Lehigh man writes Obama prior to trip to Southwest Florida on Tuesday
A Lehigh Acres man on Sunday released the text of a letter he has sent to President Barack Obama just two days before the president is expected to visit Fort Myers and later, take a tour of Lehigh Acres to see an area where hundreds of homes have been taken over by the banks because of foreclosures.
Amon Louis Kerns of Danby Rd., tells Obama that what he will see in Lehigh are abandoned and foreclosed homes and the people giving Obama the tour are the people in Fort Myers who caused the problems in Lehigh.
Meanwhile, Liz Eilf, a member of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp. said she has written the White House as has fellow member James Crews, LACPC’s secretary. Both are concerned that nobody from Lehigh will accompany Obama on his tour of Lehigh.
This weekend, it was announced that President Obama would fly into Southwest Florida International Airport at around 11 a.m. Tuesday and he will be taken to the Harborside Event Center where he is expected to be at noon to talk about his economic stimulus package that he is trying to get the House and Senate to pass in Washington to bring relief to the ailing economy.
Tickets to get into Harborside are available to the public on Monday morning, beginning at 9 a.m. on a first-come, first served basis.
Following the program, Obama will tour Lehigh, but the mode of transportation has not been made public. What has been made public is that Fort Myers Jim Humphrey, Don Stillwell, the county manager, and another person in Lee County government, will likely accompany him. Lehigh residents say they have don’t remember the last time the county manager visited Lehigh and they don’t remember seeing the Fort Myers mayor in Lehigh either.
As of this weekend, County Commissioner Frank Mann, who lives in Alva, and knows of the problems of Lehigh, has not been asked to take part in the Lehigh tour. Neither have any local leaders in the community been asked to take part in the tour.
Many in Lehigh believe it should be Lehigh people who show the president areas of Lehigh where homes have been abandoned and talk to him about the people who have lost jobs and have to go to food banks to feed their families.
The letter to President Obama follows in Kerns’ owns words.
“Mr. President, on Tuesday, Feb. 10th, you will tour Lehigh Acres. What you will see, are the hundreds of abandoned and foreclosured houses. This is what you will see, because the ones planning your tour, are the ones that caused the abandoned and foreclosured homes, by allowing all the building in the first place.
What you won’t see, are hundred’s of homes that are kept up, mortgage payments made on time, homes with kids and grand-kids living with their parents because they lost their jobs.
“I retired in 2001 and built a home in Lehigh Acres in 2003. I took my money from my IRA, after the event of 9/11, paid $12,000 in taxes, and built my home. I have a $69,000 mortgage because I had to bale my son out, so he would not lose his home, but that is another story. My wife and I suffered through the gas price gorge, the high cost of food, medical supplies, taxes, insurance, and every thing else tied to the gas price increase.
“We both work part-time, but have seen our hours cut to two days a week. My daughter and two grandkids had to move in with us because she lost her job, and although she works hard every day to find a new one, she hasn’t, because there are none in Southwest Florida!
“So, Mr. President, my question to you is, what are you going to do for me? All you could do for me is to create jobs, jobs, jobs! Bailing out Wall Street, the banks and large institutions, and the car companies, won’t do a thing for me.
“I can’t borrow money from the banks without a job, I can’t invest in Wall Street without a job, I can’t buy a new car without a job.
“On second thought, don’t do anything for me. Just get out of the way, keep big government off my back, and I will survive. Besides, my kids, their kids, and their kids can’t afford any more help!”