Stray cats shouldn't be roaming Miami's neighborhoods, putting birds at risk
Too many cats
Re: the May 22 Miami Herald front page story, 'Miami-Dade sets thousands of stray cats free. Should feeding them be legal?' Miami-Dade County released almost 18,000 cats back into the streets in the past year. Statistics have shown that cats kill about 2.5 billion birds annually in North America alone. Bird numbers are dropping and this is just one of the reasons.
Cats are instinctive hunters. Just because people feed them doesn't mean they won't kill birds. Peacocks and iguanas are everywhere in the county now, but they're not killing other animals.
There is absolutely no valid reason for feral cats to be roaming our neighborhoods killing what's left of our wildlife.
Glenn Huberman,
Miami
Avoiding war
Memorial Day is dedicated to honoring those in military service who gave their lives serving their country. New York was the first state to recognize the holiday in 1873. After World War l, the holiday was recognized for those who died in any war. The poem, 'In Flanders Fields,' brought forth the idea to wear red poppies on Memorial Day. When Congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1971, Memorial Day (observed) moved to the last Monday in May.
Wars are caused by ideologies for control, power and authority. The memory of the military as our protectors and also as family members and the countless civilians who are the victims of war are always in our thoughts.
What must be done is to sit, discuss, debate, communicate, negotiate and mediate to avert war and harm. It can be done.
Louis Cohen,
Vietnam Veterans of America,
Chapter 23,
Tamarac
Keys Memorial Day
Take some time from your busy Memorial Day to honor and remember the sacrifices of our many 'Soldiers Killed In Action' during a ceremony in the auditorium of the Key Largo Murray Nelson Government Center at 11 a.m. on May 26. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.
Plans include a performance by our Florida Keys Community Concert Band, flag presentation by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Scout Color Guard, inspirational videos and insightful veteran and civilian guest speakers.
Immediately following the ceremony, free hot dogs, burgers, fries and discounted beverages will be provided at the VFW Post 10211's new and remodeled restaurant, 'The Armory Speakeasy,' directly adjacent to the Murray Nelson Government Center on the northbound side of U.S. 1.
John Donnelly,
Key Largo
Upholding the law
The Founding Fathers were revolutionaries. They started one, finished one and knew how to avoid another one. One way to avoid one is to not use the military to suppress dissent to enforce domestic law, which is a principal reason the founders rebelled against the British Crown.
Police are monitored by courts, but armies aren't. Although the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit a standing army, it does limit funding one for more than two years. After abuses in suppressing dissent were seen during the Civil War, Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878, which prohibits using the military to enforce domestic law.
An exception to the Act's prohibition is that troops can guard military installations, where vital national defense information is kept. In an apparent attempt to get around the Act, President Trump transferred federal territory along the border with Mexico to the military and began using troops to seize illegal immigrants.
Some of the hundreds of criminal trespass cases against those immigrants were thrown out by a federal judge, who concluded that claiming they trespassed on a military installation was a legal fiction and a violation of the Act. While preventing illegal immigration is a laudable goal, so is preventing the army from suppressing dissent, which is why the military is prohibited from domestic law enforcement and why the potential for that should not be permitted.
Fortunately, once again, the courts are doing their job by upholding the rule of law and curbing yet another possible step toward dictatorship, however innocently it may be portrayed.
R. Thomas Farrar,
Miami
Youngest voters
More than 50 years ago, the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted 18-year-old people the right to vote. It was at the height of the Vietnam War and the thinking was that if young people were old enough to fight — even against their will, as was the case with the draft — they were old enough to vote.
Now it's time for a new Constitutional amendment guaranteeing the vote to anyone who has started menstruating. Because if you're old enough to bear children — even against your will, with draconian anti-abortion laws — you're old enough to vote.
Katy Sorenson,
Miami
Jefferson's gaze
There are sincere citizens among us who believe that our founding fathers meant for our nation to worship only one higher being: theirs. Instead, the founding fathers built a nation whose government would be truly neutral on the issue of 'best religion.' They enshrined it in our Constitution.
President Thomas Jefferson championed freedom of religion his entire life. It is ironic that now his portrait hangs in Donald Trump's Oval Office. Jefferson often pointed to himself as someone whose religious views might differ from others, yet would be good for society. He said, 'Ask not of my religion. That is a matter between my God and me alone. If society finds that my life was just and moral, the religion that governed it cannot have been a bad one.'
Today, everything that happens in the Oval Office is under the gaze of Jefferson. Maybe it will make those who populate the office a little more thoughtful. Maybe nervous?
Anyway, it makes me feel good.
Mac Melvin,
Key Biscayne
Disheartened
No matter how hard they try, Republican lawmakers cannot escape their connection to President Donald Trump's efforts to purge the United States of as many immigrants as possible. While South Florida's Congressional representatives may claim to be 'deeply disappointed,' they cannot afford to step on constituents' toes due to their reliance on the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan communities — the last of which were recently dealt a setback by the mostly conservative and Trump-influenced U.S. Supreme Court.
These lawmakers will ultimately behave as 'yes' men and women. They are hesitant to speak out, fearing backlash from their leader and the MAGA faithful.
As a Latino in Miami, I am truly baffled that the communities now facing persecution and deportation previously supported and voted for Trump and his fellow lawmakers. Those votes enabled the government to unleash ICE on immigrant families, mass deportations separating many loved ones, transfers to prisons in other countries, or returned to the places they fled to escape poverty, imprisonment, torture, or even death.
These communities have seemingly turned against their own. The level of hypocrisy is astounding, but the shift to dystopia is fearful.
Nestor Cedeno,
Miami
Medical advice
If Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, feels that people shouldn't take medical advice from him, then he should step aside in favor of someone who is qualified and head the national health agency.
Ted Burg,
Pembroke Pines
Rubio's troubles
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's parents and grandparents would be horrified that he's now in favor of eliminating Temporary Protective Status for Venezuelans and not defending Ukraine against democracy's archenemy, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
I'm sorry to see him embrace our president and behaving more like a puppet. We were cheated. Shame on those who revoked TPS, a legal and democratic law.
Jaime Edelstein,
Pinecrest
Border policies
If former President Joe Biden had kept the border with Mexico legal, we would not have legal challenges today.
Joy Pargman,
Miami
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