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Voter suppression fears are justified

The writer of a Dec. 28 letter on votingmade amisstatement in suggestingthat President Joe Biden is not telling the truth about voter suppression. The facts argue otherwise.

Various nonpartisan entities have fact-checked former President Donald Trumps "Big Lie" about so-called voter fraud. An investigation by The Associated Press revealed that outof 25.5 million votes in the sixbattleground states during the 2020election, the total of votes that could legitimately calledfraudulent amounted to just475 and some of those were cast for Trump!

That's whyit is universally recognized that even if all of these apparently fraudulent voteswere cast for Biden, it would not have made a scintilla of difference in the presidential election. And well before Trump was a candidate, states that have been using millions of mail-in ballots have been doing sofor many years without any significant fraud.

The issue was only raised byTrumpers after their candidates legitimate loss. Soto suddenly propose ID laws on the false claim of voter fraud isdisingenuous at least, and cynically wicked at worst.

More: Herald-Tribune: How to send a letter to the editor

Biden is indeedtelling the truth: the right-wing radicals whoare trying to suppress the vote areattempting to bring back Jim Crow voting restrictions. If they succeed, we will loseour democracy and we will slip into autocracy.

Stephen Japhe, University Park

Homeowner surprised by rude behavior

After last weeks wind eventI hauled two barrels of yard waste, mostly palm fronds, to my front yard for Tuesday pickup. But instead of loading the materials, the truck driver justdumped themon the ground.

When I confronted him, the truck drivertold me that the yard waste was too heavy and was not packed correctly. I am 75 years old, and I carried the same barrels at least 200 feet to the curb.

I suggested to the truck driver thatif he couldnt deal with something that someone at least twice his age could handlewith ease, then maybe he should join a gym or get a desk job. His response was, I dont give (an expletive).

I would expectthe Venice public works department todemand a bit more courtesy and professionalism from an employee who, in my opinion, has a pretty good gigespecially in comparisonto what manyother peopleare experiencing during these difficult times.

I imagine that there may be a lot of folks out there who would love to have hisjob.

Reg Grover, Venice

Challenging times for our democracy

In 1787Benjamin Franklin foresaw the possibility that the new democracy being formed could fail.A founding father of our Constitution, Franklin was asked if the new government was a republic or a monarchy. He replied, A republic, if you can keep it.

These ominous words are relevant today. The visionary leader believed that inherent in the ambitious goal of self-government deemed an experiment at the time wouldbe the rise of troubling issues that wouldthreaten its viability.

Were facing such a challenge right now. Theres disruptive disagreement among our Republican and Democratic leaders regarding the policies and legislation needed for our country to advance.The deadlock they havecreated not only stymies the enactment of fresh legislation it also perpetuates the dissension.

The question at hand is what measures these lawmakers can introduce to resolve this turmoil to form a more perfect Union, the centuries-long goal and history of our democracy.

JohnMarcus, Sarasota

Expose hate speech - don't silence it

The guest columnists from Support Our Schools stated that children are entitled to a modern education in a safe and inclusive environment. Although I find the Proud Boys organization reprehensible and I deplore their use of violenceI dont believe the answer is exclude them from public debate.

Even hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. In the 2017 Supreme Court case Matal v. Tam, for example, Justice Samuel Alito quotedJustice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s dissent fromUnited Statesv. Schwimmer in 1929:. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability or any other similar ground is hateful, but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express the thought we hate.

Justice Holmes statement has become a central principleof First Amendment thought.

Inclusivity requires that our children be exposed to all points of view, even the ones we detest, so that they may learn to evaluate critically and decide which positions are the most consistent with their values and so they may learn to reject speech which is hate-filled.

Hate speech will always be with us. But we can oppose and expose it not with silence, but with education and action. Show our children the harmful effects of hate speech. Support candidates whose positions more closely align with your own. Run for office.

Above all use your vote to send the message of inclusivity and brotherhood.

Leslie Curley, Venice

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Thursday's letters: Voter suppression, a rude city worker, the fate of democracy and more - Sarasota Herald-Tribune