Readers comment on Republican plans, famous pranks and the Uvalde school shooting

What a GOP sweep means

When you vote next November, don't be distracted by non-issues like critical race theory and voter fraud when Donald Trump lost by over 7 million votes. Let's be clear on what the expected Republican sweep will mean.

• More guns on the street and an end to efforts to require national background checks in order to purchase weapons.

• The end to a woman's right to choose abortion in every state controlled by Republicans — with most sentencing girls and women who have been raped to nine months of carrying their rapist's baby followed by a lifetime living reminder of that rape.

• More tax cuts for the rich. After his supposed middle class tax cut in 2018, Trump told Mar-a-Lago members, who pay a $200,000 initiation fee and annual dues of $14,000, "You all just got a lot richer." They did. And they want more.

• A collapse of the U.S.-led alliance to support Ukraine against Russia's invasion. Many Republicans prefer Vladimir Putin and are ready to stand aside as he takes over most or all of Ukraine.

• Renewed support for coal and other fossil fuels and continued refusal to confront climate change, even as droughts and extreme weather events worsen.

So vote as if your life and the future of your children and grandchildren depend on it — because they do.

Geoff Pietsch, Gainesville 

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Famous pranks

I enjoy all David Whitley’s columns, but his May 17 piece, “We could use a good, old-fashioned prank,” really hit home. I agree.

I was fortunate enough to be an undergraduate when University of Florida campus pranks were rife,1957-1961. Certainly the king of pranks was the late Carl Gluck with his Russian-chess-champions-at-the-Union hoax. Running a close second was the team of Jurgen Wekerle and Bill Kirchhoff.

Bill and Jurgen pulled a number of stunts. But their best was at the 1960 UF vs. Miami game in the old Orange Bowl. They entered the stadium disguised as part of the Gator Band and carrying a cardboard gladiolus box. At halftime, as the UF Band finished its show and the Hurricane Band entered, Jurgen ducked onto the field with the box, emptied it and scampered off.

Suddenly everything ground to a halt. There on the 50-yard line was a live 2½ -foot alligator.

The Miami band refused to perform until the UF Band removed that reptile! The fans thought it hilarious.

Finally, Gator Band trombonist Clark Lord strode onto the field, picked up the gator and carried it off to the sound of laughter and applause.

Whitley’s right.

F. Leslie Smith, Gainesville 

Fooled again

Fool us once, fool us twice, fool us a thousand times — it seems that an element of government has excelled at fooling us. After each uniquely American tragedy involving assault weaponry, the woes and the thoughts and the prayers of office holders fool us, again and again.

Over the decades, the requisite and customary interviews of those who have power to prevent these tragedies are stale, predictable — and calculated. Why? Precisely because legislating nothing is the goal —  to fool us yet again!

After each (now weekly) tragedy, media (other than Fox) should seriously address gun-rights legislators’ motives for doing precisely nothing. Is it all about power, money and power? Who would think such a thing!

Do-nothing legislation would not have been the result if the Jan. 6 Second Amendment “militia” had used some of the weaponry they brought with them. A single deranged killer in New York or Texas can cause death with a single assault weapon in just seconds.

Perhaps it’s just as much derangement in our legislators who allow it. In the upcoming elections, will we be fooled yet again?

John Hughes, Gainesville 

Weapons ban worked

In his May 27 press conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, in response to questions/statements made, referenced his belief that 18-year-olds in Texas have been allowed to own rifles since statehood. He went further to state that mass shootings were, in his recollection, a phenomenon of only the last two or three decades (not necessarily true). Somehow, he felt this supported a position that significant gun control legislation was not a necessity.

I submit Abbott shot his own position out of the water. AR-15s date back to the '50s, but assault weapons were banned in America from 1994 until 2004. The sunsetting of the assault weapons ban would appear to coincide with mass shooting timetable the governor recites.

It's time to get serious, again.

Don Gorenberg, Gainesville

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Letters on GOP plans, famous pranks and the Uvalde school shooting