Thursday's letters: Biden's poor record, going back in time, love one another, more

Midterms will ride on Biden’s record

The Herald-Tribune is doing what it can to deflect all the problems created by our wonderful president with The Associated Press article June 27 indicating that the midterm elections will somehow be determined by the Roe v. Wade decision (“With control of both chambers at stake, midterm election poised to become referendum on Supreme Court’s ruling”).

I know the American people are smarter than the media make them out to be.

The original Roe decision was terribly flawed, as every legal scholar has indicated since the decision last week by the Supreme Court. As a constitutional attorney for more than 50 years, I concur.

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All the court did was to correct that problem, just as it did when it overturned Plessy v. Ferguson with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.  The midterm elections will, in my view, be determined by the scorecard generated by our feeble and misguided president.

Richard Malgran, Esq., Sarasota

Take us all the way back to public hangings

The efforts of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife to return American law to earlier times are currently well publicized. He recently suggested that laws concerning contraception and same-sex marriage should be revisited.

As a happily married 95-year-old, neither of those two areas are of any personal concern to me.

Perhaps Thomas should revisit two early American legal remedies.

Public hangings for capital crimes might have a useful impact on reducing the hate crimes we see too often in our news. Also, I believe witchcraft still might be practiced by some of my opponents at the bridge table.

Why stop with just the two areas Justice Thomas mentioned?

Ron Cota, Sarasota

DeSantis longs for days of gunslingers

Wow! Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to outdo Donald Trump with his own definition of what “Makes America Great Again.” He’d like to be the only sheriff in a “Wild West America” where everyone openly carries a pistol so they can protect themselves when the shootouts start at the O.K. Corral.

Imagine the scene at some future acrimonious school board meeting when these “open carry” gunslingers disagree or feel threatened and open fire on school officials or teachers to protect themselves. Under our “sheriff’s” new police force, these gunslingers will just claim they were just defending themselves.

The DeSantis view of safety and social order is not democracy but tribal autocracy.

In the lawless West, the sheriff was the figure who both created and enforced the law. Is that the “Great America” we want in Florida? Are we so frightened by inclusiveness and intellectual openness that we’d give up our democracy to a frightened gunslinger so that we can feel safe?

It’s not the America I want to go back to.

Stephen Prichard, Venice

Never fear, voters have last word

Headlines June 27 confirmed that millions of dollars are going to the DeSantis campaign, though he’s not officially running for reelection yet, much less running a campaign for national office (“Big donations flow to DeSantis,” June 27).

However, that money does not have to prevail. We voters have the last word!

If you are unhappy as I am with Florida legislators who promote the lie of a stolen presidential election – and who have failed to pass legislation dealing with local issues like red tide, pollution of our natural springs, erosion of our beaches, excess development and giveaways to special interests – then let’s send the Republicans home!

Let other states elect felons to state office. In Florida, we need to elect honest and ethical representatives and senators who will vote for what is good for Florida – and not just to get themselves reelected or make headlines and other mischief.

Tama Traberman, Sarasota

Listen to rabbi: Accept one another

As a 75-year-old white Christian grandmother, I offer my sincere thanks to Rabbi Jennifer Singer for her beautifully written opinion in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (“Don’t put labels on those who care about our community,” June 23).

I will never understand how followers of Jesus have misguidedly placed themselves ahead of God. They are ignoring the First Commandment, as well as the basic command to “love one another.”

Lavonne Shedivy, Longboat Key

Good old days weren’t always good

Remember the good old days when a gallon of gas was 21 cents and a loaf of bread cost a dime?

That was 1946, when the minimum federal wage was 40 cents per hour and the average annual income was $2,600.

Ah, yes, those were the good old days! Some say.

T. Guy Spencer, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Roe ruling won't determine midterms, back to public hangings