Sunday's letters: Sen. Scott has history with Medicare, ask Bill Gates to buy New College

Scott's company was no friend of Medicare

Why would Sen. Rick Scott think it’s a good idea to sunset Medicare, Medicaid, etc.?

For those of you who were not here, or not paying attention, in 1997, let me remind you that he had no respect for Medicare at that time either.

In 1997, the federal government announced that it was investigating his company, Columbia/HCA, for defrauding the U.S. government. Columbia was one of the largest health care companies in the country at the time and Scott was CEO. In July of that year, he resigned.

In 2000, Scott’s former company agreed to what was then the largest government fraud settlement in U.S. history: $840 million in criminal and civil penalties.

More: How to send a letter to the editor

All of the accusations applied to when Scott was CEO. His corporation illegally billed Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs for years. The company pled guilty to numerous corporate felonies.

Unfortunately, corporate felonies do not carry jail sentences, or that's where Rick Scott might have been in 2010 instead of running for governor – a steppingstone to his current position as your senator.

Lynda Cushman-Komar, Port Charlotte

DeSantis’ buds could buy New College

Sarasota and Manatee counties, as well as the entire state of Florida, comprises Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and other religious sects, plus agnostics and atheists.

If the governor and his myopic cohorts want to change the curriculum and faculty to their particular ways, they should have their church, club or clique purchase the facility from the state and take it off the tax rolls.

More:$15 million from state for New College transformation

A second option might be to approach some of the great American philanthropists, such as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, to buy the facility and employ the faculty, who are doing an excellent job in giving the students what they signed up for.

The third option would be: Keep the status quo. Leave New College alone.

Larry Asarch, Sarasota

Dark cloud of ignorance threatens future

Fictional dystopias depict ruinous authoritarian societies in which books are banned and women are turned into fertility machines. Novels and movies like “Brave New World,” “1984,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Fahrenheit 451” intrigue readers and movie audiences with such imagined horrors.

And not just fiction. Nazi Germany gave a real-world instance of the burning first of books and then of people on an industrial scale.

Our state’s jewel of higher learning is being systematically disassembled and converted into a right-wing propaganda machine. Schools are censoring their libraries and punishing teachers for teaching lessons of empathy and respect.

More:Exhibit at State College canceled over 'diversity,' 'justice'

Lawmakers open access to powerful guns designed solely for warfare. These weapons eviscerate human flesh so that schoolgirls shot in Uvalde had to be identified by their DNA.

Advanced scientific medical knowledge is treated as witchery as rules requiring vaccination are made voluntary. Ending rules that saved thousands of lives will release dread diseases like measles and polio that had been almost eliminated from the Earth.

These and other trends threaten all our futures with a dark cloud of ignorance and inhumanity.

Nancy Conn Terjesen, Venice

Leave investing to the experts

As a member of the Florida Retired Educators Association, I am writing concerning Gov. Ron DeSantis’ interference with the types of funds in which the State Board of Administration can invest.

According to "DeSantis unveils policies against ESG investment," Feb. 15, DeSantis is asking the Legislature to prevent the SBA from considering ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) in its investing.

Since the recruitment of Ash Williams in 2008, the SBA investment team has worked miracles. Williams, the SBA's chief investment officer until retiring in 2021, brought incredible skill and knowledge to this job. Assets grew from $4 billion to nearly $20 billion and the pension fund gained $166.7 billion. Before he retired, he created a team of experts to carry on.

If our governor is going to interfere in their investment decisions to play politics against “wokeness,” I fear that the great members of this team will choose to leave this job for one where they are fully respected.

Susan Darovec, Bradenton

Is Black Seminoles story too ‘woke’?

Thank you for the excellent reporting of the issues Feb. 16 in “It Hurts,” about Black Seminoles.

I can’t help but wonder if this article would be banned from the Florida public schools’ history curriculum as fitting the criteria of “woke.”

Teaching the complicated history of the United States with all of the painful facts is key to producing citizens capable of making informed decisions about present-day issues that affect our nation and the world.

Otherwise, we are doomed to a future of dealing with the problems generated by followers of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

Suanne Ohme, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sen. Scott has history with Medicare, Bill Gates could buy New College