Letters to the Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: To send in your Letters to the Editor, email them to Jessica Luck at [email protected]. Letters pertaining to local issues receive priority. Letters may be edited for grammar and space.

+ Your editorial view is not mainstream
Dear Editor:
After two full years as a full-time resident of Sarasota, I have had the opportunity of reading your well distributed local (free) newspaper on a regular basis and usually end my read with a bite of the tongue and a feeling of incredulity over the extremism of your libertarian views, both in your vitriolic editorials and your equally one-sided op-ed pieces. No attempt at impartiality is ever given, and it is probable that a casual or unsophisticated reader would assume that your opinions represent mainstream thinking in our lovely town. In fact, there are no more than 325,000 registered libertarians in the entire country, let alone Sarasota, and no one would proclaim (though many would agree that a serious challenge to status-quo political parties is indeed in order) that Democrats and/or Republicans are in danger of being swept aside by an extremist party, whether on the left or the right.

Nonetheless, I recognize that with ownership of a newspaper comes the right to proselytize on a regular basis and to relentlessly proclaim that every wrong that afflicts Sarasota, the U.S. and the world can be directly attributable to single source, a liberal democratic president.

Finally, I am quite familiar with the works and philosophy of your apparent libertarian inspiration, Fredrich Hayek, though I believe you miss some of Hayek’s compassion and might reconsider his entire works and be reminded of his following words: “There is no reason why, in a society which has reached the general level of wealth ours has, the first kind of security should not be guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom; that is: some minimum of food, shelter and clothing, sufficient to preserve health. Nor is there any reason why the state should not help to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision.”
Respectfully,
Gary C. Goodwin
Sarasota