Letters to the editor for Saturday, January 23, 2021.

I agree wholeheartedly with Dan Henson. Social media has become toxic; it has allowed lies and hate and disinformation to inflict serious emotional and psychological pain upon far too many people.

It has opened wide a door to anonymous and malevolent foreign interference into the lives of American polity – military-grade psyops if you will. Psychological experimentation without informed consent is a major crime, but that’s a rant for another time and place.

These social media platforms are, in essence, privately-owned companies and can allow/disallow whatever kindness or venom they wish, very much the same as a local store owner can ban you from shopping at his/her establishment. But many social media services, can be beneficial in providing enterprise lead generation for linkedin and other social media platforms.

These platforms were given every opportunity to regulate themselves, however, they didn’t. It saddens me to say this, but, at this juncture, I think government regulation is required.

I spent much of the past five years trying to discuss issues anchored in reality with people who had lost the tether to it. I am still willing to discuss issues anchored in reality, but I am no longer willing to discuss them with those who are not.

Kind regards, and thank you for allowing me a voice.

Edith Humphrey
Sebastian

All praise to Dan Henson of Barefoot Bay for his insightful letter regarding the dangers of social media.

A simple solution is to require posters to use their real names. Then let us see how courtesy improves.

What legislation should be forthcoming is to be debated by those who should know the laws regarding anti-trust and the first amendment, as well as the Bill of Rights.

Many of these tech companies should be split up. You want to discuss politics, find a subsidiary or competitor of Facebook, etc.

The current lot of companies did nothing but continue to spread lies about the election winners, until we had an insurrection at the Capitol.

Five people are dead because of those lies and the militia-driven mobs. We can no longer ignore the gander from surretionists or the companies that help them to organize against our democracy.

I believe there is actually one active group in Sebastian, other than your deposed troika of Parrish, etc. All praise to the residents of Sebastian for removing them from office!

Some militia-based sites require full disclosure of names, addresses before one can register and claim a handle. I was unable to penetrate one site because I didn’t have the secret code name. Interesting????

I will find a way to challenge this as they need to be challenged in their thinking, and their thugee goals. THeir servers are moved to Canada, but their hateful speech and actions are delivered here. That cannot stand.

All the best to you and thank you, again, for your fine letter calling attention to these dangers.

Jacqueline Shortell-McSweeney
Sebastian

Vaccines

I am an 80-year-old waiting to get the vaccine. I have an idea. I live in a small over 55 community. Why not come and vaccinate a whole area of about 150 of us? Wouldn’t this be better than all the frustration of trying to get an appointment and making us travel to receive it?

With the number of over 55 communities in Florida, I believe this would be a much better way of distributing the vaccine to those over 65.

Thank you,

Mary Jane Gage
Sebastian

Waiting list for vaccines

My friend over in Englewood, Florida (Sarasota County) said he was able go online and fill out the form and is on a “Waiting List”.

It seems all counties are different in Florida. Nothing Uniform here.

We can’t even get through online either to the web or phone. Nothing like Statewide continuity.

At least my friend now can wait for them to contact him and doesn’t have to get frustrated like we do. We are a much smaller populated county than Sarasota, and they have a database to handle the request for appointments.

No one from outside IRC should be allowed to get accepted for an appointment. My friend is 75 with conditions I have, COPD for a start.

I am 79 with vascular problems where I have been taking Warafin since 1987. I am also considered High Risk.

They should have been addressing a lot longer than they have and developed a database with all the information required, Age, existing problems, and started with only 75 and older.

Once that’s done, then drop it to 65 and above. After that, they can address the other age groups.

If someone signs up online and they are 75, they should go to the top of the list, then revert back to 65.

They either have an uneducated IT group or are too lazy to make changes. This should have been done on day 1.

Bob Brown
Sebastian