Poorer cities finding ways to bury lines

On Oct. 1, 2017, the Sun Sentinel published an editorial titled “Rich cities putting power lines underground.” I was very pleased to read the facts regarding the pros and cons of underground power lines, however, I disagree with the premise that rich cities can afford it but poor cities can’t.

As a former five-term mayor of a “poor” city in eastern Washington (population 70,000), I was very proud of the cooperative efforts of the city and the Public Utility District in finding ways to economically subsidize the costs of putting utility lines underground. Not only did it eliminate visual blight, it improved reliability and reduced operation and maintenance costs.

I am hopeful Florida Power & Light will work with local communities and the state Legislature to explore ways to finance burying power lines so that power outages like we recently experienced with Hurricane Irma can be avoided. SunSentinel.com/ opinion/ letters

celebrity as its chief values is not one that brings true happiness and peace of mind to people. The obsessive pursuit of money and objects, and preoccupation with those objects is going to be damaging emotionally and psychologically.

People act out in various ways, such as using drugs or being violent when they feel lost and alone and insecure.

Other contributing factors are the transition to a global economy, which displaces peoples’ livelihoods, and the digitalization of society, which estranges people from feeling that they “have a place under the sun.” People feel rootless and ungrounded, hence despair and hopelessness take over. Then people act out in negative and destructive ways.

We need an honest discussion of what is really happening in our society. Not Monday morning quarterbacking when tragic and horrific events occur. And we need leaders who reflect this open and honest discussion. Not leaders who tweet in sound bites in answer to these pressing issues.