Teaching kids respect; leaving the GOP; Roe v. Wade's impact: Letters, July 14, 2022

We should be able to teach children to respect people unlike themselves

A group of middle school boys used an art project to create a racial slur and proudly post it on social media. Busted, they pleaded innocence, that they didn't know or didn't understand what they did was hurtful. Obviously, they didn't learn that at home. They didn't learn that at church.

Now, thanks to our governor and his obedient legislature, they can't be exposed to such radical lessons as the history of slavery and the long, hard fight for civil rights. Civil rights for everyone.

A group of LGBTQ students are spit upon and met with homophobic slurs and chants of “Kill 'em all" from their classmates. Obviously, no one at home is teaching right from wrong. No one is teaching that people of another color, race, sexual orientation are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles and should be treated with respect.

Where do they learn such things? I want to say, "Heaven forbid we teach respect in school.” Instead, I must say "The governor and legislature forbid… .”

What kind of future will Florida have when the goal of education is to teach students to "feel good about themselves" while hating anyone different?

Bettie Marshall, Fort Pierce

Guidance for new teachers in a bilingual preschool classroom

The purpose of this letter is to address some concerns of teachers who will work for the first time in the bilingual preschool area, on how to create a learning environment in the classroom.

Teachers can follow these general rules: Different types of visual material written in both languages should be used in the classroom, such as posters with the theme, the vocabulary words of the week, as well as flags of their countries. It is important to put up posters of the cultures of the students to help them feel at home.

To accommodate the learning centers which will be identified in the two languages, the blackboard can be divided into three or four sections as it is done in schools from first grade to high school. Masking tape is usually used, which is easy to remove. For example, a section for the theme of the week, and another with the vocabulary. You can add the alphabet with magnetic letters.

The teacher must have an environment of continual communication and discovery with the children through questions about their culture of their place of origin, and their family and themselves, giving the opportunity for everyone to participate and enter in conversation with the teacher. This also helps for good social interrelation with their classmates.

Good luck, teachers.

Luz M. Cleotilde Mercadal de Moore, Port St. Lucie

The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision will affect everyone

I'm a fan of Bill Cotterell's Capital Curmudgeon columns republished from the Tallahassee Democrat. His opinion pieces have educated me and kept me up to date on the politics of Florida for quite some time. His pieces are sharp and incisive, and get to the point on the issues of our time, and our legislators' positions in Tallahassee.

That being said, I take issue with his statement published in a recent paper, when he says that the effect upon voters by the Supreme Court's decision on abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson “... doesn’t personally affect most of them like inflation, crime and gasoline prices do.”

I see the "originalist" majority decision in that case as using the 1787 language of the Constitution to ban a hard-won right that was approved of by a majority of the country. To say that this doesn't affect most of us is near-sighted. The next rights that this "originalist" court will seek to extinguish are found in the words of Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion regarding past Supreme Court decisions finding the rights of the populace to same sex marriage, to obtain contraceptives, and to engage in consensual sexual activity. Thomas puts the gunsights of the court squarely on those decisions, saying “… we have a duty to “correct the error” established in those precedents.”

It's crystal clear that this court's future decisions will constrict or remove many rights established by the courts in the past two centuries. Contrary to what Cotterell wrote, this decision on abortion will affect everyone in our country, one way or another.

 Jonathan Rose, Vero Beach

When Republicans voted  to overturn the election I left the party

As a lifelong Republican, I never imagined I would leave the Republican Party in December 2020. While I was often embarrassed by the former president (and my party’s lawmakers who enabled him) during his term, it seemed foreign to me to leave the party. Republican lawmakers have not only damaged our country and democracy by their allegiance to the former president, but have also endangered other democracies throughout the world by not standing up to a president they knew lost an election, promoted American division on a grand scale and did all he could to stay in power.

When over 100 Republican House members voted in December 2020 to overturn a valid presidential election, it was time for me to leave the party and become an independent. I still have hope for the Republican Party, but too few Republican Party lawmakers are willing to stand up for what they know is right. Far too many of our Congress members serve their personal interests over the interests of our country. If they aren’t there to do the important work that needs to get done, we would all be best served if they chose another profession.

Deep down, we all know what is right (and wrong). I remember the saying “stand up and be counted.” While Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have done so at great personal and professional cost regarding their service to the Jan. 6 Commission, too many of their Republican peers continue to shout “nothing to see here,” promote nonsense, debunked conspiracy theories and division — or say nothing at all.

It is a national disgrace how far the Republican Party has fallen. The Democratic Party needs a credible counter and, without a credible Republican Party, our democracy and others throughout the world are in serious peril.

Randy Green, Port St. Lucie

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Leaving the GOP; Roe v. Wade's impact: Letters, July 14, 2022