I’m writing in response to “DeSantis plans DOGE audits of cities and counties.” (July 22). I don’t want to go all biblical on you, but a quote from Matthew’s seventh chapter seems appropriate.
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
First, the governor must have a complete and honest DOGE audit of his executive branch, followed by one of the legislative branch. Then he can suggest the same for other levels of government.
Bill Thompson Apopka
Be wary of jailed immigrants’ treatment
I agree with Scott Maxwell’s July 23 column (“Don’t call it ‘Alligator Auschwitz,’ but do get angry. Demand better.”). The Everglades detention center holding immigrants should never be compared to Auschwitz. Comparing the atrocities of Auschwitz to the cruelty and inhumane treatment of migrants is an insult to the families and victims of Hitler. However, I do object to calling it Alligator Alcatraz.
History, as we know, has a way of repeating itself. Florida’s history — particularly here in Lake County, where Sheriff Willis McCall sent prisoners held in the county jail to pick fruit for his cronies — is just one example.
I predict that it won’t be long before the Everglades detainees will be sent to labor in the fields of DeSantis’ donors. Then we can call it “Gator Gulag.”
Violet Irminger Mount Dora
Life without A/C was cruel and unbearable
I find it interesting that Alligator Alcatraz is described as a concentration camp. They say the conditions are cruel and unbearable. I am thinking about all us old-timers who remember life before air conditioning. Perhaps our schools could have been classified as “concentration camps.” We were required to be there all day and sat in very hot classrooms. Shorts were not allowed. Girls had to wear dresses and boys were required to wear long pants. Flies and gnats could visit in our open school rooms.
Then we went home to hot houses. It was difficult to sleep at night with the heat and humidity. In August 1963 I lived in a non-air-conditioned dorm at the University of Florida. Our cars were not air conditioned. We used hand cranks to roll down the windows. That hot air in your face was supposed to be refreshing. A lot of senior Floridians may have similar memories. But, I find it interesting that most of us survived those cruel years.
Our younger politicians cannot relate to such conditions.
Mary Jane Brown Winter Park
Learn from history of tyranny
We must learn from history, before it too is totally suppressed.
There are too many current examples of suppression of free speech and independent thought by powerful people, who wield threat of legal and economic punishment to individuals and companies who express opinions that may not align with the interests of those in power. Disney speaking up for gay people and presidents extracting money from news organizations via frivolous lawsuits come to mind.
Authoritarian rule has occurred with disastrous results many times in history. We need only look at current Russia and North Korea or, most infamously, during the rise of 1930s Germany.
These societies inevitably fail and are never as productive and successful as countries where freedom of thought and expression are not stubbed out via fear of reprisal. Vigorous debate and new ideas emerge from freedom. Our founders showed us how to fight tyranny and suppression of speech.
We must not be left in the end saying “I did nothing, and then they came for me.”
Patricia Wilson Sanford
Legal immigration, citizenship are rewarding
I read Robert Anderson’s July 23 letter (“Call illegal immigrants what they are”) and I agree with what he wrote. I myself am a “legal” immigrant that followed the rules. I am forever grateful to the United States for allowing us to come here and prove ourselves for five years before being able to become citizens. When I became a citizen in 1969, it truly was a great accomplishment for me. My mother endured the horrors of Hitler’s Germany, even seeing her father taken by the Gestapo to Dachau the concentration camp because he made a joke about Hitler. My mother was traumatized by this, since her father did come out of Dachau but was never the same. So she brought me to America. Come here legally and you will be welcomed; I can tell you this from experience. Make the effort to follow the rules.
Ingrid Bryant Oviedo
Latest in history of scandals
The presidency is no stranger to scandal, dating back to when Thomas Jefferson dealt with allegations of a long-standing sexual relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. No less salacious was the Monica Lewinsky affair, a sexual tryst between President Clinton and a White House intern. But perhaps the most notorious was President Nixon’s participation in the political scandal known as Watergate, which at its core was an attempt to illegally affect the outcome of a presidential election.
While these transgressions served to outrage the public conscience, none involved the molestation of dozens of underage girls, the crime for which the late Jeffrey Epstein was jailed. Trump has been tied to Epstein, and though there is no evidence exposing the president’s participation in Epstein’s acts of degeneracy, the question remains on the minds of many Americans — Was Trump complicit?
The truth may never be known, but one thing is certain — obfuscation and deflection are not its pathway.
Jim Paladino Tampa
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