Editor, The Beacon:
Gov. Ron DeSantis promised “woke” would die in Florida. When I first heard that I wondered, “What is woke?” I’d never heard of “woke,” but it must be bad if the governor wants to kill it.
Researching, I discovered “stay woke” was first used in the 1930s in Black communities. It was a warning to be aware of racial discrimination and prejudice. Today, “woke” has expanded beyond the Black community to other minority groups, like the LGBTQ+ and transgender communities.
DeSantis’ attack on Floridians’ awareness of discrimination and prejudice has been nothing short of spectacular. Following the autocrat’s playbook, DeSantis authorized a policy to ban books about racial and gender awareness.
Students in grades K-12 are not allowed to hear or read about sex and gender. Courses that mention slavery cannot teach about the horrific aspects of that institution. Those facts are replaced with the distortion that enslaved people were taught job skills. Reading and writing, the most important job skills, were banned for the enslaved. Is teaching that ban banned by DeSantis’ law?
Colleges cannot teach awareness courses like race and ethnic studies. Nor can they spend money on awareness programs about diversity, equity or inclusion.
DeSantis’ overhaul of New College created chaos, over a third of the faculty left, and students are unable to take classes needed to graduate.
Again, digging into the autocrat’s playbook, DeSantis targeted businesses that refused to endorse his anti-awareness agenda. DeSantis blocked state funding for a Tampa Bay Rays training facility as punishment for tweeting about gun violence.
After Disney criticized DeSantis’ law to ban gay awareness, he replaced their board of directors with his own appointees. While they lacked the power to ban the content of Disney productions, they did abolish Disney’s awareness programs on diversity, equity and inclusion.
DeSantis understands authoritarians don’t limit themselves to destroying awareness of cultural issues. The hiring of Ben Sasse to head the University of Florida was conducted in secrecy.
Donors and even Florida tax dollars funding DeSantis’ presidential bid are shrouded in secrecy.
Democratic leaders do not ban books. Democracies do not distort their history and attack their minority populations. Democracies do not hide how they spend the public’s money. Those are things authoritarians do.
Sam Sloss
DeLand
Of late, it appears the Beacon is publishing disinformation, distortions, and outright lies submitted by its readers. This letter asserting Governor DeSantis is or acts as an authoritarian is easily disproven by the facts.
Unlike Joe Biden, Governor DeSantis did not sign executive orders restricting anyone’s rights or banning anything. DeSantis put forth public policy proposals. After public debate, the democratically elected Florida Legislature then modified and passed some of those as laws. These laws reflect the will of most Florida’s citizens. That is exactly how “democracy” works.
These laws are good public policy. They eliminate sexually explicit, pornographic, and developmentally inappropriate books in our K-12 schools; reassert state government’s accountability over a private, for-profit Florida business; provide age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate educational materials for students in accordance with state standards; and return rights to parents in the educational discussion and decision making affecting their children. (According to a 2022 Saint Leo University Polling Institute poll, all but a small minority of Floridians support these reasonable and appropriate public education policies.)
To be clear, when presented as part of an approved curriculum, students are permitted to hear and read about sex and gender. What is not permitted are inappropriate materials and topics as determined by the Florida Board of Education or local school boards. Reasonable people agree that K-12 students do not need to learn about butt-plugs, strap-on dildos, sadomasochistic abuse, or read and discuss sexually explicit narratives. What the Governor did was lead through consensus.
As for the hiring of Ben Sass, Dr. Duane Mitchell, professor of neurosurgery and a member of the Presidential Search Committee was quoted as saying “This was an extremely thorough and exhaustive search featuring input from a broad coalition, and Dr. Sasse’s qualifications shone through”. Further, it was the University of Florida Board of Trustees who unanimously voted to select Dr. Ben Sasse as the University of Florida’s president. That is not authoritarianism, but democratic governance.
In conclusion, while it is not in the public interest to publish disinformation, distortions, and outright lies, I fully support the Beacon’s right to publish whatever it chooses. Significantly, I think the public interest would be better served to publish facts rather than lies, distortions, and disinformation.
Governors govern! That’s what they do! You are the editor and you don’t understand what governing is? You call that “authoritarian”?
You don’t deserve to be the editor if you’re that “sensitive” and ignorant of the English language.
By the way, the Beacon is becoming an echo chamber for local democrap ideology. Is that your contribution to this failed local rag?
You should go to work for the News-Journal, probably as a junior stringer. Maybe they wouldn’t even hire you at that?
Bye!