Monday's letters: Governor's moves to crush New College mere political posturing

College nothing to DeSantis but red meat

Our governor’s spiritual evisceration of New College of Florida is nothing more than a convenient, cynical campaign talking point.

About 700 students are enrolled in the Sarasota institution versus more than 400,000 total in all state universities.

New College’s student population calculates to about .17% of the larger number. For those who can’t envision this minor percentage, that’s like a couple of meatballs in a 50-gallon stock pot brimming with them.

Crushing the spirit of New College is no more than a chunk of red meat thrown to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ admirers who don’t understand (or perhaps fear) a liberal arts education, creative thought, LGBTQ rights and other concepts they’ve been groomed into believing are evil and/or unworthy of public support.

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The utter shame of such transparent political posturing is that killing off the creativity that emerges from schools like New College makes us a poorer society. Let New College be New College.

Elliott Himelfarb, Sarasota

Kudos to teacher for calling out homophobia

I would like to commend the Sarasota County teacher for her letter April 14 that rebuked Bridget Ziegler for wearing a T-shirt with a thinly veiled attack on gay and transgender females ('T-shirt shows disrespect for LGBTQ+').

With Ziegler as chair, our School Board has become a divisive and intolerant organization. Our once-stellar school district (where I proudly taught and coached for 35 years) is being dismantled by a right-wing political movement that is anti-public school, anti-LGBTQ, anti-science and tacitly racist.

More: Board delays vote on firm tied to Hillsdale College

Thank you to this brave, local teacher for standing up for all students and calling out the insensitivity and implied bias displayed by our School Board chairperson.

Con Nicholas, Sarasota

Overdevelopment depletes aquifer

How can we justify all the new building planned for the Sarasota area when 20 years ago we were being chastised for depleting the underground deepwater aquifer?

Suggestions were made in the Herald-Tribune as to how we should preserve water. One was to keep a dishpan of soapy water to wash your hands in instead of running the tap.

There were many others I can no longer remember but many of us had to have our wells deepened from 80 feet to 120.

What is the state of the aquifer now?Rita Donnelly, Sarasota

Good must triumph over evil in Ukraine

Oksana Bashuk Hepburn’s guest column April 13, “America and its allies must keep up support of Ukraine, help them finish job,” was spot-on. As she states, “Good must triumph over evil: It is the only way forward for civilization.”

John F. Kennedy also stated our country’s stance toward fighting for freedom well in his “Ask what you can do for your country” 1961 inaugural speech:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

JFK’s speech is as relevant now as it was during the Cold War 62 years ago: We must never give up the fight for freedom, or the fight against evil.

Larry Beck, Osprey

No pardon for Trump, who won’t admit defeat

In the April 10 Herald-Tribune, guest columnist EJ Montini opined that a presidential pardon was right for Richard Nixon and would be right for former President Donald Trump as well.I agree the issue is a divisive one for the country and that any trial (or trials) would be costly and lengthy to resolve. But I also believe the circumstances today are very different, and they require a different outcome.With Nixon we had a sitting president who, in the best interests of the country (to be generous to him), resigned from office in disgrace, never to be a political force again.

With Trump we have an individual who – in his bravado – claims to want to make America great again but has fostered just the opposite.

Trump didn’t have to resign from office as Nixon did; he merely had to acknowledge what the courts have clearly concluded – that he lost the popular vote and the electoral vote in 2020.

Trump continues to foster discontent to the detriment of the country. By his account, he has done nothing wrong –in fact, he thinks he's done everything perfectly and expects to run again for our highest office.

Such an individual is not worthy of a future pardon.Stuart Silbergleit, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: DeSantis wins talking point by taking over New College