Today on Context Florida:
With tens of thousands of undocumented Central American children pouring across our border with Mexico, Bob Sparks notes that Floridians and Americans are in no mood for a blame game. They seem to want solutions. Of Floridians, 76 percent believe it important or somewhat important for Congress to act on immigration reform this year. A similar percentage disagreed with a Republican argument that reform should not occur without strong enforcement of existing law.
Former Governor Jeb Bush has taken the national stage in recent years, becoming the Republican Party’s voice of sanity on immigration reform. Julie Delegal writes that Bush should take the current humanitarian crisis – more than 50,000 unaccompanied children crossing our borders without parents since October – as an opportunity to speak up for these children because this nation is losing its way, and he has the ability to speak on this issue as no one else can.
Catherine Durkin Robinson writes about a recent NPR news story on the toll stress takes on a person’s health, caused by disabilities, chronic illness, poverty and parenting teenagers. This should come as no surprise to most parents. If you have a kid, you also probably have a sneaking suspicion that your child is bad for your health.
Democracy in Florida is still a work in progress, says Martin Dyckman, even as to the basic principle that every citizen’s vote should count the same. So it was another big step forward last week when Circuit Judge Terry P. Lewis in Leon County tossed out the current congressional districting plan. There is one state, Iowa, where the process is nonpolitical and fair from the outset, and where the courts have not had to get involved.
