Letters to the editor for Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Congressman Donalds doesn't get it
Three pieces in Sunday Views intersected. Two were insightful Mailbag letters, the third was propaganda. One letter addressed educating ourselves about issues and candidates before voting. The other wrote of our freedoms and responsibilities as American citizens, and how freedom is not unfettered license.
The third piece, “Intimidation, harassment aren’t good governing” by Byron Donalds, our representative in Congress, is where these two mailbag writers trumped the politician. Rep. Donalds evidently doesn’t believe the government should tell anyone what to do.
Think about that. Rep. Donalds is a legislator — a lawmaker — but he doesn’t think we should have rules to govern us. He ritualistically cited the Constitution, but what is a constitution but a system of rules and laws by which a country is governed? If we have no rules, we have anarchy, chaos and nihilism. The intimidation he described is coming from his wing of the political spectrum as a direct result of this egocentric philosophy.
We must elect someone to Congress in 2022 who understands the difference between freedom and bedlam, action and obstruction, pragmatism and extremism, patriotism and narcissism, conservative and wackadoodle. Will someone please throw their hat into the ring? Southwest Florida deserves better.
Connie Holzinger, Fort Myers
Stop making deadly pandemic political
As one of Byran Donalds Republican constituents I am deeply disappointed in his op-ed "Intimidation, harassment aren't good governing" as he and others create a political argument over a medical and deadly pandemic.
Let's keep this short and simple!
We have a virus that continues to kill and has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Many who have survived the virus owe their lives to our outstanding medical and scientific community. But this virus has not been contained or eliminated and will not be as long as the virus can invade the unvaccinated bodies.
So on one side we have the people who are a part of the solution: medical and science professionals and the vaccinated.
On the other side we have people who are a part of the problem: junk science believers and the unvaccinated.
This is not a political issue so stop blaming the opposing political party, focus on the unvaccinated.
David Paul, Fort Myers
It's adults who failed, not the gun
The editorial "Assault-style rifle is the deadly culprit" is both short-sighted and ill conceived. Kyle Rittenhouse is no hero. No matter how well intentioned he may have been, he was an adolescent, with a firearm, in a place, at a time he had no business being. Where were his parents? Our laws say he was within his rights to be there and possess a firearm. The culprits are the adults that threaten to kill this teenager, chased him, attacked him with a skateboard and threatened him with a handgun. Had they acted as grownups none of this would have occurred. The assault-style rifle did exactly as it was designed. It allow an poorly trained teenager to defend himself and only the assailants were injured. In a society where we have a right to defend ourselves and our families, we have a right to the tools that will allow us to do so. To demonize a gun in this instance demonstrates a lack of understanding of the situation. If you don't like guns, change the Second Amendment. This was not about a gun. It was the failure of adults. The crowd, his parents and our legislators for allowing them to come together.
Martin Wilhelm, Marco Island
Blaming the gun 'a bunch of rot'
Recently a USA Today editorial wrote "Assault-style rifle is the deadly culprit."
Oh sure! Of course it is the gun's fault!
What a bunch of rot!
M. Inge Johnstone, Naples
Rules sometimes serve the greater good
I just finished reading Byron Donalds' ridiculous column about intimidation and harassment. Right beside it are two columns about airline travel and behavior and the necessity to mandate some decorum!
Congressman, I ask you is it unlawful to require seatbelts in cars? Is it unlawful to prohibit drunken driving? Is it unlawful to enforce speed limits? Is it unlawful to require children to be vaccinated before they go to elementary school? Is it unlawful to require a driver's license to operate a car? Is it unlawful to require me to stop at an intersection?
The plague in Europe was stopped when government stepped in to enforced cleanliness!
Where does the greater good come in when there was necessary rationing during WW II? If you were alive then would you have just let individual governors set their own regulations?
This country was built on people living and acting together and to have a governor and a congressman who are anti lawful living is what is furthering the split in the USA.
Franklin Warner, Fort Myers
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, December 1, 2021
