Brightline; DeSantis dances on spending, leading, woke; founders guidance; no more Trump

We're in for rude awakening when Brightline starts humming

Your story reports Brightline plans to run 32 passenger trains a day through Vero Beach.

Currently, we're averaging 12 to 15 freight trains a day. Combined, that's over 48 trains a day or, on average, two trains an hour, 24 hours a day, every day. Are you kidding me?

How is anybody going to go east to west (or vice-versa)?

Seems to me we are gonna be in for a rude awakening once this thing becomes a reality. And we ain't the only ones who will be (catastrophically) affected.

Bill Croke, Indian River County

Here's what our founding fathers actually created

Listening to the news and reading articles, I’m amazed at how many on the left and right refer to our country as a democracy. My conclusion is this reflects what is not being taught in our educational institutions.

Consider what Benjamin Franklin said to Elizabeth Willing Powel. She asked him what kind of government the delegates crafted at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, to which he replied: “We have given to you a republic, if you can keep it.”

One may ask why it’s important to differentiate between a democracy and republic. Because our founding fathers left a monarchy in search of freedom from tyranny. Does anyone really believe they created a government that history reveals would lead to tyranny?

This makes me question how many under the age of 50 have read our founding documents? Or any of the Federalist Papers? Watching man-on-the-street segments causes me to believe very few. I cringe when people can’t name our first president or year the War of 1812 was fought or who fought in World War II. This should be concerning to all of us.

Simply put: Democracy is rule by majority feeling and a republic is rule by law. Our forefathers left us a constitutional republic. Our foundation is based on laws of nature and of nature’s god. Our Constitution gives us Articles I, II and III to provide balance to give "We The People" elected representation.

However, I fear we are moving towards a democracy. Feelings seem to be overriding rule of law. As Zephaniah Swift, author of America’s first legal text, stated: "It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy, the more they abound with disorder and confusion."

I would agree.

Karen Hiltz, Sebastian

DeSantis spends like liberal, but doesn't solve problems

Letter writer Norman Grant isn’t shocked by the $699,000-a-year salary for Richard Corcoran?

The president of New College he is replacing got $305,000 a year. Sure seems like it is Gov. Ron DeSantis who is “liberal” with our tax dollars, especially when another college president he appointed will get $399,000 a year and a new swimming pool.

DeSantis already spent more than $1 million flying immigrants from Texas to Massachusetts, and now the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has given him $10 million more?

Does he know about the 90-year-old rusty railroad lift bridge in Stuart that will be closed for three months for repairs? Surely, former President Donald Trump knew.

President Joe Biden has two more years; maybe he will do something like President Barack Obama did with the Veterans' Memorial Bridge. Didn't Obama also offer then-Gov. Rick Scott $10 billion to build a fast train from Tampa to Orlando? Scott and his Republicans turned him down, and now we have Brightline!

Helen Frigo, Jensen Beach

President DeSantis would provide much-needed leadership

Ron DeSantis won a landslide re-election victory because he is a great governor.

DeSantis say things like “budget surplus,” “parental rights,” "children's rights,” “law and order,” “personal responsibility” and more. Things the left wing doesn’t understand; in fact, things I think it seems to hate.

There is hope for this country, however. A large number of clear-thinking Democrats voted for DeSantis. They crossed party lines to vote for a man who defends the rights of individuals to live free; to live, love and worship as they choose, without intervention from government, teachers, unions or self-interest groups.

DeSantis is the only person who can reshape the GOP to be the party that serves average people. (The Democratic Party is are owned by and serves unions, woke business and self-serving minority groups.) He will do this by creating a growth environment for small and large businesses, generating employment opportunities and individual wealth: to stop paying people to stay home; by ensuring freedom of and from race, gender identity, religion and the destruction of personal values; by creating civic responsibilities through education and equal, just treatment for all.

DeSantis’ GOP must serve the best interests of the country and the best interests of the individual, while continuing to reduce the impact of debt and government in our daily lives.

A DeSantis presidency will lead the world through muted military superiority and global leadership, so sadly absent today.

Saying I dislike Donald Trump would be like preaching to the choir, but if he was in office a year ago, Vladimir Putin would not have invaded the Ukraine. DeSantis can and will provide the leadership that has been missing in action for an entire generation of Democrats!

Bob Heslop, Fort Pierce

Use objective sources to support your opinions

A little unsolicited advice to the MAGA or otherwise right-leaning writers who recently submitted their opinions to the paper and supported their opinions with articles and information gathered from the Wall Street Journal or George Mason University:

If your intention is truly to try and enlighten those with opinions different from yours, rather than just trying to stir the pot and further divide us, you might want to look at actual objective information instead of information from the right media and academic echo chamber.

