A recent Sun Sentinel editorial hit me hard (“Florida abused him and now wants to execute him,” Sept. 24).
I was a boy at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, where children were beaten, terrorized and buried in unmarked graves. I lived it.
I was locked in solitary confinement, told I was worthless and left broken. My life began to change when a Christian outreach family took me in. They gave me what the state never did: structure, values and love. They lived the Gospel — caring for the least of these.
Most boys weren’t so lucky.
They went back to the same environments that led them to Dozier, never given the to choice of a different path.
Florida says those it executes “made their choice.”
But what if you were never taught you had choices?
What if the state itself shaped your trajectory through neglect, violence and abandonment? This is not theory; it’s documented truth. Florida admitted its role, formally apologized and paid $20 million to survivors.
The state cannot apologize for destroying children and then claim the moral authority to execute the adults they became.
Ray Watford, Hilliard, Ohio
Shame on FAU’s Hasner
Last Jan. 28, the Sun Sentinel published my letter in which I recommended that former state Rep. Adam Hasner not be hired as president of FAU.
I wrote that “We need a president who has integrity and who has demonstrated strength in the face of political opposition and who will stand for free speech and political independence. We don’t need another New College debacle.”
By punishing three faculty members for their comments about Charlie Kirk, Adam Hasner has demonstrated exactly what I feared — a lack of integrity and weakness in the face of political pressure. I hope others will speak up, though I expect retaliation against any who do.
Shame on President Hasner.
Richard L. Elliott, MD, Ph.D., Boca Raton
The writer is professor emeritus of medical ethics, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, Ga.
Rally around David Jolly
As an NPA voter who fled the Republican Party because of Trump, I hope Democrats unite behind David Jolly and do not obsess over his party switch. The key point is that Florida cannot take eight more years of GOP malfeasance.
An independent candidate will sap votes from him but won’t win. A contentious primary will doom Democrats’ chance to bring fresh vision to the governor’s office.
The goal is to win and not launch vanity campaigns lacking broad appeal.
Unity among diverse constituencies will end the bad governance we have suffered in culture wars, eco-disasters, wildlife kill-offs, looming bear slaughters, putting anti-science claptrap over sound policy, cruelty to trans people and immigrants and government meddling in women’s medical decisions. We need policies that serve all Floridians — not just MAGA world.
It will take Republicans, Democrats, Independents, NPAs and Libertarians to defeat whichever DeSantis/Trump clone the GOP nominates. Of all potential Democrats, the one best poised to provide us a brighter Florida is David Jolly. We’re lucky he’s willing to run.
Rebecca Eagan, Winter Park
School closings make sense
The wards of taxpayer money must act fiscally responsibly, decisively and diligently. Closing underenrolled Broward schools should be easy, not a hard decision as some School Board members have said.
Wasting money by keeping open severely underenrolled schools is a fundamental breach of the duty that elected board members must fulfill.
The current closure plan makes sound fiscal sense. Implement it. The board should further explore a sale and lease-back of its administrative building in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The board also must regularly study which other schools are severely underenrolled and act appropriately.
Howard A. Tescher, Fort Lauderdale
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