Dismal quality of life

West Gainesville is like every suburban strip mall in the country: decent schools, highways, chain restaurants, irrigation systems, and mile upon mile of driving to gain access to everything. You have to get in a car to go anywhere.

Downtown Gainesville offers everything within walking and biking distance: access to hundreds of mom-and-pop shops, restaurants, and the same essentials you find in Butler Plaza and Celebration Pointe. The schools are great and getting better, and professionals are relocating to the core.

West Gainesville has a dismal quality of life. People move in and move out — they generally don’t stay. I believe they have the wrong perception of the city. Nobody wants to move to Haile or Tioga; they feel they are forced to.

Downtown and east Gainesville are on the rise. If you’re looking for a house or relocating to Gainesville, I strongly suggest you look to our 150-year-old downtown and its vibrant life.

Gregory Stetz, Gainesville


Celebrate midwives

“Midwives: Defenders of women's rights” is the theme of the international day of the midwife in 2019, which is celebrated today. I am an obstetrician gynecologist who has been working in central Florida for close to 30 years and has been able to appreciate the special care that midwives provide to the community.

Throughout the years, our group of obstetricians has been working closely with midwives who provide a comprehensive and caring environment for patients. Our midwives are now working in a freestanding birth center where they empower women not only through the process of labor but also at other times in their lives.

Midwifery care is truly special, imparting knowledge to women about their bodies and about their choices in care. Let us celebrate midwives and support them in their commitment to defend women’s rights!

Eduardo Marichal, M.D., Comprehensive Women’s Health, Gainesville


Manufacturing consent

Today, U.S. sanctions concern at least 20 countries — Belarus, Myanmar, Burundi, North Korea, Cuba, the Russian Federation, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Central African Republic , the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

These sanctions have been handed down willy-nilly by recent administrations despite constitutional war powers provisions and lack of congressional approval. Sanctions are acts of war that lead to defensive blow-back, coups, cold wars, hot wars and our ever-expanding "defense" budgets that gut the economy and impoverish the heartland.

It all begins with hawkish rhetoric via a complicit media to manufacture consent by bad-mouthing sovereign countries and labeling them "enemies." Antiwar voices are silenced. Shades of the Roman Empire!

Randall Lance, Wellborn


Leading economy

After 30 months in office, Donald Trump has the American economy leading the world. Real gross domestic product was 3.2% for the first quarter of 2019.

The unemployment rate for women, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans and youths are at all-time lows. Jobs are returning to America and more Americans are at work than ever before.

Our military has been restored to the strongest in the world and our country is respected globally. The United States is now the No. 1 producer of energy in the world.

The Trump administration has reduced a record number of useless regulations, thus making it easier to begin and build a small business. Our leaders have established relationships with China, North Korea and Russia, so that future trade and treaties will be fair for the U.S.

Ed McDonough, Gainesville


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