Our freedoms are slipping away, one by one | Opinion

Floridians are less free today because we are being stripped of representation in government. For the first time in this state’s history, the governor has paid political party operatives with $450,000 in taxpayer dollars to draw electoral maps designed to deliberately strip the opposing party of fair representation. The new gerrymandered map subverts the will of all Floridians who voted for the Fair Districts amendment to our constitution.

The legislature has proposed Amendment 2, which would abolish the Constitutional Revision Commission. It meets every 20 years, allowing members from the public to affect policy changes that the Florida Legislature won’t address. We have an opportunity to vote on this amendment in November. We should vote against it and preserve one last way for voters’ voices to be heard.

Teachers are now less free to educate students because they can be sued for making students “uncomfortable.” As a retired English teacher, I believe good literature should make us uncomfortable. If To Kill a Mockingbird or Beloved doesn’t make us question the role of race in our justice system and culture, there is something wrong with our moral grounding. American history classes should make us uncomfortable. How could anyone learn about the hundreds of indigenous children removed from their families and forced into boarding schools and not be upset? Many of those children died. This should make us uncomfortable. So should slave auctions, Japanese internment camps, the My Lai massacre and the Comstock Act.

Children are less free to read library books on many topics—especially those that educate them about the variety of families that exist today, such as Heather Has Two Mommies. Between July 2021 and June 2022, books were banned 2,532 times in U.S. public schools, according to PEN America. Many banned books – 41%  – included LGBTQ themes, protagonists, or prominent secondary characters. About a fifth dealt with race issues, while one in ten addressed themes of rights and activism.

Women are less free to control our own bodies. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we have less freedom to choose when or if to have children. This will affect a woman’s earning power over her lifetime and the security and well-being of her family. There is no mention of how to feed, house, or educate the thousands of children who will be born to women unable to care for them.

We are less free to remain healthy today. Florida’s radical Surgeon General promotes disproven COVID treatments over scientifically sound ones like vaccines. Also trans children, their families, and doctors are less free. Their ability to make healthcare decisions has been limited by our state’s new policies opposing gender-affirming care for trans youth — a move that would put the licenses of medical professionals at risk for providing life-saving care.

And as long as our leaders refuse to condemn what happened on Jan. 6, 2020, our entire system of government — the freedom to elect our own leaders—is under threat. All my life, I have taken the peaceful transfer of power for granted. No longer.

U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, U.S. Sen. M

We must vote in November as if our democracy and freedom depend on it. Because they do.

Donna Meredith taught English and Journalism in high schools in West Virginia and Georgia for 30 years. She has lived in Tallahassee for over 30 years.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: In Florida, our freedoms are slipping away, one by one | Opinion