Vote out legislators who halted heat protection for workers | Opinion

Heated issue

The Florida Legislature passed House Bill 433 and it will be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature. This bill prevents local governments from enacting ordinances that would have required water breaks and rest periods for outdoor workers. Last year, a young man who had been working in a field died from heat exhaustion in Miami-Dade County.

Many employers cannot be relied upon to allow their outdoor workers to take water breaks and rest periods. Therefore, local governments must step in to help.

I call upon Florida voters to find out for themselves how their state representative and state senator voted on HB 433. If they voted for it, then they must be voted out of office and replaced with people who care about their constituents.

Frank Morra,

Redland

Brave Broward

Broward County schools superintendent and the school board are considering what corporate America does when sales decline and profits are lost. For schools, it’s all about enrollment. Without the students there is no school and the losses in student enrollment are not evenly distributed, so a plan to close, combine or re-purpose schools is in play.

Understanding this shift begins with the mad rush to vouchers for charter and private schools, more options and choices, laws that make the education playing field uneven, changing housing patterns and dissatisfaction with the product.

Fewer students in some schools is like diminished foot traffic at the mall. Big retailers across America are closing many stores because buyers are not going or spending and internet sales have soared.

Rarely does education or government think about downsizing and announce the need to change. However, Broward has seen that problem and is trying to get in front of it, knowing it is painful but the right thing to do.

George L. Ellis,

Miami

Seaquarium departs

It‘s very sad that the Miami Seaquarium, a beloved marine park, will soon be gone. Most of us wouldn’t have ever seen those fantastic marine animals so close. Most people, old or young, can see animals only in zoos; this is the reality that animal lovers seem to ignore. I favor more zoos.

Why is it impossible to make the required improvements without closing it for good?

As for the beloved orca Lolita, the autopsy found that she died of old age and multiple chronic illnesses including liver failure, not from brain traumas caused by the tank where she stayed.

Valeria Mastelli,

Key Biscayne

Anchors away?

Re: the March 4 story, “As boaters and Miami Beach officials fight, lawmakers move to limit anchoring in Biscayne” When my wife and I go for a boat ride around South Florida waters, there are so many boats anchored overnight, especially in front of Miami Marine Stadium. I’m unsure how this could be regulated, but the situation is getting worse. Miami could generate a lot of money by just charging vessel owners who spend nights in the overcrowded areas.

Years ago I used to take my son water skiing behind Miami Marine Stadium. Marine patrol would tell us it was private property and kick us out.

If it’s private property, then why so do many boats anchor overnight?

I guess that’s one way to avoid property taxes.

Mike Turkal,

Palmetto Bay

Election lies

Of the many things that bother me about a potential Donald Trump presidency is that he continues to claim the 2020 election was stolen and that he was the legitimately elected candidate. He must be called out on the unconstitutionality of this claim if he intends to be president in 2024.

The 22nd Amendment states that a person shall not be elected to the office of the president more than twice. If Trump takes the oath of office and swears that, as a former president and future president, he will “protect and defend” the Constitution, he must concede that he lost either the 2016 election or the 2020 election (and illegally assumed that office). He must admit he is wrong and was only elected once. Otherwise, his false claims demonstrate that he believes the Constitution doesn’t apply to him.

While the claims of a stolen 2020 election have not and cannot be proven, Trump should publicly admit that fact. I do not understand why the media and others who can hold him accountable choose not to do so.

Linda Fefferman,

Pinecrest

Shake it up

Maybe it’s time to make the 2024 presidential interesting. When Sen. John McCain was running for president in 2008, Sarah Palin was not his choice for running mate. Instead Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, was his preference. Who knows what might have happened if he had not succumbed to his party’s pressure.

I suspect Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t a favorite of Democratic voters.

Why not ask her to step down and have Nikki Haley as President Biden’s running mate?

Suddenly, the age of the candidates would no longer be the hot topic of the media.

Charles Brand,

Miami

Unresolved anxiety

In August 1974, after President Richard Nixon’s historic resignation, successor President Gerald Ford proclaimed: “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

To paraphrase and reframe that sigh of relief proclamation, our long national nightmare is about to begin again, as former President Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee.

Norma A. Orovitz,

Bay Harbor Islands

Winning team

With Nikki Haley having withdrawn from the presidential race, we are faced with a choice between “too old” and “too unstable.”

President Joe Biden is at a huge disadvantage because age cannot be changed. However, he has shown a willingness to surround himself with talented surrogates in a strong and stable Cabinet. Compare his group with the revolving door of Cabinet members under former President Donald Trump.

Rather than talent, Trump sought sycophants whose loyalty to him was their most important quality. That loyalty was, of course, a one-way street, as he immediately ousted anyone who bruised his world class ego. No surprise that 24 of his former Cabinet members, administration officials and close advisors have turned against him.

Biden has the wisdom to recognize that no single person can successfully run our federal government; it requires a team. This is in contrast to Trump, who once declared that he “knows more than the generals” and that he was the only one who could fix the nation’s problems.

This kind of attitude is far more dangerous than an aging president whose ego does not get in the way of appointing a qualified team to run the nation’s business.

Robert B. Sturges,

Coral Gables

Delivery issues

President Joe Biden has announced plans for a temporary port on Gaza’s coast to provide aid. While the plan is well-intended, it is impractical and a non-starter. Assuming the aid could get to the shoreline, it would require a complex distribution network to transport it from the shore and equitably distribute it inland.

Where are the trucks and personnel going to come from? How will they be protected from mobs and Hamas militants?

Getting the supplies up to the border of Gaza is not the problem. Distributing them on the other side of that border is.

Robert E. Panoff,

Pinecrest

High-octane speech

I admit that I was very surprised by the absence of gaffes and fumbles in President Joe Biden’s angry State of the Union speech.

I would like to find out what his doctors gave him before the speech because whatever it was, I would like to have it, too.

Jay Kaba,

Miami