Unifying a fractured nation; remembering treasonous plots: Letters, Nov. 20, 2022

What are we doing to unify the U.S.?

I cannot agree more than what Bill Cotterell, the Capitol Curmudgeon, wrote in his Nov. 16 opinion column. I don't always agree with him but this column was great.

It is time that our two main political parties look at a different generation of people to run our country. We don't need to have two gray-haired old men at the top of the presidential  ticket. And my opinion is not from a younger generation, as I am older than those two.

Right now both Biden and Trump have discredited things in their background which have not brought out unity in our country. It's not for me to bring up their indiscretions as most people, Republican or Democrat, surely must be aware of the things these two men are doing or have been doing to not unify  our country.

We sing a patriotic song "God Bless America" but how can that happen when we are so divided from the top down? God can move mountains but why should He do that when he sees from the top down two old gray-haired men who refuse to come down form the mountain?

Katherine S VanderLee, Palm Bay

A salute to our MIA service members

My tall, handsome, brown-eyed cousin, James Sallee Browne, gave up his life at 21 on Nov. 17, 1942, in the early days of WWII. A native of Winnetka, Illinois, he has been MIA since that day in spite of the fact that we (our family) went to China twice and finally sent a search team who found Jimmie's C-47 on Cangshan mountain in China. It was positively identified with the construction number found in the wreckage which matched the Douglas Aircraft Company production record.

Ever since that time we have tried to bring Jim home with no success. The reasons are numerous, basked in bureaucracy, but today I simply want Jim's name to shine somewhere so he is not forgotten as are 83,000 MIAs.

Jimmie was flying underpowered, overloaded, unpressurized C-47s across the perilous Himalayas in a desperate effort to keep China in the war, tying up a million Japanese who otherwise would be available to defend the Pacific territories we intended to occupy. His sacrifice made for a safer Pacific campaign.

So, here on Nov. 17, 2022, 80 years after Jim died, I want a few people to know of James Sallee Browne, who died so many years ago to make us all a little safer.

Robert Willett, Rockledge

Those who deny 2020 election threaten democracy

Looking back at the last two election cycles, it becomes quite evident what our primary threat to democracy is.

It’s not Russian interference in our elections, it’s not misinformation on social media, it's not even drag queen story time, as some of our local residents would lead you to believe. The real threats to democracy are politicians like Kari Lake, Bill Posey, and Donald Trump, who continue to spread the 2020 election lie, continue to cast doubt on our election process, and continue to spread unproven conspiracy theories. Here’s the hypocrisy: If they win, the election was fair and trustworthy; if they lose, the election was rigged.

Our election officials and staff work extremely hard to ensure that our election process is fair and legal. What they have received in return is shameful, ranging from verbal attacks to death threats.

Our democratic election process and the peaceful transfer of power are the cornerstones of our republic. Without that, we face nothing but chaos and lawlessness, like Jan. 6, 2021.

John Cielukowski, Cocoa Beach

Paul Harvey called it right in 1965

I just read that the Biden administration is talking with Mexico and Canada, and apparently all members of the Organization of American States (for which U.S. taxpayers pay 50% of its $90 billion budget) to apparently form a union like in Europe, and focus on diversity, equity and inclusion over merit and ability.

Back in 1965  Paul Harvey did a show titled "If I Were the Devil." He concluded, “If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

I guess the one good thing is the U.S. would shortly be so poor that all those people coming here from south and central America would figure they wouldn't be any better off and stay home.

Is that really the America we want for those who follow us?

Ilene Davis, Cocoa

Florida: out of step with the rest of the nation

Well, contrary to popular belief, the country has spoken and the "red wave" did materialize after all. However, it was to wave goodbye to the Republican Party as it was known. From its ashes there are now only two red options: the MAGA Party or the Hypocrisy Party.

The Democrats held the Senate and the Republicans got a razor-thin majority in the House. It seems the country, rightfully, does not want anti-democratic, anti-women, authoritarian political leadership after all — shocking, except in Florida. A majority of Floridians don’t seem to care that our politicians are election-denying, self-serving autocrats with visions of grandeur seemingly out of touch with reality.

It is so sad. Maybe someday when Florida is shown to be a pariah state out of step with the rest of the nation, Floridians will finally wake up, read the handwriting on the wall and join ranks with true Americans rejecting fascism.

Ed Dean, Merritt Island 

Remembering treasonous plots of past

For centuries the British people have celebrated the foiling of a treasonous plot that was discovered on Nov. 5, 1605. This was a plan to blow up Parliament with gunpowder, assassinate King James I, and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne, but the plan was foiled by an anonymous tip. Known as Guy Fawkes Day, after the plotter who was found guarding the explosives, it is celebrated with parades, fireworks and bonfires on which effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned. It is a lot of fun.

The United States can now celebrate its own foiled treasonous plot, when a group of traitors attacked the United States government through the Capitol building. The success of this act of treachery was denied by various branches of law enforcement who eventually fought off the attackers.

So, once the dust has settled and the traitors have been sentenced, we can start planning the festivities that will be held annually on Jan. 6. This gives us time to think up some really fun activities: fireworks for sure, bonfires with orange effigies to place on them. How about some competitions: Pop the Fence-Climber, Defend the Office, Race down the Corridor, Duck under the Desk?

Most importantly, the celebration needs a name.

Over to you, creative minds.

Ann Coburn, Cocoa

Historic tragedies haunt for a lifetime

This is a story 59 years in the making, and trauma that follows my life's timeline.

I was in kindergarten on Nov. 22,1963. Being a 5-year-old in Kennedy country, or the South Shore of Boston, at that time, my memories are hazy. Yet the JFK murder still haunts me to this day. I always wonder: If there were no Zapruder film, where would the conspiracies lie?

Jump ahead to Jan. 28,1986. I was working for Brevard County Parks and Recreation, working on the ball fields at Mila Elementary School on Merritt Island. On the other side of the fence was a large group of children and teachers. We all know what happened at 11:38 a.m. that cold morning. Cell phones and video in general were nonexistent, which explains why we only have NASA video and a few grainy videos from bystanders.

I've expounded on it through other letters to the editor over the years. Over the past decade, visiting Oahu, I've visited the grave of Lt. Col. Ellison Onazuka every visit. I'm off to Hawaii for Thanksgiving and will again honor a man I never met yet saw die. National Geographic finding a section of Challenger's underside brought back a host of memories. I wish my memory of that cold  day could be transcribed to digital form.

As a 5-year-old in 1963 who saw a president murdered and thinking about 5-year-olds who witnessed the Challenger explosion along with me, I wonder how they feel about it now, almost 37 years later? Social media is a good start. May they find the closure I still seek these many years later.

And finally, may the Challenger legacy be remembered by future generations as a moment in time, not forgotten.

 Bill Lundell, Indian Harbour Beach

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Treasonous plots of the past; remembering MIAs: Letters, Nov. 20, 2022