Friday's letters: Historic homes in danger, DeSantis the bully, AR-15 for hunting, more

Protect, preserve homes on Vamo Drive

Why are the Sarasota County commissioners dragging their feet on protecting more than two centuries of historic structures on Vamo Drive?

I encourage each of them to drive down Vamo Drive. There, in a quiet, park setting, sits Vamo Lodge, built in 1900, and a Mediterranean house from the 1920s.

Both are worthy of being nominated for the Sarasota County and National Register of Historic Places, to be protected from demolition and revived for use now and in future generations.

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The time is ripe now to make this happen before the Mediterranean house is sold by the county.

There are other homes from the 1920s and 1930s that line the street, and residents desire historic register action by the county commissioners. If not now, when?

Nancy DeForge, Nokomis

Accept Players’ bid to come back downtown

As an avid theater fan, I really miss not having The Players downtown, and I was not a fan of their plan to build a new performing arts center east of Interstate 75.

The theater was a vital part of Sarasota’s downtown landscape for nine decades and that's where they belong.

Now that the plan to relocate to Lakewood Ranch has been scrapped, The Players Centre has proposed to take over the historic underused Sarasota Municipal Auditorium and transform it into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.

In addition to housing theatrical productions, the center would be available for use by other organizations.

In exchange for a 30-year lease the Players is willing to invest $6 million to $9 million into restoring the Art Deco building into a versatile performing arts gem that will enhance the downtown arts scene. It's a no-brainer, and hopefully the city of Sarasota will accept the Players’ proposal.

Dan M. Warren, Sarasota

DeSantis bullies, threatens to get his way

When will the people of Florida decide that bullying and threatening by Gov. Ron DeSantis is enough?

DeSantis blocked funding for a Tampa Bay Rays training facility because the team spoke out against gun violence. He threatened Special Olympics with a $27.5 million fine if it made COVID vaccinations mandatory at the Games.

Since the governor doesn’t have children with special needs or medical issues, it is not an issue for him – nor is it apparently important to him to keep children safe.

It is amazing that no one speaks up against a governor who demands complete compliance to his demands, or else suffer the consequences.

Bullying and threatening into submission is not “freedom” as DeSantis wants you to believe.

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten! Think about that the next time you vote for governor.

And think about “freedom” and what the word actually means to the people of the United States, not Ron DeSantis’ version of freedom, which is in reality fascism.

Rainer O. Hentschel, Lakewood Ranch

Focus on crime, not AR-15 hunting rifle

There is a quote that says, “I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it.”

For those protesters who are spouting off about AR-15 rifles, I would suggest that they take a minute to Google them.

AR does not stand for assault rifle or automatic rifle. It is not a machine gun. It is a hunting rifle. It is available with low caliber .22LR ammo, which is used for small game hunting.

It is a semiautomatic gun. You must pull the trigger for each shot – unlike a machine gun.

The rifle was developed in the 1950s by ArmaLite. Hence its name, AR-15. Later it was purchased by Colt. At one time, you could purchase it from a Sears catalog.

This gun is often the choice of parents who wish to introduce their adolescent children to a hunting rifle or target rifle, due to its light weight and low recoil.

So the problem is not the AR-15 – the problem is that crime is out of control and many shootings involve criminals or those with mental issues.

Instead of focusing on guns, perhaps the Biden administration should look at the root causes of gun violence. Until it gets crime under control, Americans will continue to purchase guns for their own protection.

Eric Butzlaff, Osprey

Americans suffer from love of guns

America is a sick country. It may have always been.

A people sick with the love of guns. A love born of fear of their enslaved and subjugated.

Ingrained by the hate fear causes. Fear of the Other, fear of invasion by Other Others.

The love of guns, by a misguided people blinded by the myths of past glories and present innocence.

Justified by an amendment wrongly interpreted.

Advanced by the power hungry and the greedy.

Encouraged by the purveyors of weapons of death.

And urged by those who poet Amanda Gorman says “would shatter our nation, rather than share it.”

Robert J. Catineau, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Protect historic homes on Vamo Drive, AR-15 for hunting