LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Political Operative

Re: "Meet Fred Taylor" and "John Russell: Warrior For Peace," by Hernando Today columnist Frances Earl.

Frances Earl's choppy/rambling writing style with fragmented sentences made it difficult to determine where her ideas (ideals) were inserted into those of the respective candidates. I was totally unaware that drug companies were suggesting that childhood obesity could be cured solely by drugs. I thought the answer was closing all fast-food restaurants! Interestingly, Fred Taylor strengths for state senator are noted as his military experience and age. Fortunately he's not running for the presidency.

John Russell, candidate for U.S. Congress, District 5, agrees with T. Boone Pickens on energy. Pickens' energy plan acknowledges the need to increase offshore domestic drilling for the short term in order to develop alternative energy sources and their respective infrastructure/delivery services. That is to say, T. Boone Pickens' energy plan is strategic and encompasses more than wind. What parts of the plan does Mr. Russell support?

I would prefer to learn about the candidates first hand or in personal letters published in the Hernando Today rather than on the editorial page filtered through a political operative.

Thomas Deutschle

Weeki Wachee

Angel From The Sky

I wish to clarify Mr. Turnbull's comments on the use of U.S. military assets to deliver humanitarian assistance in Georgia. I would like to apprise him of the following numbers.

Number of aircraft available for heavy lift of relief supplies on short notice: Red Cross - 0; Salvation Army - 0; UN - 0 (they depend on member states for assets); U.S. military -lots.

So if a country calls 911 and expects a rapid response, the call had better be directed to the U.S. military. I spent three years in Africa working, at times, with various aspects and levels of assistance. From Mogadishu in 1992 (Bush 41/Clinton administration) where we not only used U.S. aircraft but U.S. troops to directly deliver humanitarian assistance to Kinshasa, Zaire, where U.S. aircraft were used to evacuate Americans from the bullets flying in the streets, to Liberia (Clinton administration) where we worked with the UN and other agencies to evacuate civilians - not only Americans but all nationalities.

Don't forget the numerous other times where we have had to evacuate Americans from floods and other natural disasters around the world. In many cases, the aircraft bringing relief supplies into a disaster area have done double duty by ferrying American citizens out.

I annotated the presidential administrations to illustrate that the presence of an American military aircraft is hardly a provocation and all civilized governments recognize them for what they are, an angel from the sky with material to keep people alive.

Harry E. Chamberlain

Spring Hill