Change starts in precincts
I grew up during World War II, our country’s greatest era. It was also a time that rights of citizenship were fully awarded only to white citizens. My parents voted in a polling place identified by a sign stating that it was the “White Man’s Democratic Primary.” No other viable party existed in Texas, at the time.
The majority of employed women and racial minorities were relegated to menial labor. Programs of “The Great Society” ushered in change and opportunity to those previously marginalized by law and custom. The nation prospered.
Today, the Republican Party appears to want to erase all the progress that came about, while the Democratic Party is muddling about trying to find a constituency. Letters to the editor of this newspaper indicate that many readers are concerned about the path our country seems to be taking. Political change begins at the precinct. Gather some friends and attend your local precinct meetings.
Russell Marlett, McKinney
Make children a foreign aid priority
Re: “Mothers drive democracy movements — Around world, women are demanding rights, freedoms for their communities,” by Natalie Gonnella-Platts, May 6 Opinion.
Many thanks to Gonnella-Platts for forcefully reminding all of us of the enormous role mothers play as “a threat to tyrants and rogue actors all over the world.” Even here at home, where many of these actors are less obvious, and hopefully less evil, mothers are “catalysts for accountability, equity and security.”
Congress is currently preparing appropriations for fiscal year 2023, and one of their choices is whether to adequately fund in the foreign aid budget $300 million for high protein food delivered to pregnant women and their newborns for the first 1,000 days of life of the infant in order to prevent early childhood deaths and the long-term effects of wasting and stunting in young children.
Preventing maternal and childhood malnutrition worldwide could save 5 million needless child deaths annually. Please urge your senators and representatives to tell the appropriators on the House and Senate foreign operations committees to include this amount in the 2023 budget. Mothers and infants need it and want it for their children to live and to live a better life.
Martin G. White, Dallas/Turtle Creek
No more NRA for me
My membership with the National Rifle Association is up for renewal this month, but after nearly 20 years of my being a loyal member, it will come to an end. Yes, I am keeping all of my firearms, which I safely own. My reason for making this decision comes from the NRA’s indifference to curbing activities carried out by criminals.
Its leaders have no plans to keep firearms out of the hands of those who seek to do harm. Instead they lamely insist that there are plenty of laws that are on the books and that law enforcement needs to step up. News flash, NRA: Criminals don’t care — not about illegal possession, not about the consequences of committing a crime, not about human life.
And the NRA, one the biggest nonprofit organizations in the U.S., can’t even keep its own books straight, seeing how it had filed for bankruptcy. Maybe if the organization had put a good amount of its time, money and effort into working with communities at the ground level to find ways that reduce gun violence, I’d stay a member.
Instead, there is too much pandering to top, right-wing politicians and, sadly, its ardent supporters just to keep the dollars rolling in. No more from me.
Richard Street, Carrollton
Give Biden his due
What does President Joe Biden have to do to get the admiration due him? The job data has continued to deliver better than expected numbers, the wages of ordinary Americans are higher and the usual winning numbers continue to be ignored. I know we have inflation and things cost more, but that’s being managed and should decrease.
A big reason for higher costs is the supply chain issues (getting goods to market) that have continued since the pandemic and now with Ukraine out of commission. This is beyond the president’s control. It’s a cyclical problem that will be resolved.
A big reason to be so proud of him: Who else would have been able to bring together all the different countries and governments to collectively support Ukraine? Only Biden has the connections, the admiration of leaders in so many other nations, and the reputation of telling it how it is to accomplish this.
He is taken for granted when he should be applauded for what he is getting done.
Mary Veasey, McKinney
A tale of false narratives
It is with shock and amazement that I read that approximately 70% of Russian citizens support the “Special Military Action” in Ukraine. Obviously a majority of Russians have blindly accepted President Vladimir Putin’s false narrative pretext for war of de-Nazification of Ukraine leadership and liberation of Ukrainians.
However, then it occurred to me that an analogy is the false narrative of a stolen 2020 presidential election perpetrated by our former president and a majority of Republican leaders. The continued denial of the election loss, and willingness to deceive their supporters, continues to do immeasurable harm to our democracy.
Honesty and transparency of elected officials and a free press are all that separates the U.S. from the evil now manifest in the Kremlin.
Tom Jardine, Dallas/Lakewood
Putin and Russian caviar
With the tragic misadventures of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine, it’s obvious now that his so-called savvy and genius is highly overrated, much like Russian caviar, which is a little too fishy to ever be taken seriously.
Bob Ory, Chicago
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