to serious, meaningful change. I’m not a constitutional scholar, but when the Second Amendment was written, things were different. The challenges of current America are significantly more complex. It’s time for a review and/or facelift.
Some may view this as heresy. Others may say nonsense, the horse has left the barn. But many may feel this needs to be addressed head-on.
Our elected officials will continue to dance around the issue. But if the majority of Americans feel this is needed to stop senseless violence, put it to a vote in every state. Sounds overwhelming, but it’s for our children, their children, etc.
In the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers talked about a guarantee of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We should ask ourselves, does the Second Amendment impinge upon what our forefathers intended for all Americans? Maybe a rewritten, clarified Second Amendment to deal with the times could stop the violence and protect these rights.
Ed Tomchick, Port Orange