To the editor:<\/p>\n
The new\u00a0 reality is that the Florida House of Representatives district map has been changed effective\u00a0immediately. This has caused tension, worry and confusion\u00a0among the residents of District-17.\u00a0 I am a long-time resident in this\u00a0District 17 community.\u00a0As the news broke about the reshuffling of the district maps, confusion gave away to\u00a0anxiety and questions in\u00a0my neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWhy now? The Florida House of Representatives has announced\u00a0that its decision was based on the undeniable statistics of\u00a0 populations that have shifted.\u00a0 Is\u00a0there a sister\u00a0game at play?\u00a0 Is this a move to keep Republicans in the majority,\u00a0 to keep voter suppression and representation in check, to\u00a0 cause confusion, to create\u00a0a super majority , to protect incumbents, to\u00a0dilute minority\u00a0voters and people of color, to secure a legislative seat in congress or is this a lie?<\/p>\n
\u00a0It has been\u00a0 over a\u00a0decade (2010) since voters passed the \u201cFair District Amendment \u201d by a popular\u00a0 vote of 63% , and the amendment\u00a0 became a constitutional\u00a0amendment in our great state of Florida constitution. \u201cThis\u00a0Republican majority change isn\u2019t about numbers; \u201d it\u2019s about power and control.\u201d\u00a0 The approach to gerrymandering\u00a0is by changing the\u00a0 margins of highly\u00a0concentrated\u00a0districts or by cracking\u00a0to\u00a0split up districts by decreasing the majority.<\/p>\n
This is now settled\u00a0 by the Florida\u00a0Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
There was one member of the Supreme Court who wrote a dissent on this judgment, Judge Jorge Ladaga rebuked the court for refusing to block the newly drawn congressional\u00a0districts\u00a0ahead of the 2026 midterms.\u00a0 He criticized the majority of the court for a \u201cpath of delayed appellate\u00a0\u00a0review\u201d that could cause disenfranchising\u00a0\u00a0millions\u00a0of voters for their right to vote just before the election deadline.\u201d Lawsuits have been filed.<\/p>\n
Whatever district you live in VOTE, vote, fight for representation not boundaries\u00a0drawn on a map. Become\u00a0 aware of your candidates and support your candidates, raise your\u00a0voices ,write letters to the\u00a0 newspapers, all these moves are clouds above our heads and\u00a0smokescreens\u00a0 amid\u00a0 a planned chaos. This is reality and we must protect\u00a0freedom and our right to vote .<\/p>\n
Freedom to vote is not free, if it is just words.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vote, register to vote, mail in your voting ballots and keep abreast of new changes in Florida.<\/p>\n
Kathleen Callard<\/p>\n
North Fort Myers\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: The new\u00a0 reality is that the Florida House of Representatives district map has been changed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-313053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}