Regional News

Editorial/Opinion
Telegraph, Times & Monitor • Thursday, July 4, 2013 • Page 4B
The past reveals the future
There is an old adage that
says, “History repeats itself,”
and we find the old cliché to
be depressingly correct, more
especially if we do not know
what has gone before. Looking
now at what has gone before,
let us look at the effect of the
highway bypass contemplated
for Starke. Will the good
outweigh the bad in moving
traffic around the town?
Looking at other towns
that have been bypassed by
highways, it is my considered
opinion that once the bypass is
completed and traffic is diverted
from its present route, the town
will regress and become more of
a bedroom community for more
progressive communities.
The small town of Micanopy,
which is 12 miles south of
Gainesville in Alachua County,
was once a typical country town
with amenities to serve the
inhabitants with groceries, car
repairs, banking and other needs.
When U.S. 441 was re-routed and
rebuilt, the town was bypassed,
and commerce disappeared from
the community.
However, Micanopy business
interests didn’t just sit on their
hands. They transformed their
town into an antique shopping
center that attracts visitors
from near and far, and while
it doesn’t progress, it stays
alive. Micanopy has no natural
attractions, although it is only
5-6 miles from Orange Lake,
formerly an outstanding bass
lake, but now subject to droughts
and fish kills. It is also on the
Letters
editor@bctelegraph.com
No justice in
this instance
Dear Editor:
The major push currently
underway to grant amnesty
to those who have entered or
remain in our country illegally
is gaining momentum. Many
church officials have jumped
on the bandwagon, and heavyhitting
(pseudo) Republican
lawmakers have joined as well.
Some of these individuals are
using “justice and compassion”
as reasoning for this support. I
can see that it would be an act
of compassion to legalize what
these lawbreakers have done.
But justice? No way.
This legislation would give
those granted amnesty access to
all kinds of rights and privileges,
southern edge of Paynes Prairie,
an interesting former lakebed,
but having no momentary value
to the community.
Admittedly, having a heavily
traveled highway running
through a town does not
guarantee prosperity. Many
small towns have remained
constant, even though major
highways pass through their
centers. However, re-routing
a highway around a town
invariably costs the town future
growth.
When Bradford County
had an effective agriculture
base, producing and shipping
strawberries, and with the
Brooker area growing tobacco
and vegetables, the economy
was humming along, with
everyone participating in the
various enterprises then existent.
The agricultural base is gone.
Strawberry growing moved
to Plant City, and the money
crop—tobacco—lost its market.
The Brooker fields now lie
silent and untended, except
for occasional cattle grazing.
Actually, Bradford County has
limited acres of fertile soil that
lends itself to farming.
The highway bypass is
beyond the talking stage and is
now a certainty, with a five-year
window for business owners
to consider its effect on their
holdings. Certainly, the many
eating places on U.S. 301 will
be the first to feel the effects of
diverting traffic. The motels will
continue to fill during football
season, but the months between
which Americans enjoy. This as
a result of their disrespecting
our laws. That’s justice? What
these proposals do not do is
absolutely seal the border, which
presently allows drug dealers,
terrorists, disease bearers and
anyone else to enter our country.
Do we not have an obligation
to control these borders so as
to offer security to those who
have legally obtained American
citizenship?
As far as I can see, this entire
attempt to “reform immigration”
is based on lies, just as much of
what comes out of Washington,
D.C. In 1986, when Sen. Ted
Kennedy spearheaded a similar
catastrophe, he made it clear that
if we granted those three million
illegals amnesty, it would never
be necessary to do it again
because the BORDER WOULD
BE SECURED. Today’s current
Democrats, who are making
sure that they are seen as the
party of these poor, abused
undocumented workers, are
simply repeating Kennedy’s lie.
There is no intention of sealing
our borders. Why? Because open
seasons will prove to be difficult
for operators and employees.
The late Freeman Register
III said, “Waldo will become
Starke, and Starke will become
Waldo.” That quotation sums
up the situation facing Starke
residents and business operators.
The North Florida Regional
Chamber of Commerce is
actively working to attract
industry into town, but repeatedly
hears industry say, “We don’t
want to be in a prison setting.”
That thinking is a real burden to
chamber officials and represents
ignorance on the part of business
operators whose knowledge
of corrections is limited. The
chamber could consider a
program for educating business
leaders about the high quality of
employees currently employed
in correctional facilities and the
educational facilities available,
especially in Bradford County.
