Tom Edwards: A sane voice on School Board
Bravo to Sarasota County School Board Member Tom Edwards for his brilliant guest column on the bullying going on toward him and the LGBTQ community.
And Edwards deserves thanks for reminding us that the DEI words of “diversity, equity and inclusion” are values and verbs – and NOT nouns!
Tom is a quiet, intelligent and sane voice on the School Board – and that is urgently needed.
Should Tom Edwards continue to fight for our children and grandchildren in school against bullying?
Hell yes!
Gloria Peretz, Osprey
Sarasota police wrong to block will of voters
In August 2024 I was elected to represent my precinct as a member of the Republican Party.
A few months later, a local Republican Party Executive Committee session was held – and when I heard the Sarasota Police Department would be there, I brought proof of my election and a copy of the law.
The police sergeant made it clear he didn’t care about the law.
He didn’t care that I had been elected to my position.
I was told to leave or he would arrest me.
I brought these facts to the attention of the Sarasota City Commission, and it graciously had them investigated.
It turns out that there is no policy to prevent this interference with the democratic process, so the police department captain’s default position was to support a police state.
A state where the police control which elected representative can take their seats.
A state where the will of the voter is irrelevant, and the police choose who represents the people and who doesn’t.
This is a dangerous precedent.
At the moment it is happening only to local precinct representatives. But if left to stand, the police could exercise their power at the state capitol.
Do you really want to surrender our democracy to a police state?
I ask that the Sarasota City Commission create and approve a policy that forbids the police from blocking elected representatives from taking their seats
Even better is a policy that encourages the police to ensure that elected representatives will be seated.
Stephen Guffanti, MD, Sarasota
Help contributing immigrants stay in US
When I watch the news on TV, I sometimes feel as if I have been transported to some form of Nazi Germany as I see agents of ICE brutally round up “undocumented aliens.”
I can understand the necessity of controlling our borders.
But once refugees – and that’s what they are – are here and are contributing members of their communities, why deport them?
There are necessary jobs at the bottom of the economic scale that need to be done. There are restaurants that need dishwashers and farmers who need people to pick crops.
Currently the pathways to legal residency in America for someone with few marketable skills – and who has come from a country with few opportunities for a safe life – are close to nonexistent.
The words on the Statue of Liberty read: “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Did those words mean that only people from Northern Europe were welcome?
Did those words only mean something 100 years ago – but not now?
If the promise of America means anything, let’s find better legal pathways for undocumented aliens who are already here – and who are contributing members of society – to remain here without fear.
Ronald Cota, Sarasota
Unfair scrutiny of Trump
I am responding to Mike Kantor’s excellent letter regarding those who criticize President Donald Trump but overlooked the actions of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
During the four years of Biden’s administration, no one protested or held marches against him – and judges very rarely blocked any of his policies.
But now during Trump’s administration, every single thing Trump does draws criticism and protests while lawsuits and judges attempt to block his policies (by the way, all this constant suing is costing U.S. taxpayers money).
Even trying to clean up crime in Democratic-run cities draws constant complaining and whining by mayors and governors (all of them Democrats).
For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state – along with the crime in Los Angeles – is now being cleaned up. Why did Newsom wait so long to address it?
Lynne Croshier, Sarasota
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Edwards brings sanity, empathy to Sarasota County School Board | Letters
Reporting by Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
