Budget cuts are arts censorship
One thing that we can assume about Gov. Ron DeSantis is that neither he nor any of his Republican colleagues in the Florida Legislature have ever attended any of the Orlando Fringe Festival performances (“DeSantis: State arts grants vetoed over ‘sexual festivals,'” June 29). My wife and I have attended hundreds of Fringe shows over the 33 years that this international event has been held in Orlando, and have never seen any that are so-called “sexual” by these culture-averse legislators who support this moronic decision. We are adults who do not need supervision from the Blessed Above in Tallahassee as our moral guides.
Fringe preshow literature describes each show so that parents can choose what’s appropriate for their children and themselves. Many choose to take their children to the Fringe Children’s Festival.
DeSantis and his cronies are promoting censorship in “Free” Florida through arbitrary cuts. Considering what I see as the outright thievery of Florida taxpayers’ money to pay for their many illegitimate and immoral antics, the Florida Legislature and DeSantis hardly qualify as moral compasses for the rest of us.
DeSantis is cutting $32 million of funding for the arts and other cultural institutions throughout the state from the 2025 Florida budget under the laughable guise of “morality.” Many cultural entities throughout the state, including the Fringe, Enzian and Orlando Shakes, will be left with zero state funding as of July 1. Robbing culture from the public and imposing censorship through outlandish, ludicrous excuses is the sign of an authoritarian government.
Chuck Weirauch Casselberry
Other countries have laws to stem gun violence
Thank you for your editorial about gun laws (“It shouldn’t take courage for police to speak out against gun violence. But it does,” June 30). We just returned from a wonderful trip to Ireland, the UK, and Iceland. In Ireland, our tour guide was a 30-year veteran of the police force, and he mentioned last year there were only three gun-related deaths, down from 10 the year before. Admittedly, Ireland is a much smaller nation with slightly more than 5 million residents as opposed to 330 million here. But the U.S. had 43,000 gun deaths last year and is on track to surpass that this year, with more than one mass murder per day. We must act to make sure reasonable laws are passed that help prevent more inevitable carnage.
Gary Balanoff Celebration
Climate change grows because of human free will
A Sunday letter to the editor (“Climate changes, but God is in control”) seems to imply that global warming is an act of God and therefore we should do nothing to try to control it.
Global warming was created by humans by burning forests to make room for building construction, as well as burning million of barrels of oil per day and tons of coal. Humans also created trains, and if you are walking in the middle of the railroad tracks and a train is coming, God will not stop it. God gave you the brains to decide to get out of the way.
Hernando Pinzon Maitland
