Dr. Stephen Playe, a retired ER physician living in the Hammock, questions the motives behind Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s announcement that he would recommend against administering the Covid vaccine to young, healthy children .
Commentary
Support for Democracy Is Waning Across the Americas
People are losing faith in democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. Across North, Central and South America, and parts of the Caribbean, only 63% of the public expressed support for democracy in 2021, possibly explaining the growth of support for authoritarian leadership in places like the United States, Peru and El Salvador.
Battles Over Book Bans Reflect Conflicts from the 1980s
The attacks on books in the 1980s bear similarities to the current attacks. Both object to the critical teaching about race and racism, historical as well as contemporary. Both accuse schools of tearing down America and weakening patriotism. Both object to teaching about gender roles, sexual orientation and alternative models of the family. Conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation have been involved in both periods.
Conservatives Profit from Anti-Transgender Agendas to Rally Their Base
Anti-transgender health care bills and legal interpretations are part of a package of initiatives that mark 2021 as a “record-breaking year” for anti-LGBTQ policies introduced in state legislatures across the country. And 2022 is already on track to surpass this record.
Ukraine and the Fallacy of ‘All Lives Matter’
Every war brings out the best and the worst in human beings. Ukrainian resistance has been heroic and inspiring as Russia carries out its war crimes. But there’s also a strong element of bias at work in the public reaction. You know, the way a blue-eyed blond child gone missing will get page one sympathy while a missing Black child will be ignored.
‘We the People’ Are In Dangerous Territory
The state of the union is precarious because some of us have lost faith in democracy and have begun to flirt with other means to achieve political goals, other means to obtain and keep power, means based more on brute force and intimidation than on persuasion and compromise.
Death: How Long Are We Conscious For, and Does Life Really Flash Before Our Eyes?
Experiments have been conducted in an attempt to better understand reports from people who have had a near death experience. Such an event has been associated with out-of-body experiences, a sense profound bliss, a calling, a seeing of a light shining above, but also profound bursts of anxiety or complete emptiness and silence.
Zelenskyy’s Putin Antithesis: Grit and Grace of Leadership
Putin demonstrates a tendency toward authoritarianism in both political action and in political style. Zelenskyy, in contrast, presents a more modest and understated vision of political leadership – one more appropriate for democratic institutions, in which the leader is not thought to be morally superior to the governed.
Stripping Bare the Illusion That Sports Are Apolitical
FIFA has suspended Russia from international competition, potentially excluding Russia from the World Cup in Qatar later this year. There are several reasons why the Ukraine invasion has served to break FIFA’s policy of viewing national teams apolitically. The brutality of the Russian aggression is one, the self-evident innocence of Ukraine is another.
A Parent’s Counsel to FPC Principal Greg Schwartz: Accommodate LGBTQ Students, Don’t Suspend Them
Randall Bertrand, the parent of an LGBTQ student who was at the forefront of the effort to protect gender-identity rights in the district, recommends to Flagler Palm Coast High School Principal Greg Schwartz how to diffuse the situation at FPC after the principal opted to suspend student-protest organizer Jack Petocz following today’s walkout protesting anti-LGBTQ legislation.