Wednesday's letters: Bigotry against LGBTQ, gas price worth paying, the DeSantis method

Pride Fest: No leg for bigots to stand on

I took my kids to the Venice Pride Festival. They had a great time dancing under the giant rainbow. With bubbles and face painting, it was a fun Saturday out with the family.

Yes, we saw the rainbow dildos. Yes, it was awkward when my preschooler called out, “Mommy, what are those?”

I want to say to my Venice and Sarasota County neighbors, specifically Venice City Councilman Dick Longo, that you do not get to take the moral high ground in this city:

► Where your School Board members are endorsed by the Proud Boys.

► Where houses fly signs proclaiming “F--- Biden.”

► Where I had to explain to my kid what a "(obscene term for a sex worker)" is because we kept seeing the word on certain bumper stickers around town.

► Where your elementary kids wear the face of a smiling Indian on their school uniform.

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Venice Pride Inc. pulled out of the Holiday Parade after Longo asked the city to kick the group out.

How am I sure all this conservative outrage is not about the dildos? Venice is where the Jack and Jill Adult Superstore advertises a variety of sex toys, and the owner has yet to be called a “terrorist.”

Venice, you don’t get to take the moral high road on this one. Let’s call it what it is: bigotry.

Sarah Wiggins, Venice

Pay a little more to keep Ukrainians alive

The price of gas in Sarasota County currently runs about $3.40 to $3.50 per gallon, according to AAA. The reasons are many: pipeline capacity, extra profits for the petroleum industry, supply chain issues and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While there is not much we can do as individuals about any of these factors, one political party has indicated it wants to reduce the effects of inflation by possibly cutting our support for Ukraine.

If we continue to help the Ukrainians, energy could cost more, but it would still be available.

Millions of Ukrainians will be freezing this winter, some literally freezing to death. Ukrainians are paying the full price for their freedom; we could pay a little.

If helping to keep Ukraine free means paying a bit more for a gallon of gas, that would be a small price to pay for our freedom – because if Vladimir Putin wins, no country will believe in the USA.

Our allies would not join us in any future actions, and dictators like Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Bashar al-Assad, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Nicolas Maduro and others would rule the rest of the world – and then us.

Rodger Skidmore, Sarasota

DeSantis, disciples spread dark philosophy

The disease that swept through our political world has been contained but not eliminated. At best it has retreated into power centers preparing for another assault on our democratic processes.

Sarasota is, or is becoming, one of those centers. The likes of Michael Flynn, Bridget Ziegler, Vic Mellor and a growing group of believers in an anti-American way have prominent voices here. Those voices are telling us their slanted interpretation of the Christian Bible should guide the state.

That’s one of the pillars of the Ron DeSantis method. The other is that he knows best how that should be implemented. His political ad reminding us that he was created by God on the eighth day to protect our freedom tells us as much.

Hints of QAnon dogma abound. Medical science, American history, lifestyle choices, even the idea of empathy for others has been shifted toward darker corners of our world by his decisions.

There are ideological and financial reasons why Florida has become a one-party state in the grips of this darkening philosophy. It doesn’t have to be this way.

If you were on the sidelines during the last election, activate yourself. You are our hope.

Kyle Quattlebaum, Sarasota

At holidays, ‘face the challenge of change’

Thanksgiving is always hushed in Sarasota: After the traffic slows at dinnertime and most shops close, it becomes a moment for reflection.

For me, rather than at New Year’s, I examine where we are now.

My thoughts encircle all the challenges we have faced in the last three years. Beside COVID-19 and the war in Europe, I consider the fears of gun violence and climate change. These hurdles exist still. But we have braved them and tried to find solutions to the most horrible plagues.

Look at what we have achieved: developed a vaccine, sided with the oppressed in a war of oppression and begun to face up to climate challenges.

We have even resisted an incompetent politician and expressed disfavor and rejection of his manners, or lack of them.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

We are awake and insist on staying so.

Ellen Bick Asmussen, Sarasota

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Moral outrage over LGBTQ festival cover s bigotry