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• We’re in this together

  As Michael Putney aptly states, we come together as a community when there’s reason to rejoice or in the depths of crisis and mourning. But a truly mature community meets in the middle, working continuously to find solutions to shared problems.

• The readers’ forum

  DCF, agencies should cooperate, not fight

  Child abuse has claimed the lives of four Florida children under the age of 5 in the past six weeks.

• Where’s the outrage?

  Paula Deen has had many of her income sources walk out on her for using racially offensive language some 30 years ago.

• Don’t blame the homeless

  I commend Cornelius Hegeman for his excellent letter, in which he asks for “some serious journalism” on why the homeless people in downtown Miami resist opportunities to go to shelters (Homeless holdouts, June 24, Readers’ Forum).

• What Zimmerman should have said

  “Hello there! I’m George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch guard. Can you tell me your name and your business here?”

• Breakfast ruined

  I usually read the Herald over breakfast. The July 1 article Going once, going twice ..., featuring an auctioneer posing behind two carved elephant tusks, was not what I needed to start my day.

• The readers’ forum

  Government business is our business, too

  This Independence Day marks 47 years since the landmark Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was signed into federal law — yet Americans are still distrustful of government. A 2013 Pew Research Center poll showed that only 26 percent of Americans surveyed say they can trust government in Washington “almost always or most of the time.”

• A story of home

  I enjoyed the article about Winston-Salem, N.C., in the June 23 Travel section. I was born there in 1942, but, aside from the tobacco industry, I did not know any of its history.

• Birthday gift

  Re immigration reform: The people want the border secured first. The politicians want people coming.

• American history lesson

  The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, but the armed struggle against the British crown started several years before. In √March 1770, British soldiers stationed in Boston fired into a group of protesters killing several of them. This incident is remembered as The Boston Massacre.

• Ross shows lousy sportsmanship

  South Florida has always been a community of extremes, and this is no more evident than in a look at the state of local professional sports ownership. Last week, we celebrated with one of the best managed franchises in sports, the Miami Heat. Their success is based on tenacious attention to details and an understanding of both their sport and the community in which they operate.

• Why should we pay for Jackson?

  Miami-Dade County’s public hospital may need money for a major upgrade, but to use the excuse of making it more competitive to attract paying patients is deceptive. To then raise property taxes to fund this deception is an insult to taxpaying property owners, many on fixed incomes.

• The readers’ forum

  Who should be honored for their civil-rights contributions?

  In April, four trailblazers, whose unyielding commitment to equality and human dignity helped to shape modern Florida, became the latest inductees into the new Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Judge James. B. Sanderlin, Margarita Romo and Harry T. and Harriet Moore were memorialized in the annual ceremony that honors civil-rights leaders, advocates and pioneers who worked tirelessly to protect the civil liberties of various populations throughout Florida.

• Poincianas bloom once again

  As a life-long-Miamian, I remember being driven down South Miami Avenue as a child each year to see the poinciana trees in bloom. The poinciana-draped street was featured on postcards and prompted the Poinciana Festival that was held each May. I have a wonderful memory of my sister, Pat, being selected a Poinciana Princess in 1949.

• Gay marriage separate from religion

  With the Supreme Court’s historic rulings on DOMA and Proposition 8, as well as the generational shift on civil marriage equality, it is clear that same-sex marriage will one day be a reality in Florida and the rest of the nation. It’s just a question of time.

• Morin cartoon says it all

  Jim Morin’s cartoon in the June 30 Issues & Ideas section is both candid and another example of why a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

• Morin’s got talent

  Jim Morin’s depiction of George Zimmerman as black and Trayvon Martin as white shows his true innovated genius. When Morin is on vacation and the Herald uses political cartoonists from other publications, I realize the extent of his talent.

• No limits on marriage?

  Since the Defense of Marriage Act, which specified that marriage must be between one man and one woman, has been declared unenforceable, does this mean that a marriage can involve one man and two, three or four women?

• Curb development

  I suppose that we should all be grateful that Alabama Jack’s isn’t in Coconut Grove. If it were, then Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and his greedy band of developers would pave it over, make a park, put up a condo or yet another high-end restaurant that nobody will patronize.

• The readers’ forum

  DCF fails vulnerable children

  How many children must die before we have a real conversation about our child-welfare system? How many headlines must be written before the people charged with investigating child abuse accept responsibility for the children who have died in the custody of abusive parents over the past six months after the Department of Children & Families intervened? Ezra Raphael, Antwan Hope, Fernando Barahona, Bryan Osceola, Dontrell Melvin and Emma Morrison are gone forever.

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