Who has the right to free speech?
Attorney General Pam Bondi has emphatically stated that she will use her Department of Justice to go after hate speech. Voices have been loudly raised on both sides of the political aisle expressing opinions from shock to outrage. Even Fox News personalities have been vocal in condemning such talk. But that didn’t stop the head of the Federal Communications Commission from issuing threats against television stations that were broadcasting Jimmy Kimmel’s nightly show because Kimmel commented on the MAGA reactions to the murder of a conservative icon.
Kimmel had acknowledged the heinous nature of the murder and was citing the political alignment of the speech of others. But he was suspended because of his statements about the speech of others. Then what happened?
The president of the United States expressed unconstrained glee that Kimmel, like Stephen Colbert, had been punished by their networks and in the same posting called for targeting of two other nighttime hosts. In all four cases, Trump has poured out insults, engaged in name-calling and derided those two as he does to reporters, newspapers, TV commentators, anyone who “treats him unfairly.”
We have in the past expected our presidents to set an example of decorum that we could hold up to our society and to our children. Instead, we are seeing a more grievous example of bullying and hate speech which would be the object of a federal investigation if it were on the other side. So, what is speech and who is about to enjoy that right?
William E. “Bill” Thompson Apopka
Kimmel was a business decision
What I believe happened to Jimmy Kimmel was that ABC realized, finally, that late-night programming was a fiscal liability and decided to change. His recent commentary merely provided additional negativity and thusly Kimmel was suspended. Affiliate TV companies reacted to the commentary, canceling programming and stretching the fiscal issues further. There was no government edict canceling a foul-mouthed Kimmel; in short, it was a self-inflicted action culminating in the business decision to stop money losses.
Bob Kring DeBary
Kimmel strayed too far from comedy
As many, including Jimmy Kimmel, are relearning, free speech does not mean free from consequences. Jimmy Kimmel’s problem, like Jon Stewart before him, is that they forgot that they were comedians. They tried to be liberally poignant and lost their audience. Goodbye Jimmy, but I don’t wish for you to fare well.
Neal Carris Orlando
Big Brother might be killing you
Recently I asked my primary physician to send a prescription for a COVID vaccine to a pharmacy near me. I knew that another big chain pharmacy did not have it, even though the vaccine is available. I got a message from the pharmacy I called: no vaccine there either, or at least not giving it out. There is no one who fits the profile for getting this vaccine better than do I (over 65, some health issues). I have gotten every COVID update available so far and not had a COVID infection.
But I guess now we have our Florida surgeon general Mr. Joseph Ladapo. I don’t want to call him “Dr.” because anyone who actually went to medical school as I did and listened in immunology and public health courses endorses vaccines because of their rigorous testing and statistical outcomes which overwhelm the natural history of disease in reduced mortality and morbidity. Anyway, Mr. Ladapo says he knows better than anyone else. And pharmacies are scared to defy him and HHS Director Robert Kennedy Jr., who in my opinion defiles that fine name by his ignorance and arrogance. So I can’t get this vaccine even if I am willing to pay for it.
In the larger picture, we deserve what’s coming down the pike regarding all vaccines — maybe even the resurgence of such seemingly “dead” diseases as polio — for putting up with people who do not either understand or respect science and medicine and exert their will accordingly on us all. And that’s a sad commentary for a country that used to lead the world in best medical practices.
Lyn Sedwick Shuster Orlando
Lyn Sedwick Shuster is a retired physician.
Hortman, Kirk slayings have guns in common
In June of this year, a member of the Minnesota legislature was killed along with her husband and two other legislators were wounded by a man who reportedly had a hit list of Democrats he wanted to kill. There was little outcry from the nation that the rhetoric needed to be toned down.
Now a right-wing commentator, Charlie Kirk, has been killed and the outcry that the “left” has got to stop with the negative rhetoric is being amplified.
Both of these instances are the results of runaway gun violence in this country. Can we use this moment, when a young man is cut down in the prime of his life for his political philosophy, to finally do something about gun violence? Will the members of Congress on both sides of the aisle please come together and enact some legislation that will help to reduce this out-of-control situation with guns?
There are too many guns in the hands of those who obtain and use them illegally, use them recklessly or use them for revenge or road rage. These acts of violence happen because it is too easy to get a gun in this country. The idea that every person — man, woman and child — needs to have a gun is ludicrous. This is not what the founding fathers of this country envisioned.
Val Mobley Orlando
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