Tuesday's letters: How to register and vote, share your bounty, no right to abortion
Register, get informed and vote
The League of Women Voters of Sarasota County was pleased to register voters on Sept. 20, National Voter Registration Day.
We now want to make sure that anyone still wanting to register knows they can do so in order to vote Nov. 8. The deadline is Oct. 11. For information on how to register, go to https://www.sarasotavotes.gov or call 941-861-8600.
Registration is just the first step in the process of participating in elections. Another important step is to learn what’s on the ballot and to obtain as much information as possible about the candidates and proposed constitutional amendments.
The League is proud to provide a nonpartisan source for that information at https://www.vote411.org.
More: How to send a letter to the editor
Obviously, the final step is to vote. We are fortunate to have three ways to vote.
One way is voting by mail. (Request a vote-by-mail ballot no later than Oct. 29.)
Another is early voting. Vote Oct. 24-Nov. 6 at nine locations.
Finally, we can vote in person at our local precinct on Nov. 8. Find information about this can be found at https://www.sarasotavotes.gov.
Linda Thompson, president, League of Women Voters of Sarasota County
Be kind to the ‘stranger in our midst’
Many Floridians of goodwill are rightfully appalled by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political theater at the expense of our most vulnerable. As a Jew, it’s especially poignant that he was sending immigrants north last week as we read from the Torah about the importance of sharing our “bounty” with “the stranger in our midst.”
It’s in the Torah at least 36 times – the most repeated command – to be kind to the sojourner. For Christians, treating the stranger kindly is found in the New Testament.
Today’s sojourners, immigrants, our fellow human beings, journey to our land in search of freedom and survival. Yet in Sarasota and Florida, we have lawmakers making a mockery of fundamental religious and human precepts.
In 2019, state Sen Joe Gruters sponsored anti-sanctuary city legislation and gleefully displayed “mug shots” in his office of Mexican immigrants he’d turned over for deportation.
How many turned away by our country have perished over the last century?
Treating immigrants as cannon fodder for his reelection and presidential aspirations, DeSantis misused Florida taxpayer dollars relocating them from Texas to Massachusetts.
Massachusetts residents jumped into action to assist, caring more about those yearning to be free than DeSantis, who disingenuously touts Florida as the freedom state.
Martin A. Goldstein, Sarasota
No right to abortion found in Constitution
I am appalled by the lack of knowledge of the U.S. Constitution shown by two reporters in the first paragraph of “Women lead men in new Fla. voters after ruling on abortion,” on the front page Sept. 20.
They wrote that a woman “cried for hours when she heard the U.S. Supreme Court had ended the constitutional right to abortion.” I could find no correction or explanation in their article.
Obviously, the court could not end the right to abortion since that right was never in the Constitution in the first place. And anyone who read the decision would know that reversal of Roe v. Wade was a necessary ruling because of this.
Of course, I understand the 19-year-old’s confusion as our schools are sorely lacking in civics education. If you want to change the Constitution, it provides a way to do that.
The states are responsible for anything not expressly delegated to the federal government in the Constitution.
Joseph Sacco, Osprey
Work together to benefit common good
It’s time for America to come together and work for the betterment of all its citizens. Americans must work with their neighbors, colleagues and even enemies to save our democracy before it’s too late.
Politicians must give up party labels and work for the benefit of all. This means instead of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to bus or fly immigrants to other cities, Congress must find a solution to the problem. Children separated from their families must be reunited.
It has been years of inaction by all officials and the rest of us are saying we won’t take it anymore.
You wonder why some folks don’t vote. It is because politicians care mostly about their ego and themselves, not their fellow citizens or voters.
America is plagued with wildfires, flooding, rising temperatures, undrinkable tap water, polluted air and water, illiteracy, clogged roads, lack of public transit or inadequate public transit, corruption, greedy corporations and so much more.
It’s time to love thy brother and sister regardless of their race, religion, country of birth, economic status or political position.
It’s time we were the United States.
Vicki Epstein, Lakewood Ranch
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: How to register, learn about candidates; share bounty with strangers
