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Tuesday's letters: Homeless data yields federal aid

 
Published Feb. 16, 2015

Point-in-time count

Homeless data yield federal aid

Over the next few weeks and months throughout the country, agencies and individual volunteers will be participating in the point-in-time count. This is a count of those among us who are homeless. The information is compiled and sent to Washington in hopes of receiving funding for programs to help this population. Just last month, counties in the bay area were awarded a combined $11 million by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These funds will be used for housing and other programs for the homeless.

Do you know who the homeless are? They aren't just those you see walking on the streets with their belongings or panhandling on the corners. What makes you homeless? It may not be what you think. How about a family temporarily staying in a neighbor's garage? Or the co-worker staying on a friend's couch for a few days but who has nowhere else lined up after that? This is also the face of homelessness today.

I participated in the point-in-time count in Pasco County on Jan. 28. We went early in the morning to where some people are living, outdoors, in the woods. We found them with the help of the police and sheriff's deputies. Others interviewed and counted people at shelters and feeding centers.

I urge readers to participate. If the count in your area has been completed for this year, add a note to the calendar for next year. If it has not been completed, consider getting training and participating. If you can't spare the time, consider donating toiletries to be given out during the count. Let's do our part so that everyone is accounted for so that the funding needed to help our homeless population can be received.

Libbe Carriker, Dade City

Medical marijuana

No need to reinvent wheel

In a few weeks the fight will begin in Tallahassee to write legislation to make medical marijuana available to Floridians who need it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Seven states know what works because they have been living with medical marijuana laws since 2000.

Maine is one of the seven. Maine gets high marks from Americans for Safe Access, the flagship national organization for medical marijuana. Maine's law provides provisions for adding new diseases/conditions, child custody protections, employment protections, housing protections, explicit privacy protections, protections from arrest, reciprocity (with other states), restrictions on where patients may medicate, and zoning restrictions. Maine also allows personal cultivation, the feature most responsible for the rapid collapse of the street market and its violence.

In 1929, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote approvingly of resolving contentious social issues in "the laboratory of the states." Then it was about alcohol prohibition. Today it is about marijuana prohibition. We should heed his advice.

John G. Chase, Palm Harbor

A disappointing science disconnect | Feb. 9, editorial notebook

Opinions and knowledge

This article addressed the puzzle of public opinion and scientific trust. Public opinion polls question people who probably have limited knowledge of the science. Science demands more study than most have time for, so we break into groups that trust someone or some thing.

Take nuclear energy. Current reactors have technical problems, but few know that there have been zero radiation deaths in the United States in more than 60 years of nuclear reactors, and that nuclear plants emit no radiation, greenhouse gases or toxins. Public fear of nuclear energy is not based on data.

How can we assess climate science unless we know that global change means global climate and not regional weather, or know the polar ice core data? What is the cold Canadian polar vortex, and why did it recently change to more frequent and deeper penetrations?

The still-active Flat Earth Society was founded in 1547, and we can imagine Flat Earthers screaming "junk science" at Copernicus and Galileo. Whom do you trust on climate: Rick Scott, Marco Rubio and James Inofe, or Jim Hansen, Heidi Cullen, Michael Mann, Elizabeth Kolbert and the other 10,000 scientists who live close to the problem?

What does a poll mean if few understand?

Chuck Hawkins, Safety Harbor

Lynching as terrorism | Feb. 13, commentary

Remember Florida victims

This month, Floridians and people everywhere expressed horror and outrage at the burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot. Coincidentally last week, the Equal Justice Imitative released a document on the nearly 4,000 lynchings of black Americans between the Civil War and World War II. A significant number of the lynchings involved victims being burned alive.

This article calculated that the per capita number of lynchings was higher in Florida than any other state. I encourage all of us in Florida to take some of our current outrage and transform it into support for memorials to the victims of lynching. And may the memorials remind us that we all need to continue to work on tearing down racism here in Florida.

Dave Coale, St. Petersburg

Rubio early to hit Iowa | Feb. 14

What about constituents?

Instead of signing books in Iowa, it would nice if Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, would spend more time in Florida listening to Floridians express their concerns. He has been running for president since he was elected.

Deborah Green, Sun City Center

Vatican proactive in scandal | Feb. 15

Abuse and coverup

Once again we read about sexual predator priests preying on children and the all-to-familiar coverup by the Catholic Church. Pedophile priests continue to harm children throughout the world with almost total impunity because the Catholic Church buries its disgusting head in the sand or turns a blind eye to this horrible problem.

Bob Fortney, Land O'Lakes