- October 27, 2024
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Dear Editor,
It’s been a long time since I’ve been moved to write a letter to the editor, but the sights I saw at the corner of A1A and Route 100 appalled me as a civics teacher.
It is perfectly OK to protest. We have the First Amendment right to peacefully assemble.
However, disrespecting the flag to which I pledge allegiance is definitely not OK. It’s especially not OK if you call yourself a patriot.
Ironically, this debasement of our flag occurred at Veterans Park. Perhaps these protestors need a civics lesson? I’d be glad to provide it.
ANNETTE JONES
Palm Coast
Editor’s note: Jones supplied a photo of a protestor holding a sign that framed the U.S. flag between the letters “F” and “K,” followed by “Biden.”
Dear Editor:
Remember when it was a big deal to discover that a candidate for political office may have smoked pot in college? It bordered on being a scandal with the potential of derailing a campaign.
The times have obviously changed but what exactly represents a disqualifying past is not easy to pin down and is usually in the eyes of the beholder.
However, what has been unearthed about the past of Palm Coast mayoral candidate, Alan Lowe would at any time be disqualifying by any standards and by any beholder.
Are we really considering whether to elect someone who, as a professed sovereign citizen, aligned himself with an FBI defined domestic terrorism threat, publicly renounced his citizenship, claimed to be immune to paying taxes and not subject to U.S. laws, and couldn’t be bothered with the civic duty of voting?
What Alan Lowe stood for and what he publicly documented is the antithesis of patriotism and the foundations our country is based upon. And that is a big deal.
DENISE DIAMOND
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
It was with great pleasure and gratitude that we, the members of the Flagler County branch of SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice), learned from your paper of Sheriff Staly’s plan to add to his staff two employees who will respond to juvenile-involved, mental-health-crisis calls.
As specified in your June 11 article entitled “Flagler County awarded $1.2 million Criminal Justice Mental Health and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grant,” these two new behavioral health positions will be funded by the grant, and the professionals hired to fill them will accompany FCSO deputies on calls that involve youths experiencing mental health crises.
The immediate and deescalating intervention of these behaviorists will ensure not only that the youths in crisis will receive appropriate care and treatment, but also that they will avoid the lifelong denial of opportunities that result from any arrest and imprisonment they might otherwise have endured.
Along with both the issuance of civil citations in lieu of arrests and the reduction of out-of-school suspensions in favor of in-school restorative practices, this strategy of employing mental health professionals to respond to youths in crisis will further reduce the numbers of youths who pass through the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline” and further expand the numbers who can, with the right treatment and without an arrest record, develop into individuals who are a credit to the community that treated them — and continues to treat them — with respect and humanity.
For securing the funding that allows the county to rescue and recuperate these children, the members of SURJ Flagler express our deepest gratitude to Flagler Cares, the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners, Flagler County Schools, Halifax Health, and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department.
THE MEMBERS OF SURJ FLAGLER
www.surjflagler.com
