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Come on. Being ‘canceled’ is not the same as being tortured | Letters
Here’s what readers are saying in Wednesday’s letters to the editor.
 
Dave Chappelle has faced criticism over transphobic content in his Netflix comedy special “The Closer."
Dave Chappelle has faced criticism over transphobic content in his Netflix comedy special “The Closer." [ CHARLES SYKES | Charles Sykes/Invision/AP ]
Published Oct. 20, 2021|Updated Oct. 20, 2021

What ‘cancel culture’ isn’t

Party invitation ignites a firestorm at Yale | Column, Oct. 18

Have some people been unfairly chastised or even fired by the so-called woke “cancel culture”? Absolutely. But Monday’s opinion pages in the Tampa Bay Times would have you believe these injustices are tantamount to imprisonment, torture and execution. Ruth Marcus’ column (”Party invitation ignites a firestorm at Yale”) begins “Maoist reeducation camps have nothing on Yale Law School.” Read on and you’ll learn that a law student being told by the Yale administration to apologize for a coarsely worded party invitation is a fate worse than death. Peggy Noonan (”Captain Kirk and reaching Thermidor”) compares wokeness to the “violence and mayhem” that followed the French Revolution. Her evidence? Some people criticized Dave Chappelle’s comedy special on Netflix. The horror.

Brendan McLaughlin, Tampa

Thanks for cemetery investigation

Tampa Bay Times reporter, researcher win NAACP award for cemetery stories | Oct. 17

Congratulations to Paul Guzzo and Ray Reed for this much-deserved recognition of their bringing to light the long too-neglected issue of cemeteries desecrated and erased. And thank you to the Tampa Bay Times for granting Guzzo the latitude to explore the issue and for providing the generous column-inches to make the Tampa Bay community aware of this local problem — which is not solely a local problem, nor is it a new problem. The burial grounds of communities traditionally without sufficient political or economic “juice” — African Americans, Native Americans, Appalachian white communities in the path of Tennessee Valley Authority hydroelectric projects, and others — have long had their burial grounds erased. Those of us with an interest in identifying, recovering and preserving these burial grounds owe a debt of gratitude to Guzzo, Reed and the Tampa Bay Times for revealing an issue that has appalled most of us and resulted in new action to address the matter. Ultimately, we must all ask ourselves how we’d feel having the final resting place of our loved ones paved-over.

Lou Claudio, Safety Harbor

On the edge of the flat Earth

How dumb can a nation get and still survive? | Column, Oct. 11

Last week the Tampa Bay Times printed a column by Eugene Robinson, “How dumb can a nation get and still survive?” I agreed with it 100 percent; but wait, there’s more. Tuesday’s article about the private school in Miami telling parents to keep vaccinated students at home for 30 days and not allowing vaccinated employees to have contact with students falls over the edge of our flat Earth. Admittedly based upon anecdotal information and not science, seemingly not political in nature, and with no other explanation, it truly is just dumb.

David Lubin, Tampa