Look to the sky to ease transportation woes

The Orange County mayoral candidates plan to relieve traffic congestion with an increase in bus service and through supporting light rail (“How Orange County’s next mayor will fix transit,” July 27). To me, the only viable part of any of the proposed solutions is the bus express routes, but because of the design of Central Florida in general with residential areas being so spread out, those may only have a minimal impact.

We missed our chance to improve traffic flow at the inception of SunRail. It should never have been a ground transportation project. We should have taken a cue from New York City and Chicago — I believe a raised transit system (think Disney monorails) could have been a much better and cheaper solution. Get mass transit off the ground where it doesn’t interact with, delay or impact vehicular traffic. Those same billions of dollars we’ve spent on SunRail could have provided a raised monorail system with even more locations served. Do better, Central Florida.

— Peter Stephens, Orlando

Cheating is a national disgrace

Cheating makes you look weak.

Americans have never tolerated cheating. When you cheat, it is because you cannot win fairly.

PGA golfer Bryson DeChambeau received a two-stroke penalty for trampling down grass near his ball at the British Open earlier this month, and became so enraged at being caught that he actually threatened officials that he would “Call the White House!” giving a fresh, new face to the “Ugly American.”

Donald Trump has inserted himself into every aspect of our society, asserting his pretense of power and, in my opinion, making our country decidedly weaker in the eyes of the world.

Interfering in the established rules of World Cup soccer, demanding a reversal of a red-flag penalty, showed the world what a cheat the sitting president of the United States is.

I believe he has weakened our military by firing our top generals, and, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, replacing them with “top tech and business people.” Just as he started a war of choice.

He has changed the way casualties in Iran are counted, to make our standing in the war look better. He has weakened our Justice Department by appointing leaders to carry out his petty retributions. Mostly, I think he has shown no respect for the American people, our military and world leaders by destroying our reputation and credibility around the world.

Cheating is not an American value. It is a national disgrace.

— Mary Sharpe, Lady Lake

Supreme Court security

Supreme Court justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett have asked the Congress for an additional $14.6 million for increased security for the court and its members.

This request, and the justices’ recent public appearances, raise several points.

First, it was telling that the court’s representatives were women. The Chief Justice could not bring himself to appear on behalf of the constitutional branch he leads. And notably, the rationale for more security is a result of the court’s own decisions to enable easy access to guns.

It was also disheartening that the congressional committee did not stipulate that in exchange for the added security funding, the court would agree to adopt a code of ethics as stringent as that for all other federal judges.

— Stephen Wertheimer, Boca Raton

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