4 days ago
To that Miami-Dade College teacher, thank you. Too all educators, we got you
Affecting eternity
I still vividly remember my high school journalism teacher trying to find the right room one weekday evening at Miami-Dade College. She had driven all the way from her classroom in North Miami-Dade to Downtown Miami to take a weekly Dreamweaver class with me — this, after a full day of teaching, lesson plans, talking to students and never having a real lunch break.
At the time, I was trying to create a website — from scratch — for our school newspaper. She had no prior website design experience, but wanted to aid in my pursuit. Mrs. Sullivan shaped the trajectory of my (still young and kicking) professional career.
Educators today are often at the brunt of every social, political, economic and mental health crisis. There is no handbook for why a student's domestic trauma causes them to act up in class. Or, why a district muzzles certain teaching topics. Or, even the rightfully concerned, but sometimes overzealous, parents seemingly shouting into an echo chamber of empty, revolving rhetoric at school board meetings.
Teachers just want to teach, free from bureaucratic red tape and whether they need to buy a bulletproof vest on top of the classroom materials they are already underpaid to provide for students.
When I think about that MDC classroom, I think about a teacher who literally went the extra mile in providing me with a quality education. So, Mrs. Sullivan, thank you.
And, to educators everywhere, the work you do behind-the-scenes does not go unnoticed.
Anthony Cave,
graduate assistant,
Hank Greenspun School of Journalism
and Media Studies,
University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, NV
Showing patriotism
Re: Mary Anna Mancuso's May 25 op-ed, 'Florida ranks low on patriotism? I don't believe it.' Democrats may be less jingoistic and not as 'rah-rah' as Republicans. We just show our patriotism more subtly and, perhaps, more sincerely.
Carrie Hunter,
Miami
Rich get richer
I appreciate the Miami Herald's May 27 editorial, 'Is a designer purse worth stealing from the indigent?' However, there is a much more important question to ask the Trump administration and its Republican backers.
Their 'Big Beautiful Bill' gives billionaires, millionaires and corporations trillion dollar tax cuts while slashing funding for healthcare for almost 15 million people, the elimination of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to 42 million people, ending school lunches for poor children during the summer, funding of rural hospitals and all aid for pregnant women and infants.
Are more private planes, yachts, limousines and designer purses worth stealing from the indigent?
Doug Mayer,
Coral Gables
Healthy license
The May 25 letter, 'Medical advice,' regarding Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, was excellent. Kennedy not giving medical advice is an understatement — on steroids. He is not a doctor, has no formal medical training and obviously lacks a medical degree and license.
As a lawyer, he is aware that a license is required to practice medicine. He should secure a medical degree, take a four-year residency in internal medicine and two-year fellowships in virology and infectious disease before giving opinions on medical subjects.
Mark Wickman,
North Miami
Venezuelan oil
The United States is the largest producer of oil liquids in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia at 21 million barrels per day, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Our largest source of imported crude oil is our 'next door' neighbor Canada, supplying more than 63% of our imports via the dependable and secure Keystone pipeline, per EIA.
We do not need Venezuelan crude oil imports to safeguard our national security or maintain our market dominance of the world's hydrocarbon supply demand balance.
As a former oil executive, I clearly understand the strategic advantage of Chevron Corporation maintaining competitive control over its Venezuelan minority owned (40% Chevron, 60% PDVSA) crude oil production assets, particularly within a post-Maduro scenario. Long term, this is good for Chevron and good for the United States.
However, let us be aware that Chevron, by continuing its presence in Venezuela, also supports the continuation of Maduro's dictatorial government and its support of Cuba's tyrannical regime.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's position is very well focused; he understands the short-term political risks associated with Chevron's continuous presence in Venezuela.
Jorge R. Piñon,
former president,
Amoco Oil Latin America,
Visiting research fellow,
The Energy Institute,
University of Texas,
Austin, TX
Unhappy hunting
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) decision to reinstate a black bear hunt is as reckless as it is cruel. Although public polling showed 81% of Floridians opposed a bear hunt, the Commission sided with the tiny, but vocal minority pushing for trophy hunting.
Even worse, they bought into the hunting lobby's false narrative that hounding bears is 'humane.' There's nothing humane about unleashing packs of dogs to chase terrified bears for miles, often separating mothers from cubs. It's not uncommon for hounds to get into fights with the bears, leading to serious injuries — and sometimes death — to both species.
This decision won't make anyone safer. Killing bears, especially by baiting them with food or chasing them with hounds, does nothing to reduce conflicts when humans and wildlife meet. If anything, it increases risk by disrupting bear behavior and drawing them closer to people.
Floridians want real solutions, such as better trash management, public education and non-lethal conflict prevention, not a slaughter disguised as conservation.
I'm dismayed by FWC's actions, but Floridians opposed to this hunt are not defeated. In August, we'll return to the Commission and demand a science-based, ethical approach to bear management, not one rooted in cruelty and misinformation.
Valerie Howell,
Coral Gables
Foreign students
Travel, especially for education, is the ultimate instrument to create tolerance. In singling Chinese students, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hurl the United States back to a Cold War mentality of 'everyone is the enemy.'
Imagine the opposite: a welcoming embrace of Chinese — and indeed, all — foreign students in our great universities. Those students would see firsthand that Americans are not the devil, that we do not 'kill people in the streets' (as I've heard some express during my travels). On the contrary, admitting and welcoming foreign students has the immediate side effect of making us important allies everywhere.
Students who can afford full tuition at Harvard and similar universities come from important families. By creating a hostile environment for foreign students, especially those from China, Rubio has managed to transform a revenue-generating positive program into a costly, hate-mongering one that communicates an awful image of our country.
Marcelo Salup,
Coral Gables
Too weak notice
President Donald Trump says that in two weeks, we will know about a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine.
Are these the same two weeks that would have given us an excellent healthcare plan, that we still don't have? And wasn't that eight years ago?
As Trump says, if he had been president in 2014, the war in Ukraine never would've happened. Well, he is president now and Russian President Vladimir Putin is thumbing his nose, telling the world that Trump's voice means absolutely nothing.
Priscilla Fregger Adler,
Cutler Bay
Danger zone
Re: the May 29 Miami Herald story, 'Miami International Airport announces plans for $600 million in improvements.'
Any chance we will get a designated pickup ride-share area at MIA anytime soon?
Maybe the folks who run the airport will get the message after some of us get hit by cars as we try to negotiate the exit gauntlet on our way to Uber and Lyft rides.
Leo Bueno,
Coral Gables
