Port St. Lucie residents losers in soccer stadium debacle
I was very disappointed to learn that the city of Port St. Lucie will be welcoming a professional soccer team.
It would have been considerate if the city council would’ve approached the people of the city first to see if they wanted to pursue such an endeavor.
Although, if you know the history of our area, it is not surprising that the council chose not to do this. Those of us who have invested our lives and our fortunes into this part of the Treasure Coast, and its way of life, remember when Martin County tried to attract the Houston Astros baseball team. The people of Martin County overwhelmingly rejected this proposal, in hopes of preserving their cherished way of life.
A few years later, when the New York Mets wanted to bring their team to St. Lucie County, the powers that be circumvented the will of the people by using backdoor methods by which they did not need the approval of St. Lucie County voters.
It seems our current city council learned that lesson well. To not even be considered in such an enormous endeavor demonstrates disrespect for the residents of this city, as this action will negatively affect all of our lives.
Unfortunately, this is just another nail in the coffin of what used to be a beautiful part of the Treasure Coast.
As our city council, although well meaning, could not achieve a serviceable garbage contract for the people of the city, it leaves me with a feeling of great apprehension that all of the issues concerning such a massive soccer endeavor, such as traffic, pollution, increased taxes, quality of life and providing emergency services, will be properly addressed.
I’m afraid, that once the “WOW!” factor subsides and reality sinks in, the residents of our city will be the losers.
Joseph Florio, Port St. Lucie
Indian River County sheriff should show some gratitude
In regard to Laurence Reisman’s’ recent column concerning Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers and what Alma Lee Loy would think.
Loy would turn Flowers over her knee and give him a good, old-fashioned spanking. And then give him one of her very stern talkings-to about being respectful and a person of integrity.
Former Sheriff Roy Raymond would take him by the ear out behind the barn and wear his (behind) out. He would ask him why in the wide-eyed world does he need to have so many captains at excessive salary packages.
Raymond would demand Flowers account for where every dollar of taxpayer money was actually spent, instead of going to deputies’ salaries. Flowers has used deputies’ salaries as justification in all previous years for his budget increases.
And to have the absolute audacity to accuse our county commissioners of a “Defund The Police” attitude.
Flowers should be ashamed of himself. It is by the grace of God he is sitting where he is right now.
Gratitude instead of arrogance is the attitude that is appropriate for him right now.
Ginie Meadows, Vero Beach
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers speaks during a press conference, June 2, 2025, regarding a multi-agency ocean rescue after a single-engine plane crashed Sunday evening off the coast of Vero Beach. All three on board survived.
Flowers should accept KISS principle
There is a management axiom I recall from my career. It is the KISS principle: Keep it simple stupid.
Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers should not waste taxpayer money by taking legal action against the county commission. He is not being defunded; he is being treated like any other submitter of a municipal budget.
Being defunded is when money is taken away from an already established budget.
His budget proposal is being scrutinized and will be funded: Do not make a mockery or political issue of the process.
KISS in other words: “Keep it simple, Sheriff.”
As a FYI, both of my parents and an uncle worked in law enforcement.
Ronald D. Roberts, Sebastian
Good reasons not to rush in naming government ‘things’ after anyone
Why the rush to name things after Charlie Kirk, or anyone for that matter? Give it a break and revisit the idea after an appropriate period.
Too often, those being honored in a hurry end up having foibles that disgrace them in death and are revealed months afterward. I have seen that this particular person had some anti-Semitic texts, blaming “Jews” for problems. Is this not offensive to our Jewish residents?
A small town in Broward County has named a street for Donald Trump. Residents are upset. What happens when people finally admit all his crimes are crimes?
A school named after an activist who then speaks out against the board that named it elicits the comment, “never again,” unless they have been dead awhile. Another school was named after a superintendent who later ran over a former student while drunk with his mistress in his car.
These are all examples of why we should avoid the rush, not to mention the separation of church and state.
Jeff Hamilton, Sebastian
Honor Kirk, but not by mandate: He would not have wanted that
Regarding Laurence Reisman’s column, “Ready for Charlie Kirk Road at IRSC?” a St. Lucie County Commissioner was overruled in naming a memorial highway after Kirk.
A state representative proposed mandating colleges and universities to name a road after Kirk. Memorial highways are usually remembered by their original namesake. Kirk’s name should be honored, but never by mandate.
Regarding Kirk dividing people. Dr. Martin Luther King also divided people. We are as divided then as we are now. Often, we view division as right vs. left, but the division created by King and Kirk was about right vs. wrong.
Kirk opened free discourse on leftist collegiate indoctrination centers, where debate and free exchange of ideas were once embraced. Kirk encouraged men and women to embrace responsibility, marriage and children. He preached values, patriotism and liberty.
Countless people converted their way of thinking to strengthen the nuclear family, free speech and our nation because of Charlie. About 100,000 people filled the stadium at his Arizona funeral after waiting hours in desert heat. Applications to start Turning Point USA chapters have increased by thousands.
Love him or hate him, Kirk is vastly beloved and, agree or disagree, he preached virtue over vice and always with a listening ear to dissenting voices, and with an invitation to freely allow them to speak and debate. Kirk was more gracious to his dissenters than many of them were to him, then or now.
Kirk should be honored with a national holiday, like King. Honoring Kirk’s name should be widely encouraged and allowed wherever appropriate, but never mandated. Kirk cherished liberty, and I am sure he would agree.