Using those sources to support your opinions is essentially akin to a gun rights advocate citing the NRA in support of the opinion that everyone should own a gun.

Tom Going, Vero Beach

DeSantis should take some advice from Old Blue Eyes

Gov. Ron DeSantis is touted as presidential timber. Should he emerge as the Republican nominee, however, the nation's electorate would get a closer look at the rot behind the bark.

The majority, I suspect, will not take kindly to the manner of this man: an angry culture warrior, authoritarian, intolerant and mean. One who dictates, belittles, bullies and litigates, most recently against press freedoms.

DeSantis' anti-woke crusade demonizes the teaching of racism in public schools and diversity hiring at universities. According to Merriam-Webster, "woke" is slang for being aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). Admirable traits, I would say.

DeSantis' tactics smack of McCarthyism. Three school board members on the Treasure Coast are among 14 statewide to be targeted (TCPalm Feb. 23). A stunned Peggy Jones, chair of the Indian River County School Board, is on the hit list.

"I don't know exactly why I'm being targeted," she said in an interview, challenging DeSantis, the state GOP and other detractors to prove their case.

Former President Donald Trump has given our governor a new name: Ron DeSanctimonious. Images of a fiery preacher at the church pulpit come to mind. The righteous shall smack down the librarian who lends out a book that touches upon racial injustice, and persecute teachers who don't cover or remove their classroom library!

DeSantis' punished Disney because the CEO opposed his education bill, removed a top state prosecutor who disagreed with him on abortion rights and forced a frightened child to remove his mask at a televised event. Hardly presidential demeanor.

MAGA hatters and stragglers won't be enough to win, governor. To borrow a lyric from Frank Sinatra:

"Don't you know, little fool, you never can win?

"Use your mentality, WAKE up to reality!"

Richard Leonard, Vero Beach

School board shenanigans hurt DeSantis' presidential chances

As far as I'm concerned, Gov. Ron DeSantis just shot himself in the foot.

We, the people, elected our local school board. I am not personally acquainted with any of the current members, but I respect that they continue to persevere in the rather thankless job we elected them to do.

What next?  Were DeSantis ever indeed to become president, who would he be stalking then? Would that be another venue in which he would choose to attempt to override the voters?

Full disclosure here: Yes, I did vote for him. But I promise I won't do it again.

Helen L. Baker, Vero Beach

Woke: DeSantis knows importance of learning from history

If “woke” is teaching American history, then why do we need a separate name for it?

Woke seems to be more about making current generations feel responsible for past generations' actions, which is ridiculous. Philosopher George Santayana’s quote from 1905, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” is as true today as it was then. Learn from our mistakes and we progress; agonize over our mistakes and we regress.

Gov. Ron DeSantis knows the difference and he has no interest in seeing Florida regress into the past, but rather progress into the future knowing the mistakes of the past. “Woke” appears to be an attempt to create a generation of victims and has no place in American education.

James Rich, Jupiter

DeSantis actions antithesis of 'Free Florida'

The Cato Institute can be quoted as writing, in reference to The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America: "Accordingly, their basic task (our founding fathers) was to devise a government that would be strong enough to secure our rights against domestic and foreign oppression, yet not so powerful or extensive as to be oppressive itself."

Therefore, based on his stance on abortion, book banning, Critical Race Theory and woke: Gov. Ron DeSantis is governing in an oppressive manner that contradicts and is hypocritical to his cry of "Free Florida."

Ronald D. Roberts, Sebastian

Removing books from schools hallmark of freedom?

In Nazi Germany, it started with banning books in 1933.

In Florida, in 2023, under Republican leadership, books are being removed from public school libraries.

Removing books from public school libraries is not a hallmark of freedom.

Richard Sheehan, Vero Beach

No, nation better off without Donald Trump

At first I thought that letters from some of your correspondents were amusing. But I now feel they are toxic to the unity of this country.

Moreover, one writer suggested we need Donald Trump. Why in the world would we need a man who has nearly 30 outstanding lawsuits against him, a man who lost two casinos, a man whose actions show me he is a misogynist, a man who, we’re told, doesn’t like to read. No, the country is better off to relegate Donald Trump to a bad memory.

Robert J. Grubb Sr., Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Brightline; DeSantis dances on spending, leading, woke; no more Trump