As a longtime independent voter and an optimist, I’m saddened by the recent Republican choice for House speaker.
It was my hope that out of the chaos would come a conservative, right-centered leader willing to work across the aisle to get things done. Instead, in Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., we got a far-right election denier calling for Democratic blood.
We see the world on fire around us and we continue this internal warfare that’s tearing us apart. Even though I’m truly independent, as I like to examine both sides of an issue, I see the Republican cult as a clear and present danger to America.
I agree that the border and crime in our cities must be dealt with, but absolutely nothing compares to the lack of truth and compassion embraced by today’s Republicans. The anti-democracy extreme far right, wrapped in the flag and religion, is spiraling us down a dark path of destruction that must be stopped by my fellow independents and Democrats and the remaining free-thinking Republicans.
Every election, we hear that this is the most important election ever. Guess what? 2024 really is!
Mark Lippman, Boca Raton
Hellish levels of despair
The catastrophe in Gaza keeps growing to hellish levels of human anguish and despair. With death raining down, most of Gaza’s long-suffering millions are now helpless refugees, fleeing from one bombed-out area to another.
Vast stretches of residences and schools, mosques and hospitals have been turned to rubble. The hospitals that survived the carnage have lost electricity and water, unable to handle the inflow of newly wounded or to turn on incubators and keep babies alive. Children must wonder: Am I about to die?
Around the world, people have become aware of how murderous and criminal is the collective punishment being inflicted on Gaza residents, but that perception eludes President Joe Biden and our Western allies who are complicit in war crimes committed by an increasingly racist Zionist state. This regime, for decades before the latest Hamas attack, has violated one international law after another, including bans on expansion of settlements, ethnic cleansing, arbitrary attacks, killings by extremist settlers, and other blatant forms of apartheid.
Why is Israel such a sacred cow in the U.S.? Surely part of the answer is the power of the Israel lobby and its allies. Whatever the reason, most Americans have yet to wake up to the utter barbarism of the attack on Gaza and the true anti-democratic character of the extremist Zionist regime. Israel has brutally subjugated Palestinian Arabs and, I fear, will ultimately reap the bitter fruit of its oppression.
Irwin Shishko, Delray Beach
‘Red flag’ distortions
Gov. Ron DeSantis is either sadly misinformed or drastically mischaracterized Florida’s risk protection (“red flag”) law in recent news interviews.
He incorrectly stated that the law is only intended for use with people making threats, not for those experiencing mental health crises, and that it has been abused so that people can just lodge a complaint and have someone’s firearms taken away.
The risk protection process was carefully designed to protect the constitutional rights of the person involved and intended to protect people in crisis. Under a legal process, law enforcement can temporarily remove firearms and ammunition from a person determined to be a danger to themselves or others, while respecting their rights. It provides for a hearing before a judge and a court order.
In one county, which publishes its risk protection cases, the database of petitions filed since 2019 shows more than half are “suicidal persons.”
On NBC’s Meet the Press, the governor again asserted that only an anonymous complaint is required. That is incorrect. During times in which reasonable citizens are searching for solutions, his repeated misinformation could cost lives.
Maria Swanson, Plantation