Costco beats Buc-ee's pump hogs. What's with Fort Pierce Jetty, parking? | Letters

Show Caption

Fort Pierce Jetty, parking changes: New leadership needed

I just finished reading Laurence Reisman's column on the removal of plaques at the Fort Pierce Jetty and the fact that in the future the free parking will no longer be available. 

I am sorry to say, I am very much embarrassed by what our city "leaders" are doing. Why all of a sudden no more plaques are allowed, and especially the new requirement of paying to park. 

We are seniors and live to take our coffee and snack a few times a month to park and people-watch and see all the boats in the inlet. And soon we will have to pay for this. 

I am getting to the point that I am ashamed to say that I live in Fort Pierce. It appears we need a completely new overhaul of these "leaders" in office.Pam Krause, Fort Pierce

Buc-ee's management doesn't care about gas pump hogs

Laurence Reisman had a great column about the impact of Buc-ee's and Costco.

One thing missing, which is my biggest complaint and keeping me from stopping anymore at Buc-ee's, is management does not care that 70% of people pumping gas like to fill and leave the car right at the pump.

Yes, there are many pumps, but with that many abusing this, it is hard to get a pump.

Their pumps are not like Costco, where you can pump from either side. I have spoken to some managers and they say some people don’t have credit cards, so they have to prepay. I told them to consult with Chik-fil-a on how they take funds outside the restaurant.

Jeffrey Scales, Vero Beach

Immigrants good, migrants bad? It depends

The words "illegal aliens" bring up visions of thousands of unlawful border crashers and free stuff when they get here — the bad guys.

The term "immigrant"brings up visions of law-abiders waiting their turn for legal entry, and being able to take care of themselves — the good guys. 

Have you noticed that the left at first quietly dropped the words "Illegal migrants" and replaced those words with migrants, dropping the illegal.  

Now, in both speech and print, they replace "migrants" with the word "immigrants," bestowing them some kind of legitimacy.

In other words, those bad Homeland Security folks rounded up thousands of immigrants for deportation. 

Slick, huh?

Just a thought.

Jim Grant, Jensen Beach

Some Democrats show hypocrisy when it comes to Trump

One recent letter writer started out sounding fairly reasonable, then quickly devolved into Long Trump Derangement Syndrome.  

He disparaged both our president and those of us who voted for him, calling us “blind-faith followers.”

Talk about hypocrisy. If ever there were blind-faith followers, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the Republicans in the last election. We took Joe Biden hiding in his basement during his first campaign as a very bad sign, as were the trips, falls and inability to answer simple questions from the press with more than a “yes” or a “no” without a Teleprompter.  

Blind-faith followers? Jen Psaki got a huge job with MSNBC for being a world-class liar only to be topped by Karine Jean-Pierre, who had the tenacity to write a book disparaging her party for making her look like an idiot after she vigorously defended her boss' mental health and fitness time and again from the podium.  

We recognize their methodology as being from the Democrats' well-used playbook: Demonize one side and elevate/protect the other. This works as long as you have the mainstream media on your side, which, of course, they did.  

I’m guessing this writer chose to highlight Matthew Shepard's horrific story because it fit his narrative, but it also illustrates the lies and untruths Americans have been fed, not only during the Biden presidency, but apparently throughout the Obama presidency and beyond.  

People need to wake up to who really is sowing the seeds of “hatred” and “dysfunction."

Patricia Perrone, Stuart

MAGA, Trump stuck with stain of Epstein

For years, MAGA diehards shouted, “Drain the swamp,” only to hand Donald Trump a gold-plated snorkel and a VIP pass.

Their leader, self-styled as the scourge of elite perversion, promised to dismantle child-trafficking rings while casually reminiscing about his pal Jeffrey Epstein, who, according to Trump, “liked beautiful women as much as I do, many of them on the younger side.”

Charming.

