Tuesday's letters: New College suffers in comparison to Hillsdale
'Hillsdale of the South'? Good idea
Time and again we read and hear how our wonderful New College is to be turned into another big bad Hillsdale.
Just how bad is this dreaded invader of the North? Let’s take a look at Hillsdale College and see what New College of Florida would be like if it became the “Hillsdale of the South.”
There would be 1,500 students on campus, not 698. The graduation rate would be 77%, not 60%.
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The student acceptance rate would be 24%, not 74%, with a lot more applications.
The endowment would be $900 million (as of last year), not $40 million.
New College students would have the opportunity to study at Oxford University and the college would be offering free online noncredit courses with 2 million enrollees.
New College would be sponsoring numerous charter schools and would be receiving widespread accolades for excellence in education.
I could go on, but I think I have made my point. "Hillsdale of the South"? Seems like a good idea to me.
Richard Abruzzi, Lakewood Ranch
Children die, GOP loosens gun laws
On March 27, I watched CNN report that a former student had killed three schoolchildren and three adults at a private school in Nashville!
A few days later, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed a law that will allow adults to carry a concealed, loaded weapon without a special permit or training. Worse, our wonderful Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will immediately sign it into law!
Some GOP legislators insist that carrying a gun is "a constitutional right endowed by our creator.” Really? Show me the chapter and verse in our Holy Bible.
Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for approving such an inhumane law. And yet there are plenty of folks who would like to elect our gun-toting governor as president.
Colin Moore, Venice
Don’t demonize all transgender people
The shooting at the Nashville Christian school was tragic beyond measure. The shooter is alleged to have been a transgender individual.
Many people, including those on Fox News, are using this one shooter’s alleged gender identity to claim that all trans people are dangerous.
Where was the alarm about the dangers of straight white men when hundreds of them were shooting people in our schools, shopping malls, churches, bars, theaters, etc.?
Let us not demonize a whole group of people because of one person.
Pauline Geary, Sarasota
Demand access to dementia drugs OK’d by FDA
According to a new report from the Alzheimer’s Association, 827,000 Floridians are serving as caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. With more than 580,000 people 65 and older in our state living with Alzheimer’s, nearly everyone is impacted in some way.
I recently met with U.S. Rep. Greg Steube’s office to call for a reversal of the Biden administration’s decision to deny people with Alzheimer’s access to drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
I urged Steube to show the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that he supports full access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatment. Every day without access to these drugs, more than 2,000 people transition to a more advanced stage of Alzheimer’s where they are no longer eligible for treatment.
I hope Steube will also choose to support Sarasota families through these three bills: the NAPA Reauthorization Act (H.R. 619), the Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act (H.R. 620) and the Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act (H.R. 1637).
Each of these bills would help to support caregivers, as well as our colleagues, family and friends who are facing this disease. We must also continue to build research funding at the National Institutes of Health through a $321 million increase for fiscal year 2024.
Steven Osgood, Sarasota
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Hillsdale of the South an improvement; why loosen gun laws?
