CharlotteDems.com Editor’s note: The following letters to the editor from local Democrats appeared recently in the Sun newspapers.
Give Gillum a fair, clean run
Editor:
Today as I put an Andrew Gillum for Governor sticker on the back of my car, it reminds me of when I drove around Charlotte County with an Obama for President sticker.
One day a carload of young men beeped us from behind, tapped my car and pushed us into a muddy ditch. The “us” that I refer to was my 98-yearold mother and me. Neither of us was hurt. Mom shook her head. She’d endured other indignities. She had faith, and to calm my anger, she told me someone good would come along to help us. She was right.
My mother died six months ago. I wonder what she would think of an African-American running for governor of Florida. She’d want to know: Is his heart in the right place? Is his character upright? Are his policies sound? The same as she would want to know of any candidate for office.
I’ve studied Andrew Gillum; I give him high marks. I sincerely hope that Floridians, all Floridians, especially those who pushed my car off the road, will look beyond skin color and take the high road and allow Andrew Gillum a no mud-slinging, no dog-whistling fair run.
Naomi Pringle
Port Charlotte
Trumps’s bad deeds are OK now?
Editor:
I’m getting weary. I don’t read every letter to the editor, but when I see one written by someone I know I read it.
Last Thursday, I read one from an acquaintance blasting the Sun for printing a negative article about Trump and then praising Trump for all the good things he is doing for us.
When I hear or read those praises, my reaction is always the same, “Am I stupid or what? How did I miss the benefit of all those good things? Am I the only one?”
The great tax cut paid for a couple dinners out and a few bathroom paper products. My stocks act like yo-yos and filling up the car is an OMG. Groceries are ridiculous. Utilities, medicine and insurance premiums keep taking more and more. Sure wish I had not missed those good things.
I really don’t give a flip about Trump’s decadent ethics as long as they stay in his private Trump world. But, when he publicly exposes them and they’re excused because of the good things he is doing, I cringe. Friends and family have become distant because they believe his so-called good things overshadow his bad behavior. If they excuse bad behavior, then it must be OK for them to behave badly.
I’m having a hard time grasping what is happening. Our ideals, ethics and democracy are being compromised without question at our expense in more ways than one.
Ed Zysko
Punta Gorda
