The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Feb 18, 2023.
Gov. DeSantis wants you to believe that his agenda is focused on “freedom.” In reality, he is creating a patchwork of highly discriminatory laws, rules, and practices. Taken as a whole, these practices target virtually every minority group in Florida.
If you’re Black, he doesn’t want your history taught or discussed. He’d prefer to obliterate your history.
If you’re a liberal, he wants to make it harder for you to vote. If you’re poor or indigent, he doesn’t care if you have access to health care. If you want to emigrate to this country, he won’t support you unless you’re Cuban.
If you demonstrate against him, he wants to put you in jail. If he thinks you’re teaching too liberally, he doesn’t want you to get tenure. If you’re a member of the LGBTQ community, he wants you and your teachers to remain silent about that.
If you are a business that doesn’t agree with his agenda, he will create hardships for you. If you are an elected local leader, he doesn’t want you to pass laws that conflict with his agenda. At the height of COVID, he demonstrated that he doesn’t care if our elderly die. He doesn’t want to discuss it with you if you disagree with his agenda. He’d rather ridicule, discredit and try to eliminate you.
DeSantis is creating a dangerous totalitarian state that is built on discrimination and intolerance. He’s not fit to lead our state, and he is definitely not fit to lead our country.
Eric Britten, Port Charlotte
Image Credits: DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times
