White House defends splitting up families as 'biblical' | June 15
The suffering of the children
I am a mother and attorney with more than 20 years of practice living in Tampa. For the past three years, I worked as a magistrate in a Unified Family Court truancy diversion program focused on the six middle schools with the worst attendance rates in the Pinellas County School District. The reason I mention this is that a large percentage of the children with whom I worked suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and severe anxiety due to environmental situations in their homes and communities. The children currently being forcibly separated from their parents at our border will suffer for years, if not for life, from the aftereffects of this trauma. There is no effort currently being undertaken to adequately house these children, much less address their psychological or educational needs. Our elected officials — and everyone around us who allows this to go on — are terrorizing these kids. We are responsible and some day, we will be called to account.
I implore our senators and representatives to act swiftly and vigorously to combat these immoral and unethical policies. I call on them as human beings to support all bills that aim to improve the situations of the children already held and to prevent this injustice from continuing. As the line in Hamilton goes, "history has its eyes on you."
Lynda B. Barack, Tampa
Fix foster care, and
do it quickly | Editorial, June 15
An action plan for what?
The problems Eckerd Connects is having trying to fix the Hillsborough County foster care system under the supervision of Florida's Department of Children and Families (DCF) seem to be a never-ending story filled with, "blah, blah, blah," coming from anyone who has any responsibility for taking care of these children. Now we find out the DCF has assembled a panel of 10 experts who have compiled a report finding fault with what seems to be business-as-usual in the treatment of foster children. It took 10 experts to explain to DCF that having children spend nights in staffers' offices and days in staffers' cars is wrong? The experts also found that many children are not attending school regularly and seldom are given nutritious meals.
Even though this has been going on for some time we can now rest easy. DCF has ordered Eckerd Connects to come up with a corrective action plan by June 30 — not correct the problems — just have a plan to correct the problems.
Makes me wonder if anyone at DCF is capable of making any kind of a firm decision.
Dan A. Sparks, Redington Beach
Trump, the anti-Reagan
Bret Stephens column, June 14
Trump's right this time
To be forthright, I detest President Donald Trump's blatant lying, bullying personality, tribal nationalism and conflicts of interest. However, I applaud his approach to North Korea. Three presidents have tried the traditional diplomatic process with no lasting positive results. Trump is faced with a pariah regime that has nuclear bombs, a means to deliver them and a protector in China. His reality-show approach, at which he is talented, may also fail but is worth a try. If it fails, we are no worse off than we were, and are more likely to get other influential nations to fully support new sanctions.
Robert More, Riverview
Charter schools aren't
the enemy | Letter, June 14
Public school as public good
As a citizen I have a duty to provide for future generations receiving an education that will benefit all of society. Through my taxes (state, local and federal) I willingly take up my obligation to support traditional public schools. Public schools are required by law to accept any child whether they are disabled, black, white, Asian, slow to learn, or genius. This egalitarian method puts all under a common umbrella. But students at charter schools can be cherry picked in many ways; it can be hard, for instance, for a severely disabled child to enroll. In addition, many religious institutions use the system of state vouchers to support religious instruction in their schools. The society through taxes supports a public school system where all can attend. If people want extra special stuff for their children, they are welcome to go anywhere they want — just don't expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Rene Tamargo, Tampa
Students set big goals for
summer bus tour | June 14
A well-meant fool's errand
The mission being undertaken this summer by a group of graduated students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School should be applauded. Their desire to rally the voter turnout by the younger generation is admirable. Their goal is to curtail gun violence in our schools and elsewhere. Except it's unfortunate that the message they carry is based upon false pretenses. Expecting that gun violence can be reduced, or eliminated, by restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens is a fool's errand.
William Lines, Spring Hill
High earners should
pay more | Letter, June 13
Doing the math
I have heard many people say that they do not understand why there is a cap on the amount of income taxed for Social Security (currently $128,400 of yearly earnings). They also say they are only getting back the money that they put into the system, even though most people get back all they contributed plus interest within eight to 10 years of retirement. They say the cap is not fair, and that people who make millions should have 6.2 percent deducted of their entire earnings. But look at the other side of fairness on this issue. Social Security benefits are also capped. The maximum a person can receive in benefits is $2,788 per month ($33,456 per year in 2018). So consider someone taxed 6.2 percent on, say, $10 million ($620,000) per year for their entire working lives. In 10 years this person would contribute $6.2 million. Then upon retirement with full benefits (at 67) they would begin to receive $33,456 per year. They would have to live an additional 185 years, until age 252, to break even (without interest). Does that seem fair?
Stu Raymond, New Port Richey