Friday's letters: Floyd protests peaceful, GOP tactics sleazy, uninsured stiffed

George Floyd protests largely peaceful

In an Oct. 24 letter, the author wrote, “The crime wave we are dealing with is not surprising. What did Democratic governors and mayors think would happen when they allowed their cities to be destroyed in the wake of the George Floyd killing …?”

Some facts he must have missed while watching Tucker Carlson’s “White Power Hour”:

A March 2022 Third Way study shows per capita murder rates in 2020 were 40% higher in states Donald Trump won than states Joe Biden won.

The Anti-Defamation League found left-wing radicals committed 4% and Islamists 20% of extremist killings from 2012 to 2021. Right-wing white supremacists and anti-government groups committed 75%.

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According to Crowd Counting Consortium data, 96.7% of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests caused no property damage and 98.6% caused no injuries to police.

Was there arson and looting during the protests? Yes, there was $1 billion to $2 billion in damage, unanimously condemned by Democrats like Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Republicans called it the end of the world, but they didn’t complain when GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, of Texas, staged a publicity-stunt blockade at the border in April 2022 that caused economic damage of $4 billion.

Eric Grevstad, Bradenton

Denounce sleazy tactics, focus on issues

The Venice City Council is a nonpartisan body. I’m a nonparty voter. So why is the Republican Party of Sarasota County sending campaign materials to my home smearing one of the candidates in the upcoming election (“Sarasota Republican Party targets Democrat in Venice council race with three mailers,” Oct. 19)?

If there’s a candidate Republicans support, who aligns with their values, they should tell me more about that person. Instead, these materials seem designed to intimidate regular citizens from participating in local politics.

For the record, I researched the candidate they're targeting. Ron Smith is a former Marine and Florida prosecutor, hardly the resume of a “rabid leftist.”

I call on all party members – and candidates – to denounce these sleazy tactics and demand their allies focus on the issues important to local voters.

Ben Abramson, Venice

Uninsured on hook for high cost of care

We here in Bradenton/Sarasota are very fortunate to have many great hospitals and wonderful doctors to take care of our health. But you’d better have darned good health insurance if you need to access one of these hospitals.

Recently I had to go to an ER at a local hospital. I received prompt care and spent about 90 minutes seeing a doctor and having a CT scan. Sounds pretty good, right?

Later I received my insurance company’s “Explanation of Benefits” for this visit. Wow!

“Lab work” was billed at $5,999. What was listed as “X-rays” (the CT scan) was billed at, ready for this? $49,112!

With “medical care,” “drugs” and other items provided during my 90-minute visit, my insurance was billed for a total of $58,677.

Of course, my insurance paid much less: $780. Imagine that.

Now, imagine if I were one of the many Americans who do not have health insurance. Then I would have been “on the hook” for the entire bill.

This great country needs to join the rest of the civilized world and create a universal health care system for all of our citizens.  Why can’t we?

There is no reason for an American citizen to go bankrupt because of a lack of insurance.  Period.

Dan Awalt, Bradenton

Truth will out, 100 years ago and today

On July 4, 1910, the then-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, a Black man, fought a former champion, Jim Jeffries, popularly known as the “Great White Hope.”

Jeffries was past his prime and lost badly.  In the wake of that fight, race riots were rampant.

In addition, many states actually passed legislation to prevent the public showing of the film of the fight (available to all now on YouTube), presumably to protect and not further enrage the Great White Hope’s supporters, on the theory that censorship is a legitimate governmental function when it “protects” the “right” citizens against inconvenient truths.

Fast forward 112 years. Florida now has the governor's “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in younger grades, as well as book bans in schools to protect us against those facts and thoughts that might offend the sensibilities of the supporters of our own latter-day Great White Hope.

But facts are facts, whether in a boxing ring, a math or science text, or a human being simply trying to figure out his or her sexuality.

To claim otherwise and cover up or, worse, lie about the truth is as shameful today as it was in 1910.

David Cohen, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: No 'crime wave' after Floyd protests, focus on issues in council race