Sunday's letters: Animal abuse, role of Supreme Court, Sweden's downside, more

Spotlight on animal abuse closed circus

The restored railway car/museum in Venice re-creates the tight living conditions of the human performers, but compared with what the elephants endured, they were spacious (“The circus car is in town,” May 9).

The article noted that 16 elephants paraded from the train station to the arena, but failed to mention that they had made the long trip to Venice chained and crammed into a boxcar, living in their own excrement.

Training was also extremely abusive. As John Ringling’s nephew, Henry Ringling North, noted in his book, “The Circus Kings,” tigers and lions are “chained to their pedestals, and ropes are put around their necks to choke them down … They work from fear.”

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What brought the circus down? Technology. Heroic animal activists armed with small video cameras, previously unavailable, captured footage of the horrific conditions and routine beatings with whips and bullhooks that went on behind the scenes.

Journalists, armed with these images, as well as USDA inspection reports enumerating multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act, educated a previously unaware public.

Protests ballooned, and cities and counties enacted laws restricting or banning circuses that use animals. Cruelty simply couldn’t survive the spotlight.

Writing about the history of the circus without mentioning animal abuse is ignoring the elephant in the room.

Stewart David, Venice

Rejecting Roe v. Wade won’t ban abortion

Among the many instances of disinformation, better known as lies, which are circulating within the media is this: If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it will be banning abortion. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The court does not exist to set social policy or to write law. Its role is to interpret the law, especially as it relates to or conflicts with the Constitution.

What the court would be doing is correcting an egregious error in crossing that line into legislating from the bench, thereby taking decision making out of the hands of elected representatives in Congress or the states.

There are few issues in American politics as contentious as abortion, pitting two assumptions of “rights” against one another: that of a woman to control her body versus the right of a human fetus to continue life.

The proper arena for this debate, and its resolution in law, is the political realm, with the electorate. If the court overturns Roe v. Wade, it will be returning the issue to Congress and state legislatures and their elected members and to the people of the United States, where it belongs.

Dana A. Cyr, Sarasota

Anti-Trumper glad for conservative judges

In his May 12 column about overturning Roe v. Wade, Patrick Brown has shown what a hypocrite he really is (“I’m glad Trump’s legacy could be the end of Roe v. Wade,” May 12).

Brown wrote that he didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but added that having Trump as such a ridiculous excuse of a president was worth it to overturn Roe v. Wade. He is wrong and should know it!

Michael Hicks, Lakewood Ranch

Sweden: The rest of the story

The May 9 letter, “Blend capitalism, socialism, like Sweden,” extolled Sweden’s socialistic economic system.

But here are facts about Sweden, largely from the website www.sweden.se/life/society/taxes-in-sweden:

• Swedish workers pay an average of 33% of their income to local governments. That’s correct: 33%. There are few deductions or exceptions.

• Sweden’s “Value Added Tax” (national sales tax) is 25% on almost everything. So a Swede paying $50,000 for, say, a new Saab, pays an additional $12,500 tax on the purchase.

• Groceries are “only” taxed at 12%. So that $200 grocery cart you take through a grocery store checkout here would cost an additional $24 tax. No exceptions.

The letter writer also claimed, “Regulation and taxation make the environment cleaner and provide a social safety net …” So? We do that in the U.S. Implying otherwise is disingenuous.

Finally, “Scandinavian workers are among the most productive in the world.” Compared with whom? According to https://worldpopulationreview.com, the U.S. ranks No. 5 while Denmark, Sweden and Finland are 10th, 11th and 18th, respectively.

Sweden’s system is one the Swedes, apparently, are comfortable with. But their high-tax-nanny-state system would never fly in the U.S. Nor should it.

Tim A. Rocklein, Sarasota

Newspaper changes for the worse

I very much dislike the changes made in the newspaper.

I would prefer to have TV listings rather than suggestions as to what to watch. The print is so small in the Crytoquip that it is impossible to complete the solution.

Also, it is hard to find the Dr. Roach column.

All said, the old way of doing things was much better and easier.

Aija Cimermanis, Palmetto

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Circus mistreated animals behind scenes, justices can't ban abortion