Are we eliminating all gender studies in schools?
When Florida’s esteemed commissioner of education, Anastasios Kamoutsas, writes in a social-media post that “we will continue to ensure that the material in Florida schools focuses on enhancing academic achievement, not gender ideology” (“Orange school district to review library book by transgender man after state criticism,” Aug. 14), is he suggesting our schools are too focused on gender studies? No one disagrees that the main mission of our schools should be academic achievement across all fields of study, but eliminating a timely and emerging field altogether only serves to diminish our students’ knowledge.
The very fact that we are continuing to have heated debate over the subject of gender reinforces the need for more, not fewer books about our marginalized friends across the gender spectrum.
Tony Macchia Maitland
Crosswalk erasure sacrifices art, safety
I have lived (and walked) all over the country. Statistics prove that when a crosswalk is painted vibrantly, drivers are more apt to be aware of pedestrians. Other states are providing grants for artists to design crosswalks. But Florida chooses not to use those means to alert drivers by painting them over. Is this their form of population control?
Camille Levee St. Cloud
The world has bigger problems
Civilians are being bombed in Ukraine and starving in Gaza and Africa. People are dying every day. Efforts are underway to solve these problems. Meanwhile, right here in Central Florida, we are engaged in our own battle, the color of our crosswalks.
Hold your banners high, neighbors, and don’t give up the fight. Your efforts will surely be remembered long after you are gone.
Alan Price Winter Park
The big GOP deception trick
Maybe you, too, have noticed. The Republicans constantly accuse the Democrats of what they are in fact doing wrong. A classic example was in Monday’s Sentinel.
In his contribution, “Domestic tranquility — a shared federal responsibility,” Bill O’Brien, a member of a conservative think tank, rationalizes why we need federal troops in our major cities.
“.. what we are seeing is our largest cities being torn apart from the top down..”
No, Mr. O’Brien, it is our United States government that is being torn apart from the top down. The MAGA GOP is tearing everything apart from the top down. That’s the perspective I have from the inside. And I’m not alone.
Kathy Kennedy Orlando
Whatever happened to due process?
People are being snatched off of our streets, in our schools, at our places of work and in their homes in the middle of the night. They are being detained in remote locations far away from their families, who are reportedly sometimes not told where they are being held. They are often not allowed to communicate with a lawyer and they are not taken before a judge to test the lawfulness of their detention.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia reportedly was given the choice of being deported to Costa Rica if he will accept a plea to criminal charges or be deported to Uganda if he dares to reject the plea offer and go to trial (“Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE in Baltimore, faces deportation efforts,” Aug. 25).
This is happening in America, not in Stalinist Russia.
One of the basic rights to any person arrested in this country is due process. That means the accused shall be definitely informed as to the charges against him and that he be given an opportunity to be heard. In addition, accused persons have the right to be held and tried near their homes so their families and their witnesses can be available.
Threatening a person with deportation to a Third World country where his language is not spoken if he fails to give up his due process rights is, until recently, unknown in America. Prosecutors in this country have a higher duty. The Supreme Court has said, “The United States Attorney is the representative … of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all.”
When will we say enough is enough?
O.H. Eaton Jr. Sanford
O.H. Eaton Jr. is a retired circuit court judge.
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