No career politicians
I think it is outstanding that people recognize the critical importance of protecting ourselves from kings. The essence of a king is the hereditary succession to power, and the United States got close to having a Bush vs. Clinton presidential race, two candidates who each were politicians and each of whom had immediate family members that had recently been president.
Many prospective presidential candidates are drawn from the ranks of Congress which, in turn, is mostly composed of career politicians, many of whom have secured elective positions of great power, profit and prestige.
It’s much like Capitol City in The Hunger Games — the political class lives large while the productive class labors to fund the parties.
Against this backdrop, No Kings rallies are a great opportunity to note how fortunate we are to have actually gotten a president now who isn’t beholden to the political class and who isn’t interested in being a career politician.
Opinion
Sewall C. Cutler Jr., Dallas
Mixed signals
Re: “CPAC braces for GOP future,” and “Springsteen headlines Minnesota demonstration,” Sunday news stories.
These two articles reported on the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Grapevine and the No Kings protests this weekend across the country. The Page 1 story recapped Sen. Ted Cruz’s appearance at CPAC, where he outlined his vision for the nation. Cruz said among other things that he would fight for First Amendment rights.
One of the No Kings protest stories on Page 2 quoted White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson’s characterization of the protests as “leftist funding networks” and “Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions.” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Maureen O’Toole was quoted, “These Hate America rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone.”
Cruz’s First Amendment posturing collides head-on with the Jackson and O’Toole summations — an outright contradiction that lays bare rank hypocrisy. It’s as if each is deaf to the other’s words, leaving their followers to sort through a tangle of mixed signals.
Paul Dreimiller, Plano
Right to know
Re: “Who will stand up and say, ‘Enough’?” by Christopher de Vinck, March 14 Opinion and “Character matters,” by Linda Johnston Arage, March 18 Letters.
De Vinck and Arage are spot on. I implore anyone privileged to have been born in, or successfully assimilated into, the embrace of our 250-year-old republic to read the last book published, posthumously, of historian David McCullough.
History Matters is a compendium of beautifully crafted essays and speeches stitched together by McCullough’s daughter and his long-time researcher. In the chapter about one of his favorite presidents, Harry Truman (from his contribution to a presidential history lecture series in the 1990’s), the last paragraph perfectly echoes the contributions of de Vinck and Arage.
McCullough recalls being influenced while driving by the original home of another of his favorite presidential subjects, founding father John Adams. He encourages readers to listen to the words of Adams from 1765, well before the Revolution: “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among people who have the right to that knowledge and the desire to know. But, besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge — I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.”
Gary Strong, Fort Worth
Basic education
As summer reading season begins, many families take for granted that their children can open a book and understand it. Yet for millions of children worldwide, that simple joy remains out of reach.
Despite progress, over 270 million children are still out of school, and about 70 percent of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a basic story. This learning crisis limits opportunity and costs the global economy trillions each year in lost productivity.
The good news is we know what works. U.S. leadership and investments in basic education, including support for the Global Partnership for Education, have helped millions of children gain foundational reading and math skills and can reach hundreds of millions more.
Congress should act now to sustain and strengthen funding for international basic education so every child has the opportunity to learn, read and build a brighter future.
Marie Tilden, Dallas
Take the Strait
Why doesn’t President Donald Trump simply take the Strait of Hormuz and end this ridiculous state of affairs where a terrorist group controls 20% of the flow of oil to the entire world? Allowing that situation to continue is beyond belief.
Destroy the infrastructure along the coastlines, send troops in to keep the coast clear, send in minesweepers to create safe channels, and continue to destroy the drone factories, missile sites, and any other offensive capability that the theocrats control.
Get it done. Get it done right.
Olan Knight, Murphy
Arena + City Hall = Win
Re: “Resurrection plan,” Saturday news story.
I read with interest the seemingly workable plan put forth by UT Arlington architecture students to save Dallas City Hall, while still allowing for a new stadium and entertainment district.
Although I think it is a shame that the new Mavericks ownership is unwilling to extend the lease at the American Airlines center, and while I don’t agree that City Hall can’t be repaired for way less than some of the estimates we have seen, I do agree that keeping the Mavs near the Dallas downtown area is important.
Why do so many current and past city leaders claim we must tear down our iconic City Hall if we want to build a new stadium? I applaud the students for tackling a design and also The Dallas Morning News for featuring that plan on the front page.
Mary Barnes, Dallas
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