gov ron desantis
Governor Ron DeSantis

Editor, The Beacon:

I must respectfully disagree with the spate of recently published letters critical of Gov. DeSantis and caricaturing him as a book-banning autocrat (Letters, March 30-April 5). In truth, he is the virtual opposite, having just been re-elected by a landslide majority of Florida voters for his relentless fight for individual freedom and government accountability.

Not one single book has been banned in the state of Florida. None. Zero. Nada. He has, however, empowered parents through their local school boards to remove pornography and age-inappropriate materials from public-school libraries.

I’m sure we’ve all seen the stunning newscast videos of parents being stopped while reading excerpts from library books that are so graphic they can’t even be read to adult audiences at school board meetings. Such trash has no business in our public schools, and there’s no reason why the taxpayers who fund those schools can’t have a say in what books are placed there.

Far from being authoritarian, Gov. DeSantis believes that American citizens are not subjects to be ruled by government elites. He believes that the government, and its ancillary institutions, should be accountable to the people. That belief is at the heart of his fight against “wokeism” in our public schools and colleges.

He signed into law the Individual Freedom Act, popularly called the “Stop Woke Act,” which prohibits indoctrination of students in the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mandatory attendance at seminars and training sessions which preach that individuals are inherently “racist, sexist or oppressive” by the mere fact of their skin color, gender or ethnicity.

CRT is the polar opposite of teaching equality and tolerance. Its tenets include the instruction of impressionable minds that people are to be categorized by their race, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity, and that White Americans are inherently “oppressors” and all Black Americans are “oppressed.”

Such overtly racist, divisive drivel has no place in our publ ic schools. Children should be taught to love and respect each other, not distrust and loathe each other based on inborn, physical traits. Wokeism stands on its head Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that all God’s children should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

The DeSantis-as-tyrant trope is further destroyed by how he skillfully guided Florida through the COVID crisis. Unlike the governors of many other states, he stood firm against destructive and freedom-crushing vaccine and mask mandates, as well as the school closures and business lockdowns that were tragically imposed by other, truly authoritarian, governors primarily in Democrat-run states. Our governor recognized that free people have a right to move about, earn a living and educate our children, even during a pandemic. No self-respecting tyrant would share that belief.

John DiChiara

DeLand

3 COMMENTS

  1. Garbage! Desantis (or someone) wrote a book entitled “The Courage to be Free,” which is directly contradicted by his efforts to suppress individual freedoms in Florida; abortion restrictions, anti-gay and anti-trans restrictions, restrictions on education curricula and other examples clearly demonstrate that he is not a champion of individual liberty and freedom. He wants liberty and freedom to be as he defines it. He does expand liberty and freedom for the gun cult, however; anyone can carry a concealed gun in Florida without a requirement to have a permit or background check. That’s FREEDOM!

  2. “having just been re-elected by a landslide majority of Florida voters” Yeah right – and I have some prime swamp property to sell ya – I’ll advertise on the Fox entertainment channel! If you gerrymaner enough it will appear that everyone voted for him! Florida is one of the most gerrymandered states in the US and he does not by any stretch of the imagination represent the majority of Floridians – most hate him and are embarrassed to say they live in the state now!

  3. Desantis is no more for floridians rights than the orange idiot who still thinks he won the election. Look what he did with disney and that was just because disney disagreed with him. Looks like a autocrat to me. It’s my way or the highway with him

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