Rough waters ahead for Ron DeSantis

| 10:00 pm EDT April 14, 2023
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I floated there, in their waters. A long time ago. I floated while gazing up at their tawny sun and thinking myself so lucky to be there. I slept there, too, with the sights and sounds of the sea roaring behind me. I ate there, walked their streets, and enjoyed their palm trees, beguiling sunlight, and tropical breezes.

And now they are lost — lost to a Governor who has forsaken them — lost to a man with no plan except terrorizing many who live there. This place is Florida; the man I speak of is Ron DeSantis. It is incredibly saddening to have to report that a travel advisory has been issued for those traveling to the sunshine state.

This advisory comes from Equality Florida. They’re a great group of people – a civil rights organization. Calling their own actions “an extraordinary step,” the group has warned people that there are serious risks to any potential traveler’s freedoms and rights as an American.

If one chooses to travel there, they face “passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum.”

The group’s director adds they do this with “great sadness.”

I am sad too. My first plane ride was to Miami when I was just three years of age. I fell in love with Florida from then on. It is a beautiful state, but it’s future hangs in peril because they’re at the mercy of a madman.

I know many who worked their hearts and souls away trying to win the state in the midterms. And I know many people who have also not given up on the state.

Yet today is a sad day. Florida, once a haven for tourists, swimmers, for quirky and fun people who made great memories there — is now under a travel advisory. The rights of many Floridians, their precious freedoms – are under attack by a madman. Yet I do not and will not ever give up on the state.