The facts — and opinions — matter

Meredith Carroll’s March 30 “Muck Off” (“No spring break for Gov. Ron DeSantis’s bigotry,“) is one of many examples of how members of the media have contributed to our society being so polarized, untrusting of the media and for lack of a better word, hateful, toward other people’s thoughts that do not match their own.

Her article and opinion calls Gov. DeSantis a bigot simply because the governor wants kindergarten to third graders to have curriculum that focuses on math, the alphabet and basic educational topics. She is factually incorrect by writing, “Forbidding small children from using the word ‘gay’ and its synonyms, or from having discussions about different types of people” as the bill does no such thing — it simply addresses topics of the curriculum and it never uses the word “gay,” nor forbids it from being spoken, nor forbids the children from conversations about sexuality.

The bill simply is an effort to have these young children focus on basic education (for a whopping four years and well before puberty arrives) as so many studies have shown our students’ test scores in many areas are lagging behind children of so many other countries.

Meredith is entitled to her opinion of the bill and she has every right to make her opinion available to the public but she should be held responsible for spewing untruths and for misrepresenting the bill simply to serve her own bigotry. For someone to have the opportunity to influence many people via her writings, she should apologize for her inaccurate and untruthful version of the bill and clarify to her readers that the bill does not in fact prohibit these children from using the word “gay,” nor forbids it from being spoken, nor forbids the children from conversations about sexuality.

Let’s all do our part to speak our mind, be open and listen to other’s opinions but not lie to each other.

Dan Patterson

Snowmass Village

Editor’s note: Meredith Carroll did not call Gov. Ron DeSantis a bigot because he supports a more rigorous primary school curriculum. Carroll called DeSantis a bigot because, as she wrote, “he signed The Parental Rights in Education bill that will restrict public primary school teachers in his state from ‘encouraging’ discussions that include sexual orientation or gender identity beginning July 1.” And she was not factually incorrect when she wrote, “Forbidding small children from using the word ‘gay’ and its synonyms, or from having discussions about different types of people, families and love only serves to undermine the boundaries of education and manifest a world of awkwardness with inadequate emotional, social and mental health support,” because she was stating an opinion.