Cell Phone Towers

Many times over the past few years I’ve heard hard-core Democrats tell me they are addicted to Rush Limbaugh on talk radio. They all say they find the loud-mouthed bloviator fascinating.

I gotta tell you now: I feel the same about La Gaceta. Nothing better on a late Friday afternoon than kicking the feet up, sipping some bourbon, and reading “As We Heard It.” Mostly, I wince at the Democrat slant Patrick Manteiga gives to his commentary, but every now and then, I’ll mumble out loud my agreement with something he’s written. Right then, my wife gets me another drink.

In this week’s La Gaceta, Mr. Manteiga wrote the perfect defense to cell towers being placed on school grounds. Let me quote a few paragraphs.

“A group of South Tampa parents, empowered by their win in blocking the erection of a cell phone tower on the campus of Coleman Middle School, is now on a crusade to block and remove cell towers from all schools.

Their zeal in their quest to save our children from radio frequency emissions has yet to result in bonfires of their discarded cell phones, iPhones, and BlackBerries. When we see the smoke rising we’ll consider joining the mob, but until then our suspicion is that it’s just NIMBYism (not in my back yard).

If these parents are worried about the health affects of cell phones they should focus on the real danger. They should stay off the phone when driving their precious young ones to school.”

Manteiga further points out that each school with a cell tower receives about $11,000 yearly in user fees from each carrier using a tower, with each having a four-carrier ability. That indeed is a lot of money for cash strapped schools.

I hope our school district officials and our County Commissioners do not cave to these parents. We’ve all read a while back that cell phones may cause brain cancer. I’ve read no where that cell towers cause anything but the occasional unsightly image.

Of course, we now have proof positive that cell phone towers do cause dementia among some parents.

Thank you, Patrick. A piece well written!

posted by admin @ 6:56 PM