The Bradford-Union Technical
Center is unappreciated, under
utilized by the community and
unknown outside the local area.
Community leaders are sitting
on their collective hands in
regard to telling the world about
the advantages of relocating to
Bradord and Union counties.
It’s time to take a look at
ourselves, since the growth
of our community is in our
own hands. It is either grow or
regress; the community can’t
stand still.
By Buster Rahn
Telegraph editorialist
borders are a political avalanche
which wipes away Republican
Party support. (And it won’t be
mitigated by token Republican
saviors of immigrants.)
As a result of the 1986
amnesty, California has changed
from a Republican to a solidly
Democratic state. And it just
so happens that a majority of
those three million who were
pardoned live in California.
What a coincidence! So what
will happen if between 11 and 30
million more illegals are granted
citizenship? It’s pretty obvious,
isn’t it?
Current bills regarding
immigrants have nothing to
do with justice. They reek of
a political roundhouse, whose
purpose is to secure votes. They
are a travesty, and I will do
everything I can to oppose them.
True justice just might be to
actually secure our borders and
require all prospective citizens
to follow our laws for entrance.
Is this unreasonable?
Sincerely,
Lennard C. Young
Keystone Heights
Letters
editor@bctelegraph.com
People of
Starke should
be ‘ashamed’
of behavior
Dear Editor:
Over the course of the last 35
years, I have passed through
and stopped in your quaint,
little city for fuel, restaurants,
a soda, cigarettes and even
to stay the night on occasion
while traveling Highway 301 an
infinite number of times driving
back and forth between my home
and Jacksonville. It’s the easiest
and fastest way to go. However,
I must say that my trip through
this past Saturday may very well
put an end to my patronage of
your city.
I made a specific trip to Starke
just to be a part of a once-ina-lifetime,
anthropological,
historical event, the unveiling
and dedication of the nation’s
first atheist monument on public
property. My intentions were to
attend the ceremony and then
have lunch somewhere there in
Starke. Unfortunately, the horrid
behavior of some of your citizens
completely ruined my appetite.
When I first arrived in Starke,
I stopped to refuel, get a soda
and to use the restroom. Entering
the convenience store wearing
an atheist T-shirt, I was greeted
by a man and a woman behind
the counter with rude, nasty
comments about my T-shirt and
the apparent reason I was in
town.
When I got to the courthouse,
I was shocked to see protesters
carrying not only several of the
series of Confederate flags, but
also a Bonnie Blue flag and an
Orphan Brigade flag. These are
flags that represent division,
animosity, fear, hate, ignorance,
racism and slavery. Not one
protester carried an American
flag. In addition, the signs they
were holding and displaying
were not only un-American, but
selfish, arrogant and rude.
There were other residents
across the street from the
courthouse ceremony in fourwheel-drive
trucks blaring
country music, yelling very
hateful remarks across the street
and holding signs, coaxing
passing motorists into honking
their horns in attempts to disrupt
the ceremony. When I drove
out of the courthouse parking
lot, someone threw a fountain
drink cup at my vehicle, yelling
goodbye and good riddance.
I would wager that not one of
those people who were protesting
the atheist monument on
Saturday was even in attendance
at the ceremony for the wrongful
and unconstitutional placing and
unveiling ceremony of the Ten
Commandments monument that
began this whole ordeal.
All y’all in Starke should
be ashamed of the frightfully
childish, ignorant and hateful
behavior from some of y’all. I
am a Florida resident, and I am
entirely ashamed of the way you
represented Florida to the nation
and the world.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Brian Snapp
Citrus County
This reader
thankful for
hard work of
wait staff
Dear Editor:
I wish to apologize to all of
the waiters and waitresses in
the Starke-Keystone area for
the way many of us act in your
restaurants.
Many of us are Christians,
but you would not know it by
our behavior. Some folks are
demanding, rude and poor (or
no) tippers. Some have not
realized that a gospel tract will
not buy gas for your car. Some
believe they were put on this
earth to be food critics, judges
and problem solvers. Some will
eat until they can’t breathe while
complaining the food doesn’t
taste like momma used to make.
I thank you for your long
hours, low pay and sore feet.
Some of us appreciate what
you do.
Rick Crane
Keystone Heights
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