Wake up, Florida: Your rights are at stake | Letters to the editor
Everyone in Florida needs to wake up to what’s happening to their rights and their way of life under the reign of this Republican governor. By wake up, I mean follow the daily news and think about the direction this political party is taking us.
Black history education will be gone at this rate, substituted with glossed-over interpretations.
Gay rights? Gone. Women’s rights? There will be none. Start thinking, and above all acting, by casting your vote for your rights, not against them.
Don’t let these wannabe dictators take over.
Janice Doyle, Plantation
A GOP no longer
As a voter, I don’t have buyer’s remorse with Ron DeSantis, because I checked him out before I voted and saw that he was a terrible choice.
There is no real Republican Party any longer, not since Sen. John McCain, and Charlie Crist was the obvious choice for governor for those who have lived in Florida as long as I have. If folks don’t see already how much better off the country is now with President Joe Biden, they really need to go back and get an education — but they won’t be able to get that education anymore in Florida!
Jim Tiffin, Coral Springs
Delray’s missed opportunity
At the Aug. 14 meeting of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority (DDA), new officers were voted in.
Board member Vera Woodson and newcomer Brian Rosen were nominated for chairperson. Board member Mark Denkler nominated and voted for Woodson for chairperson as did board member Cole Devitt. However, Rosen was elected chairperson by the other board members, who are white.
I believe the board missed an amazing opportunity for diversity by not selecting as chairperson Woodson, who is Black. Rosen was appointed in June and this was only his second DDA meeting. On the other hand, Woodson was already serving as board secretary. She understands Robert’s Rules of Order and is intelligent and knowledgeable about the district.
She has an approachable personality and returns phone calls from concerned citizens, DDA district business owners and visitors. She is active in the local chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority, a historically Black sorority, one of the oldest in the nation. That connection brings diverse customers to downtown Delray and the DDA district.
In the DDA’s 52-year history, no Black woman has been chairperson and only two women have ever served as chair.
Did the DDA just miss an incredible opportunity for Downtown Delray Beach?
Lori J. Durante, Delray Beach
Carbon isn’t the problem
Whether one attributes recent worldwide weather conditions to global warming, global cooling or climate change, reducing the atmosphere’s carbon content is exactly the wrong solution. This is why.
The earth is heated by the sun. Its radiation is partially and harmlessly reflected into space by carbon in the atmosphere. But the portion of the radiation absorbed by the earth’s surface is re-emitted in the infrared spectrum and retained by the lower levels of our atmosphere. This blocking and absorption by the atmosphere results in the excessive heat that we are experiencing. By further reducing the carbon content in the atmosphere, more of the sun’s radiation will be absorbed by the earth’s surface with its resultant heating.
The solution is to stop trying to decrease the carbon content of the atmosphere. Some minor pollution by other elements and their derivatives is tolerable on a worldwide basis, but not carbon.
Arnold W. Schultz, Boynton Beach
The writer is a retired physicist.