Not very Christian
“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” That comes from the King James version of the Bible. Many of us may be more familiar with the phrase, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Either way, I believe we all know what the statements mean, and I think we, also know that as a country, we’ve drifted far from the sentiment. It’s very easy to go to church every Sunday. What’s hard, is to live by the tenets we recite and sing about there. So, I guess the logical choices are that we either stop going to church or we start “walking the walk.” Otherwise, we’re just hypocrites!
Alligator Alcatraz! Detainees that contemplate escaping should learn to run zigzag to have a one percent chance of escaping an alligator. That’s funny stuff, but not very Christian, if Christian at all!
Based on what’s already happening in America we can realistically anticipate who’s going to end up in Alligator Alcatraz. Our “Border Czar” has already said, anyone who decides to enter our country illegally. So, it won’t be just the worst of the worst, those homicidal maniacs, rapists and escapees from insane asylums, but more likely, just regular people who have entered our country illegally.
When did entering a country illegally in search of a better life become the worst crime a person can commit? If we all honestly searched our family closets (a.k.a. our family trees), I think we could find some skeletons. How many of our migrant relatives have falsified their legal documents, changed their names, or come over as travelers and never returned? Probably a few.
There’s a couple of well-known phrases that apply here. “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” and “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” In other words, they can just as easily come after us … next.
Lance McCormack, Marco Island
Need leaders with backbone
Senator Rick Scott claims he’s working for Florida families — but actions speak louder than soundbites. By backing Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” he’s selling out Collier County to score political points with the MAGA crowd.
This budget is a disgrace. It guts health care, threatens Social Security and Medicaid, slashes environmental protections, and gives away billions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. Meanwhile, families here in Collier are being crushed by soaring insurance costs, unaffordable housing, and a climate crisis threatening our coastline. Does any of that sound “beautiful” to you?
Scott can’t pretend to care about hardworking Floridians while pushing a budget written to benefit billionaires and bend the knee to Trump’s extremist agenda. He’s not protecting us — he’s protecting his political future.
We need real investments in affordable housing, clean water, public schools, and climate resilience. We need leaders with a backbone — not lapdogs for Trump.
Jane Schlechtweg, Marco Island
We can do better
Naples: I noticed today that in our neighborhood grocery store we see the same employees every day stocking shelves, vegetables, fruits, and checking us out at the register. Many of these folks are black and brown and of Haitian and Hispanic heritage. I do not know if they are here legally or what their status is, but I know they work hard each and every day to make “us” feel comfortable that we have fresh foods and that our store is perfect in every way.
Why would our system of government select one of these hard workers (male or female) and jump out of an unmarked van with automatic weapons, masked faces, ballistic vests and throw one of them to the ground and hoist them away to a gated prison in the Everglades?
I spent a career in law enforcement arresting many drug trafficking organizations in this manner but with identification and not masked and would never think that it was necessary to apprehend a nonviolent undocumented person in this manner.
Why do we (the government) not think of a way to assist these people who work and live and contribute to our economic system by finding a pathway to citizenship for them in place of cages and transporting out of the country where they have lived, worked, and contributed in many ways to our social and economic systems to make our state, county, city and community a better place for all?
We can do better here in Florida for those that help support our communities.
Michael Bogenschutz, Naples
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: Letters to the Editor, July 11
Reporting by Marco Eagle / Marco Eagle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
