Letters to the Editor - The Lakeville Journal - 1-5-23

Florida governor DeSantis officially on a roll                                                    

The freshness of a new year can be crushed by stale, insipid attacks of not just insults but of fatal harm spawned among a number espousing violence including lone wolves, a, conspiratorial green woman, and an Ivy League official condemning health saving guidance and amazing vaccines with unsubstantiated claims of foul play. Florida’s governor steam rolls Covid lifesaving methods, medications, and the professionalism of thousands of medical practitioners while refusing to disclose his own personal behaviors regarding protection of his family and himself during a pandemic he denies. Viktor Orban used Covid in 2020 in Hungary to extend his powers — many liken DeSantis pugnacity to Orban power initiatives.

Over a million Americans have died in the U.S. Covid pandemic — a virus not yet truncated here or globally.  In Florida, about 3,500 die in car incidents annually, so Covid, taking 83.6 thousand Floridian lives over the past three years, is significant. DeSantis has not questioned auto deaths in his state or rescinded seat belts and airbags — as yet manufacturers of these devices haven’t pierced his thin skin as have Mickey and Pluto.

Florida teachers, schools are DeSantis targets, victims of his wrath.  The governor winds up, throws his body against individual teachers and Stop the WOKE Act, insisting that the American Revolution was solely responsible for the movement to abolish slavery. Absurd DeSantis idiocy from a Yale man — the Brits abolished slavery on their ships in 1807, invoked full emancipation in 1832, while the U.S. in 1860 engaged in a Civil War killing  620,000 men (6 million in 2022 equivalency) over the issue/advancement of slavery.  The U.S. abolished slavery in 1865.

DeSantis, over his years as Florida governor, has emerged as an unwieldy tyrant who relishes bullying teachers, doctors, kids, gays, transgenders, Disney and immigrants entering Texas. DeSantis denies health, demonizes discovery, distorts data, deceives, distorts, dissembles, disinforms, dupes. Already DeSantis is puffing up to compete with his 99$ lard card mentor, sharpening his piercing untruths for a base he seeks, he successfully woes, and who, regardless of its loyalty, fails to constitute a national electorate as Trump has demonstrated from 2016 to 2022.

In assessing leadership credentials of would-be-Presidential contenders, it is imperative to retain a full portrait of the candidate — views, beliefs, actions, positions on salient issues over time — the full reel rather than just current snapshots.   DeSantis’s resume is replete with headline grabbing proclamations, dismissals, accusations, untruths and it but the beginning of 2023 — more surely to come. Be wary, remember his full cadre of “credits.”

“But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man; as a result, intelligent, objective and humane thinking has hardly any effect and is even suspected and persecuted as unpatriotic.”     —  Albert Einstein

Kathy Herald-Marlowe

Sharon

How to celebrate 2023

As we see in the new year

We should be of good cheer

But our country is divided

And common sense derided

Elsewhere In the world it’s worse

Putin is the curse

Waging war just for his ego

His brain size of a mosquito

Here at home it’s no better

It’s time to send a letter

To Trump to report

At once to the court

To be sentenced to years in prison

So hope can be newly arisen

Now we march into twenty-three

Optimism must be the key.

Michael Kahler

Lakeville

Support families in need throughout the region

I tend to be rather quiet about which organizations Tent supports, but recently over family dinner I had an interesting conversation with my husband and twin girls about who benefits from that silence.  At the end of the discussion, my husband Michael said, “If you don’t let anyone know who you support, how will people learn about these worthy organizations and perhaps choose to donate to them too?”

Every year for the past couple of years, Tent has sponsored backpacks for the children of families served by the Food of Life Food Pantry in Amenia, N.Y.  Michael and I, along with our daughters, would put together approximately 150 backpacks filled, not with presents and toys, but with shampoo, socks, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.  Basic essentials. Things these local kids really needed but didn’t have.

This year, in an effort to empower parents and families, the priest at St. Thomas’ suggested that, instead of creating the backpacks, Tent would simply donate a gift card to each family in order for them to buy what they would like for their children. 

Of course, this was a wonderful idea — but it presented a quandary.  Part of the joy for Michael and me has been the activity of putting together these special backpacks every year with our girls.  It has become part of our Christmas tradition and something we really enjoyed doing together as a family.  It was also important to us for our daughters to see how rewarding it is to make an effort to do something meaningful for others. In the end, we decided that this year we’ll have to find other things to do together because we believe that empowering families with the means to provide for their own children is a simple, yet much more powerful gift.

Food of Life Pantry is right here in our backyard and is a worthy cause in need of support. Tent is honored to sponsor this vital work and I encourage you to consider including Food of Life Food Pantry in your giving this year. I can guarantee first-hand that your donation, whatever the size, will have an immediate and lasting impact. Go to stthomasamenia.com.

Darren Henault

Founder, Tent New York

Amenia