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To the Editor:
This Wednesday, former Republican state senator Scott Frantz and his wife Icy will be welcoming Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a high-priced fundraiser at their home. As prominent members of the Greenwich Republican party, what does this say about the party’s commitment to human rights and democracy, and those issues that keep so many of us up at night?
Our first selectman Fred Camillo made his thoughts clear. “He’s done a very good job in Florida,” he told a Greenwich Time reporter. As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I am highly attuned to the anxiety and depression our young people have been experiencing. Teens reporting depression and anxiety has more than doubled in the past ten years creating a national mental health crisis. Our children have had to cope with the disruptions of COVID, active shooter training in their schools, rollback of reproductive freedom and protections for LGBTQ+ rights, a climate crisis that they are repeatedly told is theirs to fix, and the threat of our democracy under attack. Understandably, they wonder, are the adults in charge?
Being a Connecticut resident, I am proud of our value system. Our state legislators have done a decent job of passing gun safety measures, protecting women’s reproductive rights and supporting mental health initiatives. Our state is a safe haven for all, including women, families, and LGBTQ+ people. We believe that teaching history, including how slavery shaped our country, is important to understanding our present. Ron DeSantis opposes all the things that we value in our community and state.
First, Ron DeSantis is a threat to our democracy. He insists that Trump won the last election and defends those who attacked our Capitol on January 6.
Second, DeSantis has repeatedly attacked the LGBTQ+ community in his state and ordered the rewriting of American history textbooks, eroding freedom of expression, civil rights and academic integrity. He even wanted to end AP Psychology so that students wouldn’t learn about the different ways people identify and love.
Third, DeSantis enacted a six week abortion ban, threatening to criminalize women long before many even know they are pregnant.
Fourth, with the memory of the Parkland school shooting still fresh, DeSantis eliminated a permit requirement to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Florida. To hide the alarming consequences of his anti-vaccine efforts, DeSantis’ surgeon general stopped reporting Covid deaths and hospitalizations.
In short, DeSantis’ policies eviscerate our constitution, trash our democracy, take away our freedoms, and make us unsafe. He is not welcome in Greenwich. And if these are the values the local Republican party upholds, they have no place governing our town come election time this November. Democracy Matters.
Vote Democrat November 7.
Trevor Crow
Cos Cobb, CT