Readers encourage everyone to vote, talk about the lack of voter fraud in Texas, support vaccines, question the energy bill and would like to hear from Sen. Cornyn.
Really, we should be voting
Re: “Dems plan drive to turn Texas blue — Voter registration effort targets 2 million who are thought to lean to the left”; and “O’Rourke warns of obstacles to voting — During visit, he urges Asian Americans to be wary of legislation,” Wednesday Metro & Business stories.
Thank you for printing these two articles on the Texas Democratic Party and Beto O’Rourke! We need to embrace all Texans, stop being fearful of those we don’t know, stop voter suppression and work towards getting more Texans to vote in our already safe elections.
All eligible Texans need to be registered to vote. All eligible Texans need to have the opportunity to vote, and all eligible Texans need to get out and vote!
Vote every election, every time — no excuses!
Kathy Candelaria, Grapevine
See? No gremlins!
Old joke: I’m talking with this guy. Every 10 seconds, he loudly snaps his fingers.
“Why do you keep doing that?” I ask.
“It keeps the flying green gremlins away,” he answers.
“But there aren’t any flying green gremlins around here,” I protest.
“Works pretty well, doesn’t it?” he answers.
In a nutshell, that’s the Texas Republicans’ voter suppression legislation (the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021). There has been virtually no evidence of election fraud in recent Texas elections. But the Republicans will enact their legislation, and when voters complain there is no voter fraud to worry about, Republicans will snap their fingers and say, “Works pretty well, doesn’t it?”
Tracy Westen, North Dallas
Mom was right
I am 67 years old and I remember standing in line to enter the cafeteria at Jefferson Junior High School in Abilene to get a polio vaccine. I was 7 or 8 but I recall being terrified because I was told I would be getting a shot. I was delighted to discover it was a sugar cube. There had been some problems with the original vaccine in terms of production and delivery but after tightening up the oversight by the government and the scientific community, the vaccine was generally regarded as safe and effective.
I am fortunate that my mother made the right decision to have me take the vaccine. When she was a child many people she knew were stricken by the crippling disease. I am writing this letter sitting upright in my office chair rather than from a wheelchair.
Scott Mashburn, Dallas/Merriman Park
More of this, please
Why is it that seemingly nobody asks the question that given the Guatemalans, Hondurans and El Salvadorans trying to immigrate to the United States, there are relatively few from Costa Rica? What is it about that country that its citizens, too, are not fleeing to the U.S.?
Perhaps it is because there is little of the poverty, crime and corruption problems of the magnitude that plague the other Central American countries? And what, if anything, does the government of Costa Rica do to keep migrants from other Central American countries from illegally crossing its borders?
It’s interesting that I don’t hear this aspect of the immigration issue discussed in the news media in this country.
Arnell L. Engstrom, Far North Dallas
More political theater
Re: “Abbott throws switch on electricity overhaul — He says measures will fix problems in power grid; critics say reforms may not prevent another crisis,” Wednesday news story.
The power and gas industry marionette strings were clear for all to see in the photo on Page 9A Wednesday of Gov. Greg Abbott and legislators signing the power and gas industry and ERCOT “reform” bill into law. How laughable! The $5,000 penalties (the equivalent of 50 cents to someone who makes $100,000 a year) are surely going to have the industry racing to winterize their equipment — not!
Even penalties of a $1 million a day are a joke to this industry, because the daily rate is contrasted to the billions in profits resulting from the rates being allowed to go sky-high and that we taxpayers then get to pay over the next decade or more in the form of welfare payments to the fat-cat power and gas industry (and not ignoring the impact of lives lost).
The way to keep this from happening again is to first limit the price of power and gas at a much much lower amount so the industry is not incentivized to fail, to include penalties that cost more than the cost of winterizing, and to give ERCOT some chops. The governor and Legislature were created to serve the people. It’s past time to show them the door.
Shari Brandt, Flower Mound
We have not had much luck
Re: “Meet with us, senator,” by Larry Howe, Wednesday Letters.
Our RESULTS.org teams throughout Texas share the frustration and disappointment as expressed in Howe’s letter as similarly Sen. John Cornyn has declined to meet with our organization, despite many requests, almost every year since he assumed his current position.
We are volunteer activists working together to end poverty in the U.S. and throughout the world. We can only assume by the senator’s behavior that these issues are of little importance to him or that perhaps he simply doesn’t want to spoil his vision of the world — as he wishes it to be, not as it is.
Martin G. White, Dallas
Click here to submit a letter to the editor. Be sure to include sources.
