Dear legislators: Stay in your lane

Thank you, David Bear, for underscoring a trend among our elected representatives in Tallahassee which has been building to the crescendo point: stop outrageous preemption of local home rule (“Tallahassee Republicans have forgotten their principles,” Nov. 2). Or to put it more succinctly: Hands off. Legislation like this spring’s SB 180 purportedly to address hurricane relief, instead ignores the premise and aims to restrict local land use planning statewide — for the benefit of who? Answer: more rooftops (and more traffic). Dear legislators: Stay in your lane. Stop this overt capitulation to Big Development and instead support and enhance local decision-making. We vote, you know!

CJ Williams Winter Park

Trump administration is unserious

Regardless of what anyone thinks of Joe Biden — and opinions certainly vary — he was a sober and serious president. He appointed serious people to serious positions.

So what am I to make when the White House press secretary’s answer to a legitimate question — namely, who arranged a meeting between the presidents of Russia and the United States — is, “Your mom did”?

What am I to think when the American president posts an AI-generated video of himself dropping human feces on his opponents?

How can I respect a secretary of defense — excuse me, a secretary of war — who tells a room full of generals and admirals, “No more fatties in the military”?

These are deeply unserious people, better suited to comic books than senior positions in the United States government. And, not for nothing, several of these second-stringers are in their roles precisely because they lost their own elections.

My new favorite word is kakistocracy. Look it up.

George Devitt Maitland

White House’s East Wing was part of history

Of all of the destructive things that have happened since January 20 of this year, nothing has been a gut punch to the soul as watching the wrecking ball tear down the East Wing of the White House. My first visit to the White House occurred when I was 7 years old and John Kennedy was president. That visit sparked my interest in the history of the White House.

I remember entering through the East Wing down a long hall lined with past presidents and first ladies and looking out on Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden. Later in life as an adult, I visited one last time with my parents taking it all in and imagining what it must be like to live there. If only the walls could talk.

I  am saddened and sickened that so little thought was taken to preserve history. This is not a modernization but a destruction. There was no consultation with the White House Historical Society or anyone. Trump does not own the house, it is the property of the American people. Until you have walked the halls of the White House, you will never know the feeling of being so close to history. Now the part of it that was open to the public is being replaced by a 90,000-square-foot useless ballroom, likely for only the rich. The peasants won’t be invited and the American people will be shut out.

Steve Zellers Apopka

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