Using public funds to compete with the private sector is flat-out wrong.

While economic development should be a goal of most cities, the use of public funds to directly compete with the private sector is the wrong path toward prosperity.

I am referring to the controversial Pavilion on the Lake project on Lake Dora in Tavares that the city administration said will pay for itself through renting it for

activities such as weddings, etc. How can the private sector possibly compete with a taxpayer-subsidized facility? This is wrong and should not stand.

Business interests and I mean people and families - invest and risk their own capital to provide such services and make

a return. Now, after massive investments, they are expected to compete against the public sector, where profit and return are not a consideration?

How will the city establish a price for the use of this fine facility? Will the pricing be based on the taxpayer investment or priced to beat the local competition? The latter most likely will be the case.

The one golden rule I've learned in my political career is that the public sector should provide only what the private sector cannot.

I would hope the elected leaders of Tavares agree that their duty is to create a good environment for the private sector to grow and not compete unfairly with the private sector.

Published March 17th 2013, Lake Sentinel

I've come to realize that outside of some major-medical or hospitalization policy, we don't need insurance at all. All we need is the ability to negotiate our bills the same way insurance companies do.

Not long ago, I Had to get a few stitches. No big deal. I have good insurance with a $15 co-pay.

About a month later, I received a bill from the clinic for $800. Of that, all but $65 had been discounted through negotiations with the insurance company. I paid $15, which left $40 Pending for insurance to pay.

If I hadn't had insurance, the medical facility would want the entire $800 from me. Instead, it is happy with $65. You would think that if a medical facility is OK with a $65 payment I could save a large amount every month in insurance premiums. Why can't people without insurance negotiate the same reduction?

The illusion created that insurance companies pay the actual difference of the bill minus the co-pay gives many with insurance great comfort. The truth is that having to have insurance for every minor occurrence of going to the doctor has ruined preventative and primary health care for so many.

The idea that only massive premiums can provide quality health care has been manufactured by insurance companies and is breaking the financial backs of hard-working small-business people and families.

Published April 28th, 2014 Daily Commercial.

Let's put prayer back in school. By this time, we are all aware of the degradation of our society. The level of senseless violence has most of us wondering why our children have taken violence to such extremes. Shoot-outs are a daily occurrence along with rape, robbery and murder. The total lack of respect for the law and law enforcement has reached an all-time low and seems to be getting lower. We have desensitized ourselves to acts of violence that- only a short time ago - were considered outrageous. Now they are not even news worthy. Just another drive by shooting.

The problem is society's failed solutions such as gun control, knife control, take away drugs, give them drugs, and, when nothing works, throw money at the problem with a "program". It's time to really get radical and think outside the box. Let's put prayer back in school. Let's give our kids a moral foundation to grow on. With single parents working two jobs to make ends meet, how is any time dedicated to raising and nurturing children? If that doesn't sound bad enough, now there are homeless children attending school. How does that work? Imagine for one minute being a child on your own trying your best to survive. Give the school systems some tools to work with. Prayer in school would cost nothing. We would have to wait a generation or two for it to have a lasting effect but still, short-term improvements could be seen in as few as ten years. The taking of prayer from schools under the misguided humanistic guise of separation of church and state" has been a failure to our society, our school system and our families. To degrade a society you start with children, as we have seen. To fix it you also have to start with the children. Matthew 19:14 "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them. For the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." God bless America.

Published December 4th 2016

The longstanding conspiracy theory of the degrading of America is a reality. You have to ask yourself: Is this really happening? How is this possible? Who is behind the conspiracy? Finally, why?

The who and why is much specu- lated. The how is easily explained. You want to degrade a society that is God- fearing and morally sound, you start with the children. Taking prayer out of schools is a good start but not effec tive when parents were raised with prayer in schools. You have to wait a generation, or preferably two, until parents raised with no moral values are now having children. Children grow to become leaders and now are making policies and laws that reflect the values of the current generation

Those of you who grew up in the 50s, could you even imagine the kind of trash that is now found on public television? The list is so long. Where would you start? Shows that embrace promiscuous sex, witchcraft, demonic culture and shows that make a family of two parents the exception and single parents the norm.

Could you imagine the outcry over one of our current public television shows showing two men "making out" to a 1950s audience? The public outcry would be loud. Yet today, our children are bombarded with a perverted reality and norm that has never reflected the mainstream of our society. It's kind of a self-fulfilling reality, similar to the Big Lie-shown enough times society becomes desensitized and accepting of alter- native lifestyles that are a very small percentage of the population. Then, acceptance is no longer good enough. Now, our children and grand-children are being conditioned and required to embrace what was a short time ago unaccepted. Who? Why? I would like to know.

Published Daily Commercial

Having read a colum on Ferguson, MO., on Nov. 29, I couldn't disagree more. How can this possibly be compared to the beating of Rodney King? This officer was in a fight for his life. Tragic that a life was lost. These anarchist and self-anointed civil right leaders should be ashamed of the continued pain they are inflicting on a community they neither live in nor have given any healing to.
A federal civil rights investigation being started now that the grand jury has reached a very difficult decision for the community to bear is nothing more than inflammatory grandstanding.
There have been 200 FBI agents on the ground in Ferguson for two months. What have they been doing all this time? Certainly not protecting people's property, or does that not fall under our federal government's jurisdiction?
What of prosecution of all the witnesses that lied to the police during the investigation? Or does that criminal behavior get by because it helps the healing process to know that lying under oath is OK during a lawful investigation. I think everyone that wants change knows it has to come from the inside. Not burning and looting our communities.
Young people should always be encouraged to stay in school and continue their education. No change will come through burning and looting. No change will happen when thugs, bullies and criminals are looked upon as being heroes. Encourage children to choose a career in law enforcement. Change can happen if parents and community leaders want it.

Published, Daily Commercial