Editor, The Beacon:
Welcome to Florida! A “free state,” according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
We do have some novel freedoms in Florida. We can open a firing range for military-grade weapons in our own backyard. We can prohibit our cities and counties from passing laws that might restrict gun ownership. We are so gun-friendly we have more guns than people living here!
As for education? We have the freedom to censor any book or academic course that is politically expedient. Our state Board of Education sees to that. It keeps our children safe from wild ideas about democracy, our history and sex.
Subversives like Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci, Frederick Douglass and William Shakespeare have no place in our curricula.
We are free to ostracize LBGT people and have our taxpayers subsidize private schools for our wealthiest residents.
Health care? We see to it that our counties toe the line and let our state do the reporting for COVID and other disease deaths. Don’t want to scare the tourists away with accurate data. We don’t allow our schools, local governments or businesses to require proof of vaccination or have mask requirements. We are free to infect others!
If you are raped or are a victim of incest, you are free to give birth to your child.
Law and order? We suspend state attorneys whose politics don’t suit our governor; he decides how crimes should be prosecuted. And as a bonus, we are a sanctuary state for criminal politicians, both domestic and foreign. We have our own Trump tourist attraction at Mar-a-Lago and Jair Bolsonaro competing with Disney in Orlando.
We take federal funds for hurricane and COVID relief, but freely reject funds to expand Medicaid.
We are so free we can ban local governments from requiring gas stations to have electric charging stations.
Our freedoms have the Chinese and Russians starting to look and see if they might have missed something.
Indeed, when you have an ambitious politician who is salivating to become president, these “freedoms” become a shameful and dangerous political policy.
Chuck Oakwood
DeLand
