Balancing affirmative action

Court weighs admissions | Nov. 1

I went to college in the early ‘70s. We had a lot of minorities who became students through lowered admission requirements. I don’t know the stats, but a lot of them did not get far before dropping out. It was too difficult. Years later, I worked with a guy who had the same stats as I did in class rank, GPA, test scores. He was Black and went to MIT. He was recruited and at first was offended because the only reason they recruited him was because he was Black. He then realized he would never get that opportunity again, so he took it. He said he went from being in the top of his high school to feeling like the dumbest person at MIT. He was still grateful for the opportunity. I think higher education benefits from diverse cultures, especially in the world we live in now. Minorities represent a large percent of those who live in poverty. Those who live in poverty tend to have poorer education results, which puts them out of qualifying for post-secondary education without affirmative action. We need to work from the bottom up to improve educational results for all students so they can possibly be more productive and benfit society as a whole.

Dave Hinz, Clearwater

Competent or not?

The competent governor | Letter, Nov. 1

Competent governor? Tell that to the families of the more than 82,000 people in the state of Florida who have died of COVID, in part due to this governor’s incompetence.

David Burg, Tampa

So much for ‘nice’ guys

A decent man or a bully? Our pick for governor. | Editorial, Oct. 30

Let’s don’t forget the guy (Andrew Gillum) that the Times Editorial Board recommended for governor four years ago. He also appeared to be a nice guy, but later turned out to have character issues.

Steve Deininger, St. Petersburg

It’s actually pretty good

Political and economic freedom | Letter, Oct. 28

All we hear is how bad America is, inflation, etc., etc. But I think that these are mostly right-wing talking points. Right now we have the best economy in the world. Our dollar is the strongest ever, better than the Euro and the pound. We have a great GDP. Yes, we do have inflation, but it’s lower than other countries. And for crime? Maybe it’s because we have among the highest gun ownership in all the world?

Rick Pearson, Dunedin