Letters and feedback: June 13, 2021

'Is this what education has become?'

In 1971 I came to Florida to begin my teaching career at Melbourne High School. I was a brand-new teacher eager to share my knowledge and experiences with my students. I was certified in social studies and two of the classes I taught were Contemporary Affairs and Problems of Today. The objective of each of these courses was to enlighten our students about what was happening in our cities, state, and nation. It was to broaden their knowledge so they were educated about what was happening around them. I was fortunate to be able to construct my curriculum to engage students to become more informed and better leaders.

Unfortunately, what has now taken place in the state of Florida has made classes like what I taught obsolete. To bring truth to the classroom, there are subjects that now our teachers have to omit for fear of losing their jobs. If we are to understand what is involved, for example, in the Black Lives Matter movement, which has become societal, we need to discuss it from the basis of pro and con. I am certainly not implying that teachers should impart indoctrination but rather insure students are critical thinkers and understand what has taken place. But, if I was a teacher today I would avoid the subject altogether, for fear of losing my job. That is just wrong!

Our teachers now have to take the path of sharing only the issues which are not controversial, which eliminates much of what is happening in our country. Is this what education has become?  

Gary Shiffrin, Melbourne

Editor's note: Shiffrin was the 1977 Brevard County Teacher of the Year. He is currently executive director of the Brevard Association of School Administrators.

Let's establish our right to clean water

Titusville approved Brookshire to be built in the "area of critical concern."

This area was a heavily wooded area of wetlands that naturally filtered and purified water going to our drinking water supply. Brookshire clear cut and burned 80 acres of trees and filled in wetlands. This development will create an estimated 34 million gallons per year of polluted stormwater that will flow to the Indian River Lagoon, creating more algae blooms killing seagrasses and eliminating a food source for manatees, causing more to starve to death.

Titusville pumped many million gallons of sewage contaminated stormwater for four days from the Sand Point Park ponds into the IRL without testing the water quality or monitoring the amount of water. These ponds were contaminated with 7.2 million gallons of sewage. A small percentage of the mixed contaminated water was hauled away in trucks. The rest was left for the natural organisms in the ponds to digest the fecal matter and turn it into nutrients and algae. When the fecal matter could no longer be measured, Titusville pumped the water out for four days without a required federal point source permit. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said there are no regulations to test or remove the pollution from stormwater ponds emptying into the IRL.

Please view the Wekiva PSA video at tinyurl.com/4xh9nb9u. We need to establish the rights to clean water. Titusville, Brevard County, and Florida government have failed to protect the IRL, our aquifer, and our drinking water supply.

Bill Klein, Titusville

SCOTUS and abortion decisions

Life is precious. Why is it that so many humans have turned against their own by having abortions? How is it that the preborn human has less value than an animal? 

The phrase "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is well known in the Declaration of Independence. This phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator and which governments are created to protect.

It is also well documented that bees beget bees, dogs beget dogs, and humans beget humans. Why have we allowed our government to take away the unalienable rights of our human unborn? These rights are guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence. Human life does not occur by accident. Every preborn human has a mother and a father. And, both parents are responsible for this new life. Abortion is not a right. It is a cruel attempt at shifting responsibility and blame for an inconvenient truth to the mother and telling her that she must take care of her problem and not bother anyone else because it is “her right."

Those of us who acknowledge God but are uncertain of the value of the preborn human can take solace in the admonition, "I knew you before I formed you in the womb" — Jeremiah 1:5. Abortion is a human tragedy. But, through God, science, education and human responsibility we can face the truth and eradicate the problem.

Paula Estridge, Sylvia Sharpe and Doug Sharpe, Melbourne

Editor's note:The writers are members of the Brevard Republican Executive Committee.