Trying to respect visitors coming to island
To the editor:
I think that Councilman John Henshaw’s comments at the Sanibel City Council meeting on April 21 should be taken in the spirit with which he was speaking. I do not perceive that he was speaking against freedom of speech, but he was speaking to the harmony between people who live on this island, instead of the rampant rabid divisiveness currently affecting our country.
Political organizations on this island do not seem to have the habit, particularly on the conservative side, of going out and standing in the street with signs, even if they disagree with the people who are in power at that time.
In response to Arlene Dillon’s letter published in the April 29, 2026, issue of the Island Reporter, it does not recognize the fact that the majority of blue states and, of course, several of the red states have been ripping off the taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars, and this is the first administration that has taken note of that and is doing something about it. The current administration, I would point out, has also taken the nuclear capability of Iran away, which was the ultimate in terrorist sponsoring nations.
Her letter also does not recognize the fact that there are other forms of clean energy, which the left has stripped from our country (i.e. nuclear energy) and boondoggled the American people with windmills destroying ocean and land environments with unrecyclable materials as well as batteries, which are highly polluting in our environment and can’t be recycled. There are also large amounts of farmland taken out of food production to create solar farms.
If Trump were interested in being king or a fascist, he would have left the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) alone. Instead, he had it revised to make it more difficult for the government to spy on citizens of our country. His FBI director, Kash Patel, and the single-year assistant director, Dan Bongino, worked to make FISA more restrained. That doesn’t mean that the other party, if in power, couldn’t miss use it again, but it would be harder for it to do it. He doesn’t want this to be used against anyone politically again.
I do agree that we cannot ignore national politics because it does affect us all. But it would be nice if the “purveyors of free speech” would recognize that there is free speech also on the other side. The other side simply does not go out and make a big issue about everything going on in the world.
People come to Sanibel to unwind, forget their problems and enjoy our wonderful island and Mr. Henshaw was trying to respect those visitors who come here and support and supply this island with sustenance, particularly after the devastating hurricane.
Bruce Bielfelt
Sanibel