Readers comment on the St. Michael's Church site, COVID mandates and more
Maintain natural setting
The sight of St. Michael's church at the urbanized intersection of 43rd Street and 23rd Avenue used to be an uplifting sight in the midst of its urbanized setting.
After the beautiful church was demolished, I now find the remaining green, sun-absorbing trees at the corner still make a welcome, refreshing oasis in the landscape as I wait at the light or drive past the concrete and asphalt of the commercial developments on the other three corners. That park-like break in the view is a reminder that I’m in Gainesville, the Tree City, a special community unlike other cookie-cutter cities.
A six-story building is proposed for that corner. The thought of a tall building replacing those handsome trees is appalling. More heat-reflecting concrete. More city-scape. I hope for a development plan that maintains the natural setting of the St. Andrews property.
Joan H. Carter, Gainesville
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Mandates save lives
I was appalled to receive a press release recently from the Florida Retirement System, announcing that: "Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida Jobs." The release goes on to boast that the governor has eliminated all mandates for vaccines and masks as part of the strongest "Pro-Freedom Anti-Mandate" laws in the country.
Are you kidding? What warped alter-universe is the governor and his minions living in? Is this really laudable?
What about the health, safety and welfare of the rest of us? Why should the selfish convenience wants of a minority outweigh the health and safety needs of the vast majority of Floridians? And how are these mandates incompatible with jobs?
Intuitively, wearing masks where necessary and vaccinations only stimulate jobs. They make it possible for businesses to stay open, protect cautious customers, and workers don't have to miss time due to illness they or their family members contract. These mandates save lives and billions of dollars in health care costs.
Is "personal freedom," disguised as convenience, really more important than the health, safety and welfare of even one person; especially if that one person is your spouse or child?
Stuart Floyd, Gainesville
Turning away from God
"It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord … " This is part of a speech given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
Lincoln is saying that if individuals or countries wish to be successful, they had better line up with God's word. Lincoln was a fallible human, but he's certainly no slouch when it comes to common sense and the realities of life. But — is he right?
Over the past 250 years, our nation was blessed to become the wealthiest, strongest and most admired on the planet. Did this gradual ascendance occur because we, for the most part, were adhering to the basic ideas taught in God's word?
In seems to me that over the past 50-plus years, as a nation, we are turning away from God in a most dramatic way. We are abandoning the ideals of our Founding Fathers. We are on a track headed for some form of socialism. Is this because we are gradually deserting God? I believe so.
Unless we have a drastic turn around, we will no longer be "...one nation under God ..." Instead, we will be a nation under materialism and selfishness and greed.
Leonard C. Young, Keystone Heights
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Letters to the editor for Dec. 1, 2021