The faithful waited breathlessly for Epstein’s client list to drop, certain it would finally expose Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and maybe even Big Bird. But then came the gut punch: Trump wasn’t just a footnote, he was a recurring character.

According to Pam Bondi, yes, the Florida loyalist who helped argue his Supreme Court case, she told Trump back in May that his name was mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files, according to various reports.

Did Trump panic? Of course not. He did what any totally innocent man would do. He accused Obama of treason. Because when you’re neck-deep in swamp muck and your name’s turning up in Epstein’s orbit, the only move left is to scream “OBAMA!” like a toddler knocking over blocks and blaming the dog.

Now MAGA's in full damage-control mode, trying to rewrite the script they wrote themselves. The same crowd that screamed about “pedophile elites” now shrugs and says, “Well, he was just in the same room.” The same people who demanded justice now say Trump was framed by the deep state, the Clintons or a pizza-loving lizard.

But the rot isn’t on the other side, it’s inside the red hat. Trump didn’t drain the swamp. He bought a timeshare in it. And MAGA, hoisted on its own sanctimonious petard, is learning the hard way that when you hunt monsters with hash tags, you better be sure your guy’s not riding shotgun on the Lolita Express.

Mike Milz, Vero Beach

Who hired non-essential federal employees?

In 1979 for Christmas vacation, my family went to Washington, D.C. It was during the Carter administration, and Iran was holding our people hostage. We went to a prayer service for the hostages and there was a great feeling of unity.

We planned to visit some of the sites, however the media announced that due to an ice storm all non-essential employees did not have to come to work. I thought that if they worked for me, they would be essential. If not, they would no longer be employed by me.

This winter, the phrase has been used many times. Once President Donald Trump went into office, he put the Department of Government Efficiency in place. Its purpose was to evaluate all departments in the U.S. government. Many of the non-essentials lost their jobs. It is never a good thing when anyone loses their job. 

My question is: In the last 47-plus years, how did the non-essential employees get hired in the first place?

My answer is that we can thank the bureaucrats, the presidents, both political parties and the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Maybe DOGE should evaluate the representatives and senators as they are responsible for excess spending. Elon Musk and his committee advised we should put an end to our spending. His reward was that vandals attacked Tesla cars and trucks by setting them on fire. They hoped to stop his committee from identifying more non-essential personnel in the government.

Charles Hopper, Port St. Lucie

Diversity? Inclusion? Consider context of 2025

Diversity and inclusion policies have run amok. Please consider the following:

The largest, single mass lynching in American history was not perpetuated against Blacks, Hispanics or American Indians, but rather against Italian immigrants in the city of New Orleans in 1891.

I am bringing this up because as a retired history teacher it disturbs me that many Americans are not aware of American history. Theodore Roosevelt, one of my favorite presidents, who was then serving on the U.S. Civil Service Commission, wrote to his sister, Anna, that "personally I think (the lynchings) were rather a good thing."

In an effort to ease tensions with Italy and placate Italian Americans, President Benjamin Harrison declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Italian explorers landing in the New World.

Now, however, some people want to tear down statues of Columbus and erase Columbus  Day without knowing the sad history and origins of Columbus Day. I am sure these people might moderate their views if they understood the history behind the establishment of Columbus Day.

Conversely, how many Americans are aware that the Aztec people called themselves the Mexica. Yes, that is where the country of Mexico gets its name. As many of us are aware, the Aztec people were brutal to the other native Americans who lived in the area at the time.

Does that mean because of their brutality we should change the name of Mexico to something else? Of course not. That was then and this is now.

Perhaps, we, as Americans, should look before we leap, and consider the following: It does not matter what ship our ancestors came over on ― because we are all in the same boat now.

Joseph Florio, Port St. Lucie

Join the Conversation: TCPalm is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. Email us at TCNLetters@tcpalm.com. Letters are subject to editing, must not exceed 300 words and must include your name, address and a daytime phone number to confirm the letter is for publication. We only publish names and cities with the letters.