Risky to entrust high caliber Ringling Museum to New College | Letters

Messing with perfection at Ringling Museum

I have read the news about Gov. Ron DeSantis commandeering a change in leadership of our wonderful Ringling Museum of Art to his appointed president at New College.

It is chilling to imagine that, considering what they did to New College, tearing it apart rather than repairing a longstanding institution.

Presently, under the leadership of Steven High and Florida State University, the Ringling Museum has hosted exhibits of the highest caliber within a range to interest anyone and everyone.

In addition to the art galleries, there are frequent lectures, music and other performances that stir the imagination and lift the audience to new and wonderful ideas and experiences.

As a conservator at the Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution, I have seen how museums function and the intricacies of and requirements necessary to exhibit works of art.

The Ringling Museum already does it all to the highest caliber.

Please don’t entrust this intricate skill to someone steeped in toxic politics who has no museum experience and would surely degrade the quality of our museum.

Natalie Firnhaber, Sarasota

IRS needs more, not fewer workers

Some government agencies might warrant strategic cutbacks, but the IRS should actually have even more employees and a bigger budget – to help it find waste, fraud and abuse by wealthy people who do not pay their fair share of taxes but reap the benefits that taxes help finance.

More than 11 million Americans owe back taxes, but the IRS is primarily interested in high-wealth groups and corporations. Its mission is to improve compliance and ensure fairness.

After years of declining budgets, the IRS finally had the resources to improve collections.  Last year it collected more than $1 billion in past-due taxes from millionaires.

And since 2022, audits of taxpayers making less than $400,000 a year have not increased.

Isn’t that what we all want? That everyone pays their fair share? Our economy certainly could use that money, but it definitely shouldn’t fund even more tax cuts for the wealthy.

Isn’t it strange that those who clamor to hobble the IRS are the “1 percenters,” who probably already cheat on their taxes?

Let your members of Congress know that you want a strong IRS that can improve compliance and fairness for all.

Virginia deHaven Hitchcock, Sarasota

Trump turns adviser loose to inflict misery

Imagine being the richest man in the world.

You just spent a quarter of a billion dollars buying close proximity to a president, so you can inflict immense suffering on countless others, including the world’s poorest, in order to become even richer.  This sickness is obviously not imaginary.

What kind of a sociopath would fire:

• medical and scientific researchers.

• immigration judges (already in short supply).

• aviation safety workers.

• an entire agency that protects Americans from financial scammers.

• personnel who protect us from severe weather.

• emergency response workers at FEMA.

• researchers into Sept. 11-related diseases.

• thousands of IRS workers (all of whom add money to the Treasury).

The list could obviously go on and on.

But the clincher is that all these cuts, all the misery and suffering of both the workers and those they served, are intended to just partially offset an enormous tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, including President Donald Trump and Elon Musk themselves.

That level of corruption is jaw-dropping.

Meanwhile, Trump played golf on 10 of his first 30 days as president, costing taxpayers $10.7 million.

Peter Burkard, Sarasota

Renaming Tamiami Trail makes no sense

Tamiami Trail: For nearly 100 years it has connected Tampa and Miami.

It’s a practical, functional, useful name for the highway also known as U.S. 41.

But what the heck – let’s toss away “Tamiami Trail” as a name and reach into the taxpayers’ pockets to pay for all new signs along the highway.

And for all new maps.

Let’s confuse tourists.

And most important, let’s demonstrate fealty before the new self-proclaimed “king” who is trying to distract us from the wholesale destruction of our government in order to increase the wealth of the billionaire class.

Kirk Winters, Sarasota

Moves show Musk’s in charge

If an unknown entity hacked the U.S. information systems, everyone would be screaming for accountability.

Elon Musk and his minions (with no security clearance) have done just that, and our Republican representatives remain silent.

Since the mainstream media barely mentions it – and who knows what “Faux News” says? – many people may not even know about this attempted coup.

I, for one, do not want a 22-year-old “tech bro” noodling around in my private data.

If President Donald Trump and his henchmen really want to streamline the government and cut waste, they don’t need to break the systems to do it.

Makes you wonder what their goal really is.

Elon’s cringeworthy press conference in the Oval Office says it all: He, not Trump, is in charge.

Linda Dirk, Lakewood Ranch

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College could degrade quality of Ringling Museum | Letters

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