Recent letters

Florida Weekly invites letters from readers, including criticism and praise. Here, we share recent correspondence.

From Annie Palmaer, Jupiter:

Dear Mr. Williams,

Just came upon your thoughtful, Down-to-Earth column (“Making biscuits,” charlottecounty.floridaweekly.com/articles/making-biscuits ) after a doomsday, woe is the future, conversation with my friend.

Indeed, you nailed it! It is the small, loving gestures and activities that will, hopefully, perhaps, save us from total breakdowns, individually and as a civilization.

Thank you for your calm and positive words.

From Kathleen Greer, Lee County:

Good Morning,

I loved your article! The unique perspective was so clever and impactful! (“Water beings,” charlottecounty.floridaweekly.com/articles/water-beings )

From Jim Moir, Indian Riverkeeper:

Roger,

Thank you for your reporting and Commentary on water. I learned a lot.

One issue, however, was not given the importance it deserves. On page 21, it was mentioned that HABs “are often intensified by climate change and increased storm/hurricane intensity and frequency.”

Air temperatures continue to rise annually and so do water temperatures. A hot gulf means our hurricanes will be more intense (not necessarily more frequent). Also, HABs love warm water, so there will undoubtedly be more HABs and they will probably stick around way too long, like in 2018.

So, unless and until Floridians get serious about the climate crisis (not simply climate change), we will continue to ruin our paradise.

From Bridget Murphy, Estero

(Re: “Making biscuits”):

You say that it’s “not the job of responsible news outlets… to make our world appear happy, calm, rational or fair when it may not be etc”… I would have thought that ‘responsible news outlets’ responsibility was to report the news and not decide what stories should be hyped and what stories should be squashed. For instance, there is very little reportage of the 137 SARs (suspicious activity reports) issued due to Biden family foreign bank transactions, or the fact that the news media went all in on the LIE that Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘Russian disinformation’, or the text messages where Hunter Biden says “I’m sitting here with my father” as he angrily demands payment from his Chinese business associates, or the fact that Joe Biden said he “never discussed his son’s business dealings with him” despite much evidence to the contrary etc…The same media was all too willing to publish anything negative about Trump (and virtually any Republican unless they were anti-Trump.) The mainstream media has shown it’s BIAS over and over again. And speaking of BIAS…. why do you (twice) capitalize the ‘B’ when saying ‘Black’ Americans while using lower case ‘w’ when saying ‘white’ Americans?? Sounds a bit BIASED to me.

( Ms. Murphy: Thanks for bringing this up. It bothered me, too, when papers started using capital B Black as the AP style, which we’ve always depended on. Do you spell “ten” or write it, “10,” according to the AP stylebook? Do you call African Americans that, or black people, or Black people in print stories? What do you call white people?

Florida Weekly uses AP style so we can have some uniformity. Here’s what they say: “AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”

The Columbia Journalism Review explains that, “in the absence of the identifiable ethnicities slavery stole from those it subjugated, Black can be a preferred ethnic designation for some descendants.”

In contrast, when “Murphy,” still the most common surname in Ireland, arrived in the United States, no one stole its identifiable ethnicities.

Consequently, says the AP, “we agree that white people’s skin color plays into systemic inequalities and injustices, and we want our journalism to robustly explore those problems. But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.”

I’m OK with that. How about you?

From Nancy Mott:

Those are the best biscuits I ever consumed! Thank you, Roger! Loved the “commie “ remark!

From Tom Morookian (an email name):

It’s been a pleasure reading many of your articles.

The last few had no political statements and that made them even better. Keep up the good work.

From: Luba Laufer Rotzstain, president, Welcome to Florida International Club, Naples:

Good morning, Roger,

I just finished reading your commentary (“Making biscuits”), and as it always happens when I read your weekly notes, I am delighted that people like you continue keeping our hopes on a better world.

I loved (the piece), not only because I also like to bake and fill the house with the smell of good food, but because your son did the baking… double pleasure for your family.

From: Joseph Bierworth

Thank you for reprinting that Christmas column (“Crossing the other Delaware”). That should be required reading in our grammar schools.

From: William Berland, Punta Gorda

Dear Mr. Williams,

I recently read and enjoyed your commentary about your family’s conversion to Judaism ( charlottecounty.floridaweekly.com/articles/conversion-lchaim-7 ). I am a member of Temple Shalom, a small reform synagogue in Port Charlotte (Punta Gorda) Florida. In the event that you live close to our area, I am wondering if you would consider coming to speak to our Brotherhood or Congregation and tell your story?

(Note: Neither my family nor I have converted to Judaism. I wrote — not clearly enough — about taking up a Jewish tradition of food, music and living during Hanukkah, in effect converting, on a single night. But I am grateful for the kindness shown to me. And yes, Mr. Berland: I’d be delighted to come share my story.) ¦

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