Letters and feedback: Nov. 28, 2021
Vulgar flag messages fly over the top
I was peacefully enjoying my walk on the beach one recent morning when I came upon outrageously big (approx. 10x20 feet) flags with an obscene message, located on the dunes behind a big house.
I’m not sure how we explain to our children and grandchildren why someone would hang out flags that are so derogatory for everyone at the beach to see. Calling our leaders names in writing and in public is morally and ethically wrong. This is not the example that we should be portraying.
I believe in freedom of speech but I feel that this is over the top and disrespectful of our leaders, not to mention, just mean.
I hope that the city of Cocoa Beach makes them take them down.
Mary Castro, Cocoa Beach
Floridians need option to recall governor
In order for Florida to survive, we need the ability to recall a governor, similar to other states. The political stunts that Gov. Ron DeSantis displayed in his recent legislative emergency meeting show he has gone off the deep end.
He rules that schools cannot require vaccines, nor masks, nor quarantine if exposed to COVID; only parents can make those decisions. Then he decrees that employers cannot mandate vaccines, but they will need to test weekly and offer full PPE gear and require mask and social distancing for the unvaccinated. Huh? So the entire child population from 5 to 18 have different rules than the entire employer/employee population?
DeSantis took an oath to ensure democracy for the entire population, not just the rules he feels like following. If he tried to fix some of the serious problems facing Florida, we might come out of this pandemic with more people alive and well. Instead of using Florida funds to fix the debacle of an unemployment system, assist with rent for struggling people and other needed projects, he’s spending our tax dollars on lawsuits against the federal government. I think he forgets the state government is self-insured, which means every state employee who gets COVID, our tax dollars pay their medical bills.
Wouldn’t this all be easier if we just did the right thing and took the vaccine to protect ourselves and our community, so this virus can stop replicating? Unfortunately for the people who don’t understand, we need requirements to help them understand.
John Buscemi, Viera
The high cost of inflation
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said he would use the tools of the Fed to prevent higher inflation from becoming "entrenched."
I could be totally wrong, but what I learned in my economics class is that price = (the cost of ) labor + material + overhead + taxes + profit.
Wages are already on the rise. That means businesses not only are paying higher wages, but paying higher payroll taxes on each employee.
Most materials have at least some labor and overhead, as well as taxes and profits of the supplier), included in their price, so it many cases, the cost of materials for many products is likely to increase.
Overhead includes all kinds of stuff, like labor and materials.
Taxes, particularly on product/service suppliers (i.e., businesses) are proposed to be increased by 20% or more. And of course when taxes are increased on higher income executives, my guess is they will demand higher wages to "cover" those higher taxes so they can maintain their own lifestyle.
Maybe some business owners will be willing to reduce their profits to offset all these higher costs, but from what I've seen in stores, gas stations, etc., I think that prices will increase.
Maybe Powell doesn't consider increases in the cost of what people buy to be inflation, but my guess is many others might disagree.
Ilene Davis, Cocoa
Why the rush to judge Rittenhouse?
In the last several weeks we have been exposed to more judicial wizardry than since "Perry Mason." The jury decides the guilt or innocence, but I'm more interested in the underlying hocus-pocus.
First, there is the undecided Arbery trial. Ahmaud Arbery was a young Black man who stopped to look at a house under construction while out jogging. Three white men thought his actions were suspicious, followed him, tried to apprehend him, shot, and killed him. This should have been the case that all the believers in systemic racism should have jumped on. It has all the elements. But they put this on the back burner and decided to propagandize the Rittenhouse case. Why?
I won't relitigate the Rittenhouse trial but I want to revisit certain factors from the trial. The prosecution presented murder charges before the investigation was complete. Was there a rush to judgment; if so, why? Rittenhouse was a police cadet, while all of those who were shot had police records.
Why did the NAACP criticize the verdict and claim it was based on race since the three shot were all white?
Most of the major media (cable, air, digital, print, and social ) were biased against Rittenhouse. Even the funding sites blocked financial assistance to Rittenhouse. It was a 17-year-old vs. the left machine. Why was Rittenhouse such a threat ?
Jack Ward, Melbourne
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Letters and feedback: Nov. 28, 2021
