Friday's letters: On Earth Day, we deserve constitutional right to clean water
Fight for right to clean water on Earth Day
On Earth Day, April 22, red tide will linger still in Southwest Florida.
Experts predict Florida’s east and west coasts will soon be experiencing a blue-green algae bloom potentially rivaling that of 2018.
Nine thousand miles of Florida’s rivers and streams are contaminated with fecal bacteria; 80% of our 1,000 springs are polluted.
Seagrass beds are nearly in a death spiral and, consequentially, manatees are starving to death.
More: How to send a letter to the editor
No state has more acres of polluted lake water than Florida. No state has lost more acres of wetlands.
Florida’s environmental regulatory system is failing us and our waters as it has done for decades.
Meanwhile, legislators, during this “session of sprawl,” pursue laws that will only make matters worse.
We need to fix the system. With a constitutional “Right to Clean and Healthy Waters,” we can.
Visit https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/ to sign the petition.
Kathy Surprenant, Englewood
Abortion ban will hurt women
Congratulations to all of you who support Gov. Ron DeSantis outlawing nearly all abortions for all women in our state.
You’ve blessed women with the life-limiting, often bankrupting, opportunity to raise and support a child with identified congenital birth defects for the rest of their lives.
More: DeSantis 'trapped' on abortion as he navigates GOP base, general election concerns
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You’ve blessed women struggling to raise four children with a fifth.
You’ve blessed college students whose birth control failed with an end to their studies.
And you’ve blessed 14-year-old girls who are afraid to go to the police with a child fathered by their uncle. Or brother. Or father. Or the creepy old guy next door.
All in the name of God. Well done.
Lin Williams, Venice
Fan sees Trump with rose-colored glasses
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc is Latin meaning, “after this, therefore on account of this,” sometimes referred to as the post hoc fallacy.
It is well illustrated in an April 13 letter – titled “Remember good old days with Trump,” – which cited events during the tenure of then-President Donald Trump.
In a classic fallacy of logic, the writer credited Trump with low inflation, low gas prices, booming stock prices and much more, all with no explanation of how he made it all happen.
By the same logic, Trump could be held responsible for the Parkland school shooting, Hurricane Harvey, fires in California, the COVID-19 pandemic and a total eclipse of the sun.
“Reduced regulation” is on the list, too. To give credit where due, that is true: nearly 100 environmental rules were rolled back under the Trump administration.
In 2019, Trump proposed to slash food stamps for 700,000 unemployed Americans, but courts put this aside as the pandemic spread. “Arbitrary and capricious,” said the judge.
Trump’s attempts to reverse regulations were found illegal more often than not. But one attempt did succeed: the 2018 reversal of the Dodd-Frank rules for financial institutions like the now-collapsed Silicon Valley Bank.
Heck of a job, Donnie!T. Guy Spencer, Sarasota
To reduce shootings, ban assault weapons
For the first time in history, shootings have become the No. 1 cause of death for children and adolescents in the U.S.
In the first 100 days of this year, there were more than 140 mass shootings.
Because of the gun lobby, firearms and ammunition are the only American-made products exempt from federal consumer product safety regulations.
Only in the U.S. are there more guns than people.
If guns provided safety, the U.S. would certainly be the safest country in the world.
It’s only common sense that the best and cheapest way of effectively lowering the number of mass shootings here is to pass and enforce laws outlawing the sale and possession of assault (and assault-style) weapons.
We need to follow the example of countries like New Zealand and promote policies to reduce the number of guns, like gun buyback programs.
Arnold Factor, Sarasota
Gas price rises, leaving drivers in lurch
On the morning of April 19, as I was out driving, I could not help but notice that gas went up 25 cents overnight!
It is hard to believe that there is no control over something like this. And how do all of the companies know to increase the price at the same time?
We as consumers are just plain stuck while the oil companies are laughing at us.
Steve Gardner, Venice
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Environmental regulations failing, DeSantis controls women's bodies
