Animal advocacy, candidate priorities, SCOTUS and the Constitution: Letters, July 13, 2022

Advocates for animals should press candidates for views on related issues

Who are we going to empower with our votes? I am an animal advocate and animal-related issues are important to me and many others and are an indication also of a community’s education, health, safety and welfare. Who wants to live in a community that allows unchecked animal neglect that leads to increased animal cruelty? We need community leaders to take animal-related issues seriously.

What candidates will do for animals definitely has an effect on creating a more desirable humane community in which to invest and to call home.

So I am submitting this question to the following local candidates in Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County that I am aware of:

City of Fort Pierce Commission, District 2: Mike Broderick, Uline Daniel, James Clasby.

St. Lucie County Commission: District 2, Sean Mitchell, Larry Leet; District 4, Jamie Lee Fowler, Martha Lee Hornsby, Helen Lurry.

"Show me the enforced laws of a state for the prevention of cruelty to animals and I in turn will give you a correct estimate of the refinement, enlightenment, integrity, and equity of that commonwealth’s people — the lack of humane education is the principal cause of crime." — L.T. Danshiell, animal rights advocate.

Animal advocates, please join me and add your voice to mine promoting candidates to be a voice of representation for the animals we would see served as well.

Candidates, please ask and learn about local animal-related issues including the daunting challenges of animal control departments, homeless animal sheltering operations and the costs to taxpayers and the ugly issue of tax-funded euthanasia of many innocent dogs and cats.

Because animals don't have a voice or a vote, I am lending mine.

Susan Parry, Fort Pierce

Ask candidates about the primary responsibility of the office they seek

Blake Fontenay’s July 3 column makes a strong case for having the Martin Board of County Commissioners meet after working hours — as the city of Stuart does and most other towns/cities where I have lived before do. The tabling procedure may or may not be an effort to wear down opponents, but it certainly can be used as a tool — weaponized  to that end.

Term limits would be appropriate as well. Our state senators and legislators are subject to term limits. Be sure to add during your paper's vetting process one or more questions about a more reasonable time for meetings, and about term limits.

As far as a vetting process goes, I would certainly ask one question to start with: "What is the primary role/responsibility of the position the candidate is seeking?" One reason for this question is that I was recently at a gathering where there were two elected representatives present. One answered “health and safety” to that very question which could be due to the recent experience with the virus. However, this would be a suitable answer in a nanny state, not one with a Constitution promising individual rights to decide these matters. No, I think the answer was a seriously wrong misconception of the duty of a representative in this country.

Most political science majors know the old saw about the definition of democracy — two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Or mobocracy. Mob rule. We cannot govern by meeting in an old Vermont country store any longer to decide each and every issue. We, in a republic, elect representatives to protect our rights, liberty, freedom, not for housing, health and other areas of life and concern the individual decides for him/herself.

Audrey Taggart, Hobe Sound

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority misconstrues Constitution

In overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.” The Constitution doesn’t make reference to driving an automobile, flying an airplane or riding a motorcycle, yet we consider these rights implicitly guaranteed by our Constitution.

In Griswold v. Connecticut the Supreme Court first recognized the right to privacy. Before Griswold, Louis Brandeis co-authored a well-respected Harvard Law Review article titled “The Right to Privacy’’ in which he advocated for the “right to be left alone’’ (a phrase often voiced by conservatives who want to interfere in women’s lives by restricting their reproductive rights). Whatever happened to the philosophy “Live and let live’’? This wisdom of minding one’s own business now has been sacrificed by individuals bent on converting a free and democratic society into a theocracy.

In Griswold, the Supreme Court found the right to privacy is derived from other explicitly stated constitutional protections expressly stated in the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments, each of which implies a right to personal privacy. In Roe v. Wade, “the Supreme Court used the right to privacy, as derived from the Fourteenth Amendment, to extend the right of privacy to encompass a woman’s right to abortion: ‘This right of privacy … founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action … is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy’” (Cornell Law School).

‘’Her pregnancy” is indisputably a private right. It belongs neither to religious fanaticism nor to political partisanship, neither of which is empowered to restrict this basic human right. The Court’s conservative majority opinion misconstrues the scope of the Constitution’s guarantee to privacy.

Cray Little, Vero Beach

Learn self-defense, singles, because there’s danger out there

In light of being recognized by “Woman’s World” magazine in June for my weight loss and health success, feeling great is wonderful.

But all that glitters isn’t necessarily gold.

Coming out of domestic violence and being a gambler, I suggest that going single, whether you’re male or female, means how well can you take care of yourself and how well can you learn and know self-defense because there is more out there. Be safe.

Deirdre Henry, Ocean Breeze

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Candidate priorities; SCOTUS and Constitution: Letters, July 13, 2022