¶ A history of violence
For last week's cover story, we wrote about the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Massacre, the largest incident of racist voting-day violence in U.S. history, and it happened right here in our backyard ("100 years ago in Ocoee, Black residents were murdered and driven off the land they owned, yet few know the story," Nov. 4). Finally local officials are taking steps to recognize the victims and acknowledge the horrific impact of this event.
@Jeremy Drummond The land needs to be returned to the descendants of these victims. Land ownership was hard to come by for Blacks back then, these people worked hard for what they got!
@Patrick McDonald It still trips me out that between four different schools in Central Florida, from kindergarten through high school, this wasn't taught or even mentioned.
@Tara Henderson School history books are written from a certain perspective so things like this tend to be left out. They don't want to show the bad along with the good. A very sanitized version of history. But without the bad, how will we ever do better?
¶ Building a worse mousetrap
Last week we reported on the ever-worsening layoffs at Walt Disney World ("One in seven Orlando Disney employees will be laid off by New Year's Eve," Nov. 2), with the news of another round of terminations for over 11,400 park employees on New Years Eve this year. Executive salaries are unaffected.
@Joy Alyson Woods Brinson All business in Central Florida better brace themselves, the effects of this will be felt across sectors.
@Cindy Bisson I wonder if we'll be seeing a huge number of people moving out of Central Florida. The continued layoffs will trickle down to other businesses.
@Eileen Hartley Until people can travel to America from the U.K. to visit the theme parks this will the case, but hopefully this time next year we will be able to come back.
@Trish Anecki Well, if the governor would have kept things closed and mandated masks this wouldn't be a problem.
@Tammy Clement Lester It was crazy busy considering the "reduced capacity" this week. They need more cast members back, not less! But the ones that are working did a fantastic job with customer service and keeping the parks clean.
@DeDe Kirby My heart breaks for these people. Please give to the food banks if you are still working. They're going to need our help to survive. We can also help by following doctors' recommendations to wear masks and only go out when you have to. No large gatherings. God bless. Be safe.
