Remembering Ruth Shack: the pioneer who made Miami kinder, fairer, braver | Opinion

Lovely remembrance

I knew Ruth Shack and admired her deeply for her steadfast courage, compassion and public service. She was a true leader — defying the odds as a woman seeking public office and becoming a pioneer for those too often overlooked, while championing the rights and dignity of all.

Few people would know that Ruth was also a cherished member of the “Volley Girls,” a group of South Florida women who gathered in the 1990s to play volleyball fiercely and discuss ways to improve our community. Most of us had attended school long before women were welcomed onto athletic fields, so learning volleyball as mature women taught us many of the same lessons young girls learn through sports today, thanks to the passage and implementation of Title IX.

One of our cardinal rules was never to say “I’m sorry” unless someone was actually injured. We laughed about how women so often apologize for things that are not their fault. We were coached by a legendary longtime volleyball coach at Miami Dade College who was a major figure in Florida college athletics.

Because our court was in the backyard of one of our members’ homes in Miami Beach, we became a regular stop for sightseeing boat tours. We could hear guides telling tourists that they were looking at “some of the most powerful women in Miami.” In our matching Volley Girl T-shirts and awkward volleyball form, we would wave back at the tourists and laugh at ourselves.

Ruth has now joined several of her teammates — Rita Bornstein, Janet McAliley, Mary Doyle, Joanne Bass and Hope Pomerance — for what I imagine is a heavenly match.

If one were to trace the history of modern Miami, the names of these women would appear again and again. The arts, education, government, law, philanthropy, hospitality, tourism, development, civic life and the environment all received help from the intelligence, generosity, and quiet leadership of these women. Their legacy may not always be widely recognized, but it will not be undone.

Ruth touched countless lives, including mine. Her life remains a blessing to this community.

Kathleen A. Shea,

Kendall

Troubled park

Tropical Park is very dear to me. I live a mile away and bicycle through it almost daily. For many years, I played softball on its fields. During the 1990s and 2000s, I ran numerous 5K races through the park. Daily, I see dozens of people and their pets enjoying the dog park.

I have counted 114 horse stalls that in the past were occupied by police mounted patrol horses and others. Other than during equestrian events, they sit vacant.

The stalls do need an upgrade, but why are taxpayers footing $102 million for them while practically giving the facility to the Loud and Live group? What’s in it for us?

There is something fishy about Loud and Live beyond the A3 Foundation scandal. According to some Miami Herald stories, we have ceded almost everything over to the group. Parks are for the people. Everything need not be free. Accessibility is key, affordable and available to all.

Perhaps the last good decision the county made concerning the park was purchasing it in 1974 for $12 million.

David Halpern,

Miami

Open Miami Center now

Re: the May 20 Miami Herald editorial, “A $50 million mental health facility sits ready. Miami-Dade leaders, quit stalling.” That Miami-Dade County Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez would accuse County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration and facility advocates of “pushing a half-baked” idea is unbelievable.

Having toured the fabulous facility and listened to retired Judge Steven Leifman’s detailed and meticulously thought-through plan for the center’s success, I am incredulous that Rodriguez thinks it is fiscally responsible to continue spending $1 million a year to keep the facility closed. Recycling the same people with mental health issues through the judicial system is incredibly costly and should be tackled immediately.

Rodriguez’s stalling has already cost the center millions in promised grant money that expired before it could be opened. The center must open now. It is already funded for the first three years. That buys much time to procure additional funding for future operations.

Nanci Mitchell,

South Miami

FIU’s ‘melting pot’

Kudos to Roger Tovar and Marc Sarnoff, authors of the May 26 Miami Herald op-ed, “FIU’s diversity and response to racist chat undercut Herald Ed Board’s claim,” for their excellent commentary on the university’s response to the offensive and reprehensible chat by a few students.

The suggestion or inference that the school’s leadership created or fostered a culture of tolerance for the racist and antisemitic comments is absurd. As a proud FIU graduate, I can say that FIU is the quintessential example of a melting pot of ethnicities, religions and differing points of view. The numbers tell the story. Suggestions to the contrary are simply misguided.

Jose Sirven,

Miami

Unfocused on UF

In all the public discussions and criticisms about whether Stuart Bell could be or Santa Ono would have been a good president of the University of Florida (UF), there has been no mention whether either of them achieved good results and improved student achievement at the Universities of Alabama or Michigan, respectively.

The whole discussion, whether from Sen. Rick Scott, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and others, centers on whether Bell and Ono are anti-woke enough. Maybe we should revisit Ben Sasse. He was anti-woke enough, but we all saw what happened to him.

Unless our politicians focus on what really matters, I doubt UF will remain the number three public university in the country.

Stewart Merkin,

Miami

Fiscally faulty

Re: the May 28 Miami Herald story, “DeSantis finally unveils his proposal to cut Floridians’ property taxes.” Yes, cutting or eliminating property taxes would dramatically affect funding for local governments, but why didn’t Republicans object to the monstrous cost of “Alligator Alcatraz?”

Valeria Mastelli,

Key Biscayne

Make way, Debbie

My late mother would often invoke the Yiddish expression “shoyn genug!” (“enough already!” in English) to indicate her displeasure with politicians who insisted on remaining in office long past their “best-by” date.

“Shoyn genug” seems appropriate now in the case of five-term U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. First elected to Congress more than 20 years ago, she has served with distinction but should now step aside graciously and support a qualified Black candidate in District 20, as was the original plan.

Richard Freedland,

Palmetto Bay

Save the Amazon

Re: the May 13 story, “Criminal syndicates tighten grip on Amazon as rainforest nears collapse.” While the Old Testament tells the story of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, some of us today believe that humanity was never expelled. The Earth was the Eden that God gave us. We all should have been reminded of this when viewing the photographs and video beamed back to Earth by NASA’s recent Artemis II mission. Earth’s beauty, splendor and isolation in the cold vacuum and darkness of space was on full display.

Whether or not we wish to face it, all eight billion of us are on the same “spaceship,” orbiting within the habitable zone of our star, with an atmosphere that supports life. We have no place to escape to if we don’t take care of Earth. Not taking care of it properly is disrespectful to God and is an existential danger to many species, including ourselves.

I hope the countries directly and indirectly involved with the rainforest can effectively coordinate and end the environmental evils described in the article.

Robert E. Panoff,

Pinecrest