What a difference a year makes.
Kudos for your editorial on the dead weight missing from President Joe Biden’s visit to Live Oak.
Until now, Gov. Ron DeSantis had followed the template for disasters perfected by governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist: Staff the Florida emergency operation with really good people (such as Craig Fugate and his team). Make each disaster a full-time job for the governor. Work responsibly with the feds, upon whom Floridians depend in disasters.
Full of hubris, DeSantis wouldn’t travel from Tallahassee to Live Oak, Biden’s center of operations — which was chosen to keep his visit from impinging on relief for Big Bend’s most desperate towns, such as Cedar Key and Perry. DeSantis’ spokesman said Biden shouldn’t have come.
As President George W. Bush learned the hard way, presidents must see disasters first-hand because visits are credible guarantees that promised federal aid will actually arrive, even in places where people did not vote for the president, like Suwannee County.
Frank McNeil, Boca Raton
The writer is a former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica under presidents Carter and Reagan.
Won’t share the spotlight
I realize a long list of issues in our lives are politicized. I’ll never understand why a quality education for our kids, a woman’s right to choose and compassion for the poor and elderly need to be on that list.
Apparently, assistance to hurricane victims is nothing more than a political dog and pony show. President Biden came to Florida days after Hurricane Idalia to assess the damage and offer federal assistance, which I think is exactly in his job description. But Gov. DeSantis didn’t want to share the media spotlight and suggested that Biden’s visit would be “disruptive” to the recovery effort.
If Biden had waited a few weeks to visit, DeSantis would have criticized him for the delay. DeSantis always talks about the code of conduct he learned in the military. But in my mind, when the president comes to town with a pile of federal money, you should be a gracious host, keep your mouth shut and express gratitude.
Many folks in North Florida lost everything, not just a limb off a live oak in the backyard of a state-owned Governor’s Mansion. The icing on the cake for me during Biden’s visit was Sen. Rick Scott, prancing around for photo-ops with a “45” hat on (a reference to Scott as the 45th governor).
Abby Diamond, Fort Lauderdale
The lessons of Mount Dora
It is a horror to me that the city of Mount Dora must issue stickers declaring businesses safe havens for LGBTQ persons and that others, including area legislators, are fighting to take away their right to do so.
I am not LGBTQ. But when stickers are needed to prevent tragedy, I get worried. Be afraid when so-called Christian politicians and influencers (who can’t quote or find a Bible verse) use the Good Book to persecute others. They are the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing, inciting hatred and divisive thinking to distract the uneducated and unaware from their agendas for power.
That’s why history, philosophy and human nature in our schools are so important. Without them, it is the equivalent of not knowing how to read (keep them dumb to control them). I’ve seen this in other countries, and now I see it here in our own and fear for the type of future we make for ourselves and future generations.
Policies fueled by religious, racial and economic prejudice are the sparks that light the powder keg of a nation’s downfall, of civil war or genocide. We are fed a diet of rage and there’s a hunger to satisfy it. We’re being had. The outcome will be extreme want and brokenness.
America is only as great as the people who live here.
Nina Leonard, St. Augustine