On Oct. 14, Kirk’s 32nd birthday, President Donald Trump posthumously awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s just not enough.
Douglas Wrenn, Vero Beach
Remember Horst Wessel? Kirk similar martyr?
Has it struck anyone that Charlie Kirk has become a “martyr to the cause” just like Germany’s Horst Wessel in 1930?
Makes one wonder if someone has written the Charlie Kirk Song.
In many ways, the parallels to that time and that place are becoming too obvious.
James Moses, Port St. Lucie
Foreign aid helps everyone? Here’s why
We talk about global poverty like it’s distant, but it’s not. Almost 700 million people live on less than $2.15 a day.
That’s not just sad, but also dangerous. When people lack stability, it leads to conflict, migration and economic fallout that eventually affects everyone, including us.
Foreign aid isn’t wasted money. It’s less than 1% of the federal budget, but it builds schools, supports farmers and helps countries grow their own economies. That means fewer crises we have to pay for later and more markets for American products.
Florida relies on trade and tourism, both of which grow when the world is stable. Stronger countries buy more U.S. goods, travel more and open opportunities for our state. Helping people out of poverty isn’t charity; it’s a strategy that makes the world safer, the economy stronger and the future more secure.
That’s something Congress should keep funding.
Elliott Evrard-Vescio, Palm City, is a student at Florida Atlantic University High School in Boca Raton. He is a youth ambassador and advocate for The Borgen Project.
Courts must hold Homeland Security, ICE accountable
Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes under the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is to “protect America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threatens national security.”
President Donald Trump appointed Stephen Miller to advise it, and he has pushed the organization to arrest 3,000 people a day.
The ICE officers are masked to protect themselves from recognition by their neighbors, who would probably ostracize them and cause their children to be shunned in schools. National polls show the great majority of Americans do not approve of the violence displayed by ICE officers when making arrests.
Most arrests are not for violent criminals as Homeland Security has claimed, but are longtime residents who outstayed their visas.
In contrast, our state police are not masked. They wear cameras to ensure that when they arrest suspects for violent crime like murder, assault and armed robbery, the suspects are treated with human dignity.
ICE officers should wear cameras. Now the public is using cellphones to photograph ICE violence for some degree of accountability.
Latinos make up most of the people being targeted by ICE, but the next biggest group of people who entered the country illegally are from India. Will they be targeted next by ICE?
By threatening peaceful protestors, targeting minority populations and using extreme brutality to silence and arrest U.S. civilians, ICE demonstrates again it needs to be regulated. Since the Trump administration won’t do it, it is left to the courts to protect our rights.
Let us hope the judicial branch will act responsibly and impartially, its decisions acting as a check and balance to the executive branch during these disturbing times.
Lizbeth Piel, Stuart
Trump, others have reason to attack journalists, hide Epstein files?
In 2016, a woman filed a federal lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of raping her in 1994 when she was 13. While attending a party at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, formerly owned by billionaire Les Wexner, the Ohio founder of L Brands (Victoria’s Secret), the woman alleged that Trump tied her to a bed and raped her, according to multiple media reports.
On May 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalie Holloway disappeared while vacationing on Aruba. A few days later, two of my New Albany (Ohio) High School students were discussing the abduction.
One student declared: “I think she was kidnapped and taken to an island where girls are kept as sex slaves.”
“You can’t be serious,” I said. “An island of child sex slaves?”
The student replied: “It exists.”
I dismissed her comments as teenage fantasy. However, Wexner’s corporate offices were nearby, and Epstein was Wexner’s personal financial adviser. Epstein was known to some of New Albany’s social elites and L Brands’ corporate staff.
When the woman identified as “Jane Doe” was scheduled to meet the press, her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, announced: She’s “received numerous death threats today. She’s in terrible fear.” To protect her identity, she didn’t address journalists.
Later that year, the woman filed a court complaint in New York. In her formal declaration, she stated, according to Politico: “Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I to reveal any of the details of his sexual and physical abuse, my family and I would be physically harmed if not killed.”
Trump might have a reason for undermining the credibility of news media and their investigative reporters: helping to cover up sexual abuse of children.
We’ll never see all the Epstein files because some of those involved are powerful, politically connected men untouchable in our corrupt, contemporary culture. They rape children without legal consequence.
This is what evil looks like and does.
Cray Little, Vero Beach
White America victimized? By whom, exactly?
Charlie Kirk, we’re told, wanted to “save the lost boys of the West — and that was just incredible. Young man robbed of their inheritance, taught their country is worthless, told they are toxic, they are the cause of all the problems. We see all the impacts of that, if we can’t save our sons, it’s over.”
“Robbed of their inheritance”. What inheritance is it, that White Anglo-Saxon men were destined to rule the United States? Where exactly does it say that in the Constitution?
I’m a White Anglo-Saxon who traces my family back since the 1690s. I don’t say that.
“Taught their country is worthless”? When? Where? No they were not told they are toxic. Who called “lost boys“ toxic? Who claims a bunch of White kids are the problem? The gay, the LBGTQ+, the far left, some on the right side are crying. They’re being bullied by the far left.
They’re being bullied by the big, macho MAGA. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. When will these people stop playing the victim? Poor me, poor me.
“I’ve been victimized.” It’s their mantra. Since when is it patriotic to play the victim?
White America has not been victimized. People who claim that embarrass themselves.
Don Whisman, Stuart
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach icon would spank sheriff. Soccer hurts St Lucie | Letters