Today's letters: Readers comment on college sports, increasing electric rates, being woke
A business
A recent article in the Star-Banner highlighted the multimillion-dollar salaries of college football coaches. Am I alone in the idea that this is out of control? Are colleges so caught up in the pursuit of being No. 1? Is fiscal responsibility no longer relevant? The salaries and the multimillion-dollar facilities used to lure successful coaches and recruit players prove that college football no longer is a sport but a multibillion-dollar business.
Richard Marriner, Ocala
Increasing PCA rate
We are customers of Ocala Electric who live in Ocala Preserve. On our current electric bill, there is a small box that states the PCA rate is doubling effective Feb. 1: “Effective February 1, 2022, the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) is increasing from $0.014 to $0.028 due to the increase of natural fuel costs.”
This is a huge increase — it would increase my bill by more than 10% this month alone — and I would like to know who approved it and if residents had any input. February is a lower electric-usage month (due to the season, less A/C), so the full brunt of this will really be felt as the weather gets warmer.
I cannot believe this is not regulated in some way by the Public Service Commission. I never read anything about this rate increase in the Star-Banner, but I may have missed it if you reported on it. An increase in these times is probably to be expected, but double the PCA rate is beyond acceptable.
Everyone who is a customer of Ocala City Electric should be up in arms about this rate increase.
Janice Augustine, Ocala Preserve
Be woke
Gov. DeSantis and his new Stop Woke Act are really about denying children the education of U.S. history that includes racism. This governor has no clue what CRT is about, and wants to ban education about such things like the great leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the landmark Supreme Court Case that changed education, 1954 Brown v Board of Education; and so much more interesting U.S. history.
U.S. history is good, bad and ugly, but needs to be taught in order to learn from our mistakes. Do we ignore the civil rights movement because black and white people protested to give equal rights to black people? If so, should we ignore the women’s suffrage movement, where they also fought for equal rights? I don’t see the difference except for the color of skin.
I, as a white person, don’t feel guilt or hate my country. I, as a retired teacher, taught about the civil rights movement because it’s part of what our country is and how we grew as a country. Yes, we got better over the decades in regard to civil rights, but we aren’t great. Is that a bad thing to teach kids? No, because it’s the truth.
DeSantis is right about one thing — talking about racism is woke because it literally means “alert to injustice in society, especially racism!” I didn’t realize that what I stood for was “woke,” but thank you, governor, for pointing that out to me. I’m proud to be “woke” and will continue to fight against racial injustice.
Why does he want to stop woke? Why do DeSantis and his followers want to deny that people, movements and actions — that helped this country be better — never happened? No good can come from these actions. Be woke!
Nancy Carp, On Top of the World
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This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Jan. 16 letters: Readers comment on college sports and more
