Please explain how it is that sensible gun laws to prevent killing innocent people are an infringement of Second Amendment rights, but the anti-defamation bills in Tallahassee are not an infringement of First Amendment rights. I don’t understand.
Marcy Sohn, Boynton Beach
Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t represent the majority of Floridians as he claims. He represents only those who voted for him.
If Democrats and all those still capable of thinking for themselves had come out to vote, women wouldn’t be having their bodily rights taken from them. We wouldn’t be having our LGBTQ population degraded. We wouldn’t soon be having people, some mentally deranged, walking the streets with guns in their hands.
But our governor doesn’t care. He panders to religious zealots and racists who have been given carte blanche to act in ways they never would have in a normal society. Only if we begin to look for honest representatives who aren’t stooges of the governor, who truly represent the people, and vote out everyone playing politics for their own greed, might we ever emerge from this cesspool of humanity that we allow to fester.
Carren Strock, Delray Beach
Florida’s new school voucher law (HB 1) will have harmful consequences its sponsors may not have considered.
Public schools promote diversity where students of different races, religions and backgrounds interact, hopefully to eliminate stereotypes and prejudices. By providing public money for parents to select private and religious schools which align more with their personal beliefs, this can easily undermine the opportunity for children to interact with others different from themselves. Consequently, the state can potentially promote narrow-mindedness and divisiveness among children. Society already has enough of that.
Allen Smith, Boynton Beach
I read with great interest your editorial on the death penalty and SB 450. The more I read, the angrier I got. It led me to crumple up the page and throw it on the floor. What a diatribe.
You left out the human side of the story: the aftermath of tragedy. Place yourself in the shoes of people whose lives have been horribly affected forever or completely destroyed by Nikolas Cruz, the confessed killer of 14 students and three staff members who wounded 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. What if it were one of your children or your best friend?
The killer has a place to sleep, doesn’t have to worry about money and eats three meals a day. He can exercise. He’s breathing. Should he be?
You mention the word “vengeance” in regard to the death penalty. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson stated that the U.S. would have vengeance. The Bible’s Sermon on the Mount says the punishment should match the crime. From scripture, Exodus 12:23-25 states: “But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth ....”
A person convicted of first-degree murder should not be allowed to walk on the face of this earth and the death penalty be nothing but a majority vote.
Edward Ross, West Palm Beach
Dictators dictate what universities and schools can teach. They curb the press. They decide who votes. They limit nonviolent demonstrations and prevent citizens from suing businesses. They go after those who criticize them.
They demonize groups for religion, gender, national origin or political affiliation. In other words, dictators distain the Bill of Rights. That is happening in Florida today. Our governor and legislative leaders are following the dictator playbook.
Is this the Florida we want? Contact the governor and legislators. In a democratic republic, they are our employees.
Maureen Dinnen, Fort Lauderdale
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