Letters to the editor for Dec. 26, 2018
Invest in public education
I did not vote for Ron DeSantis, but I did have high hopes that a young energetic man coming into the governor's office would be governor for all Floridians. I was encouraged by his goals of giving Florida's environment high consideration and have been watching patiently for nonpartisan decisions, but he freaked me out by appointing Richard Corcoran as education commissioner.
As stated in the editorial published Dec. 17, we must protest this appointment. The fact that he has been very instrumental in the state's efforts to funding charter and private schools with taxpayers' money, and his wife is actively trying to expand her charter school "business," should make us all cringe.
We Floridians need to make sure those who make the decisions for public education are doing it for the right reasons — not to pad their pockets, but because the investment we make in our students, schools and teachers will be the biggest pay-off ever
Marcia Storch, Gainesville
Questionable priorities
We Americans have questionable priorities when it comes to deaths that we suffer and the money that our government spends to prevent them. There were about 3,500 total American deaths from domestic and foreign terrorism from 1970 to 2009. In contrast, there are 40,100 annual traffic deaths in the United States, gun deaths annually are about 33,636 and cancer deaths are 600,920 annually (data from 2017).
Certainly, it is problematic to ask Americans to suffer the indignity of surrendering their guns to save about 33,600 gun victims annually. But how does that compare to the daily indignity of having 2.6 million Americans waiting in line, taking off their shoes and spilling out anything they have in a bottle to perhaps save 3,500 lives over a period of 40 years, most of which could have been prevented by the simple act of profiling people who looked like they might be terrorists?
George L. Barnett, Micanopy
Worse presidents
A Dec. 18 letter alleged that Jimmy Carter was the worst president of the 20th century. Did the writer consider Warren Harding (massive corruption), Teddy Roosevelt (war in the Philippines, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths there), Herbert Hoover (failure to cope with the Great Depression), Lyndon Johnson (Vietnam), Richard Nixon (Vietnam and Watergate), and Ronald Reagan (Iran-Contra)?
Also, the writer's analysis of Iran is inadequate. Members of the Shah's repressive secret police were making the Iranian regime one of the most hated in the world. Also, one can not blame the U.S. for everything that went wrong in Iran. The secular left made a mistake supporting Ayatollah Khomeini, which was not Carter's fault.
While I generally do not rank presidents, Jimmy Carter does not merit the writer's ranking.
Albert Meyer, Gainesville
Disrupted weather patterns
A Dec. 11 letter, "Narrative has changed," overlooks the devastation our grandchildren will suffer. Here and worldwide, millions have already lost loved ones, homes, business and even their very way of life. Many are displaced or refugees suffering from malnutrition, all because of global warming.
Recorded rising temperatures have increased the moisture in our atmosphere, causing more intense storms, tornadoes and blizzards. Warmer oceans have caused stronger hurricanes and cyclones.
Fresh water from melting ice caps lessens the salt ratio, which disrupts the major oceans currents that affect our weather patterns (i.e. without our Gulf stream crossing the Atlantic, England would be cold like Canada).
Disrupted weather patterns also cause prolonged droughts and unusual floods, leading to more intense wildfires and mudslides. Disappearing glacier ice also causes water shortages from drinking and agriculture. Put simply, uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions will fill our atmosphere and accelerate changes.
Christine Hester, Bronson