Homeless solutions require smart funding
Scott Maxwell is right that solving the homelessness crisis requires both affordable housing and good wages (“Orlando, Vegas lead housing shortage,” May 6). I also agree with Zeynep Portway, the executive director of Samaritan Resource Center in East Orlando, that defunding or forcing to relocate the center wouldn’t reduce homelessness (“We can’t solve homelessness by moving it out of sight,” May 3).
Facilities that assist the homeless deserve more, not less, assistance. In particular, I agree with the idea that the government should assist the homeless by providing them jobs — even jobs in the service industry or helping to beautify Orlando — and provide treatment to those who have mental or substance abuse problems.
The bottom line is that our society needs funding to solve the problem of homelessness, as well as other problems. We can find that funding through fair progressive taxation; those who earn more should pay more, not less taxes, to fund these solutions.
— Susan Talana Harris, Orlando
How we talk about dyslexia
Thank you to the Orlando Sentinel for publishing Ann Bullock’s commentary (“One in five children has dyslexia. All five deserve better,” April 26), which highlights an important truth: dyslexia is not a deficit, but a different (and often powerful) way of thinking.
While the article references Roberts Academy in Lakeland, many may not realize that Orlando is home to the only Orton-Gillingham Academy accredited program in Florida, and one of only 20 in the country. At The Bridge at The Christ School, we have seen firsthand how a specialized, prescriptive and diagnostic approach to literacy can change a child’s trajectory.
Equally important is how we talk about dyslexia. When students are taught how their brains work, they begin to understand themselves in a new way — not as struggling learners, but as capable thinkers with unique strengths. By cultivating abilities like problem-solving, creativity and big-picture thinking, we begin to tap into what many describe as the “superpowers” of the dyslexic mind.
This is about more than one program or one school. It is about continuing to shift the narrative so that all children with dyslexia are understood, supported, and given the tools to succeed.
Our community is speaking up — and that matters.
— Alissa Plaisance, Orlando
Alissa Plaisance is interim Head of School at The Christ School in Orlando.
The right to protest is American
The headline on the May 6 editorial (“James Comey’s seashell indictment is laughable,” May 6) is of course correct (although the indictment itself is not in the least funny), but I don’t believe that it will “intimidate and chill opponents” of law-enforcement overreach, and in fact may embolden them. Americans have always rebelled when our government oversteps its boundaries, in small ways (in college in the 1950s, when we had to sign a Sen. McCarthy-inspired anti-communist pledge, I just spelled my name wrong) and in larger ways, as in the antiwar protests and more recently the huge turnout for No Kings rallies and the many ICE protests.
Whether or not one supports or likes or even knows anything about James Comey, no one is naive enough to think this is about seashells in the sand. No one likes political vendettas, especially by a super powerful dictator-type president.
— Nancy Caroline Tait, Altamonte Springs
Comey litigation is economic revenge
I believe a major issue was not covered in the May 6 editorial on James Comey. When the Department of Justice is constantly trying to punish perceived enemies of the president with spurious actions, they are actually achieving some of what the president wants to accomplish: They are subjecting individuals to economic punishment because they have to hire attorneys to defend them against the lunacy of these actions.
There are provisions for reimbursement of legal expenses when a court judgment goes against the prosecution. However, there is no such reimbursement when these clownish actions result in costs even though the action is thrown out before it ever reaches trial.
This economic punishment is a flagrant embarrassment in our legal system. We are going through a period when the president, who has spent a lifetime suing people, is gaining vengeance for his perceived harm and thereby, to use an expression of Native American tribes, “counting coup” on American citizens who are doing nothing more than their legal duties or daily activities and exposing the foibles of the president as an individual,
Maybe we need a new law that establishes reimbursement when actions of the Department of Justice are costing our fellow Americans substantial sums.
— William E “Bill” Thompson, Apopka
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