Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
A basic tenet in life is that we make choices as we go along and that those choices have consequences, some of them good and some of them bad. Some recent examples of choices being made by people and the resulting consequences are as follows:
- A woman in Minneapolis, Minn., protesting and interfering with law enforcement action against people presumably in the country illegally and unvetted, is asked to stop by law enforcement. Instead she accelerates her car and is fatally shot. Bad choice.
- A man in Texas, presumably in the country illegally and unvetted, is being pursued by law enforcement and is ordered to stop, but instead accelerates his car. The man is fatally shot. Bad choice.
- In St. Johns County on July 14, a man presumably in the country illegally and unvetted, being pursued by law enforcement, jumps out of the vehicle he was in and attempts to run across a busy highway. The man gets hit by a semi truck and dies. Bad choice.
While it is tragic that the individuals in these examples died, what is hard to understand is why so many folks in our communities and much of the media fail to talk about the fact that the bad consequences were the result of the ill-advised choices these people made (i.e., interfering with law enforcement, failing to obey law enforcement commands, entering the country illegally).
The failure to discuss wrong choices that lead to poor outcomes only leads to distrust and animus against law enforcement professionals who put their lives on the line every day to protect us.
Let’s tell the full story and lower the temperature in our communities.
Bill Boutwell, Jacksonville
Things picking up in Ponte Vedra Beach
My wife and I relocated to sleepy Ponte Vedra Beach from Charleston 10 years ago. Just south of Jax Beach and north of St. Augustine, it has always been lovely, manicured and deliberately “retirement quiet.”
Subsequently, the shopping, dining and social scenes were understated, limited and almost boring by design. Beyond private golf and beach clubs adjacent to PGA World Headquarters, there were few restaurants, shops or events to write home about beyond The Players Championship and TPC Sawgrass each year.
Newsflash: Ponte Vedra Beach is voraciously renovating itself, blossoming commercially and profoundly for the better. Over the last decade, phenomenal dining, retail shopping and farmers markets have delightfully expanded with more diverse, world-class offerings and international traffic.
From The Boathouse (sushi and seafood) to Le Petit Paris (French cafe bistro) to Argyle (California cuisine) and especially The Yards public golf and tennis facility inside TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra has been blessed with far more vibrant, thriving, fun and delicious things to do.
No longer asleep by 8 p.m., Ponte Vedra also has baby strollers and bicycles, rucksacks and athleisure, as well as growing families walking, jogging and biking everywhere.
Thanks to Nocatee and St. Johns County’s growth, modern luxe apartments, single-family homes, renovated shopping centers and new restaurant spaces (workplaces creating thousands more local jobs), this influx of young people and growing families “onto the Island” is now all year long ― not just snowbird-seasonal.
Today’s Ponte Vedra Beach is definitely worth visiting, enjoying, even working remotely, all the way from State Road 202 to A1A to Palm Valley Road and all points in between.
Sure, there’s a bit more A1A traffic, yet Ponte Vedra Beach is abuzz with exceptional new restaurants, stores and fitness lifestyle vibes from dawn until late in the evening, seven days a week.
Baron Christopher Hanson and Emilie Dulles, Ponte Vedra Beach
Remaining U.S. blasphemy laws unenforceable
Periodically, we hear someone in the Muslim world has been punished for blasphemy and we’re appalled (or at least some of us are).
I thought that odious practice had long since been repealed in the United States but found out recently a few states still have blasphemy laws on their books, though they are seldom ― if ever ― enforced.
One of the last blasphemy trials to take place in the U.S. occurred in Delaware in 1837, where the defendant was found guilty. The defense attorney would comment much later (once he was safely out of the state):
“I’ve taken my revenge on that State by leaving it in ignorance; Delaware is several centuries behind the times. It is as bigoted as it is small-well, the truth is the State is so small they don’t need waiters; they all reach for what they want.”
He concluded on a much more somber note:
“What is the real blasphemy? I’ll tell you! To enslave the minds of men and women; to put chains upon the brain, padlocks upon lips, to make the tongue a convict ― that is blasphemy. There never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in, and that did not certify to the ignorance of the men who passed it … that is to say, all laws against blasphemy have been passed by the numerically strong and the intellectually weak.”
While blasphemy is no longer an issue in the Western World, it’s still considered a crime punishable by death in many Muslim countries. The old cliche that “blasphemy is a victimless crime” doesn’t go far enough; it is really not a crime at all.
Borden Applegate, Jacksonville Beach
Trumpers subverting democracy
The bills deceitfully labeled the “SAVE America Act” should be called the “Save Donald Trump Act.” The president realizes that in a free and fair election, Democrats would likely control Congress and threaten his grip on power.
His abuse of the Supreme Court indemnity from crimes committed in office would be exposed, as would his violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clause by using his office to extort foreign countries and corporations to line his pockets. Not to mention his schemes bilked taxpayers out of $60 billion by having his Justice Department sue the IRS on his behalf, then internally settling for a $1.8 billion slush fund and more.
No wonder he continues to lie about the integrity of the 2020 election and ironically rationalizes the alleged tactics for his administration and followers to rig the 2026 elections.
They have loaded federal, state and local election boards with partisans; push state redistricting to deflate minority representation; and impose burdensome requirements that disproportionately effect people lacking access to the necessary documentation.
They would even require married women to re-register while attempting to nationalize voting under a ruthless and self-interested president, not to mention the attempts to prevent mail-in voting (which Trump himself uses).
His supporters will ironically do everything they can to rig the coming election to protect Trump and maintain control of Congress. Here is a novel idea: Why don’t they try adopting an agenda which serves the interests of the country and its electorate? Then let the voter fairly decide, rather than subverting our democracy.
Ted Mikalsen, Jacksonville
Data centers and the governor’s race
It seems that readers of the Times-Union are in for a steady drumbeat of negative columns from the Florida Capital Bureau reporter on Byron Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign. The latest salvo involves the merits of AI data centers in Florida.
Recognizing it is hopelessly behind the United States in the technology, China is now funding a negative campaign to try and reverse the trend, employing propagandists who want to strangle American innovation at any cost. The state of New York just imposed a one-year ban on data centers and is being excoriated by unions for lack of vision and high-paying jobs.
It is true that there are water and power concerns but these can be mitigated.
Elon Musk just purchased APR Energy right here in Jacksonville. The company builds massive turbine and gas powered mobile units to reliably feed power hungry AI data centers. Musk seems to be at least one step ahead of the field in most endeavors.
John Ekdahl, Ponte Vedra Beach
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