Executions tax prison workers, too
With your two editorials published July 24 and 25 about the planned double executions of James Duckett and Dominick Occhicone on July 28, you have highlighted everything wrong with these state-sanctioned killings.
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I don’t believe our governor cares at all about the men to be executed. But it is baffling that he cares so little about his state Department of Correction employees. The plan to subject everyone at Florida State Prison — staff and inmates — to two executions in one day is outrageous. Many former prison staff all over the U.S. have written about battling PTSD and depression from the killing of a human being.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, counsel for Occhicone called on the judge to order a six-month pause on executions in Florida to allow experts to examine the psychological impact on prison staff of carrying out a high number of executions. “The executions have taken a toll on the psyche of correctional staff and are causing moral injury to the state,” the filing explained, according to the DPIC.
— Miriam Welly Elliott, Gainesville
AI companies blunt data centers’ impact
In my opinion, we are experiencing perhaps the biggest bait-and-switch in recent history. We’ve all heard the ubiquitous promotion of the necessity of AI: It will make companies and people more efficient. People will be smarter. The world will be opened up for all.
There is criticism and bullying of people who have questions and apprehensions of being invaded and pushed out by this tool, who are being told they better go along for the upside and ignore their trepidation. They’ve got to move forward and grasp the benefits of AI. They cannot miss out because they will be left behind. So the AI industry and its leaders forge ahead with huge amounts of money and zealously influence public policy.
Oh! We forgot to tell folks about one little thing. To power AI, we have to build some equipment to support AI. Yes, they are called data centers. They are incredibly noisy, gorge on water and they require a tremendous amount of power. No, we will not be picking up the tab for overuse of resources or the cost of all of it. And people will get used to the noise, kind of like white noise.
So there you have it. Rather than transparency in explaining how the required machinery works, the companies who lead this brigade incessantly talk about the amazing benefits of AI. Data centers? Well, yeah, but the tradeoff is so worth it. You know, the cost-benefit thing. Sadly, rather than having communities in the driver’s seat, these big corporations are telling communities what to do. There’s lots of regret and anger out there. And it’s getting louder.
— S. Lee Thompson, Titusville
RFK Jr. is doing the right things
As I see it, your Sunday editorial, adapted from a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial, is moronic (“Editorial: How many will die because RFK Jr. was put in charge of public health?”).
While there is no doubt that vaccines can and do provide a public benefit, there is also evidence that as a society we are overmedicated and overvaccinated.
I applaud Kennedy for his focus on diet and exercise, which if you really think about it, is the simplest solution to our nation’s health epidemic. The cost of obesity is off the charts, but no one ever brings that up.
It is disheartening that this editorial was so one-sided.
— Jeff York, Winter Springs
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