Fight heart disease
Heart disease changed my family forever. Last year, we lost my father, but research gave us 15 extra years with him thanks to an implantable pacemaker, a breakthrough made possible by funding from the American Heart Association.
Since 1949, the association has invested more than $6 billion in research. Yet, most heart studies still fail to include women or analyze women-specific data. That is alarming when you consider cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women, and it claims more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
We can change this. The American Heart Association’s Research Goes Red initiative invites women, whether healthy or living with heart disease, to join the nation’s largest women-focused health research platform. The more data we have, the better we can prevent, treat and beat heart disease.
In Dallas, thousands of families are affected by heart disease. Women can help change the future of heart health by joining Research Goes Red at GoRedforWomen.org/research.
Opinion
The future of women’s heart health depends on research, and research depends on us.
Doreen Griffith, Southlake
Dallas board chair, American Heart Association
Be a blood donor
North Texas has faced severe winter weather over the past few weeks, impacting local blood donations. The American Red Cross encourages people to take action and roll up their sleeves to donate and help change a life. Blood donors of all types are encouraged to schedule a blood or platelet donation appointment.
Eighteen blood drives have been canceled across North Texas since the start of 2026 through Feb. 3 due to recent extreme cold, snow and ice, resulting in 547 units of blood and platelet donations going uncollected.
In addition to the disruption of blood drives, dangerous travel conditions have also made it tougher to transport vital blood products, which could potentially affect deliveries to hospitals in some locations.
To make an appointment to donate, visit RedCrossBlood.org, or call 1-800-733-2767.
Dallas-Fort Worth residents can visit the Irving Blood and Platelet Donation Center, 2511 West Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway or the Plano Blood and Platelet Donation Center, 741 North Central Expressway, Suite 1000.
Winston Henvey, Dallas
We are all immigrants
In my view, immigration is one leg of a three-legged stool that makes this country great. The Constitution, which guides our behavior, and abundant natural resources from our land, are the other two legs.
Without talented people from all over the world, the United States wouldn’t be exceptional. The list of immigrants showing those who have contributed with their brains or with their backs is endless.
We are all, except for the American Indian, descendants of immigrants. We have a melting pot of DNA from the entire human species, primed for future greatness.
If current anti-immigration policies, which I believe are underpinned by nativism, xenophobia and racism, continue for some time, then the United States will not stay great, for the first time.
Jack Perrin, Keller
A beacon of light
Years ago, when my wife and I were in training for an international foster care program, a question came up about how to handle the “going to church” problem if the children you took into your home did not share your religious convictions.
“We don’t help them because of their faith,” the teacher answered, with a patient smile. “We help them because of our faith.”
This principle applies to our immigration problem. When this country was created, it was a beacon of light in a dark world. Freedom, dignity, self-determination and yes, the due process of law were outliers then, values few countries — even enlightened ones — extended to their citizens.
It would be a long time before America began to live up to the ideals it proclaimed, but it did proclaim them. They are woven into our DNA.
We don’t welcome immigrants because of who they are — we welcome them because of who we are. Freedom and dignity are still sought desperately by people all over the world, and we need to help as many as we can who seek these values.
As we prepare to celebrate our 250th birthday, it’s a good time to remember what made America great in the first place.
Bob Buckel, Azle
Where is your line?
Everyone has a point or line at which their moral compass kicks in, and they stand their ground against situations or people who are causing harm.
I want to know where that line is for our elected officials. What must happen for them to say, “Enough is enough!”?
From what I can see, it is extremely far away from where I have drawn my line. So, Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and all the representatives of Texas who continue to sit back and watch our country be torn to shreds internationally and domestically, where is your line?
Jeri Burbage, Arlington
Truth over performance
Re: “Remembering Walter Cronkite,” by Dennis McCuistion, Jan. 30 Letters.
McCuistion’s letter illuminates the fundamental crisis facing the modern press. The decline of mainstream media is the direct result of its abandonment of objectivity. By masquerading virtue signaling as “humanitarianism,” the industry has sacrificed the intellectual honesty required to maintain a position of trust in a free society.
As McCuistion — and Walter Cronkite before him — have inadvertently highlighted, the media cannot regain its footing until it prioritizes truth over performance.
Robert A. Buchholz, Highland Park
Wear a bulletproof vest
When you go to San Francisco, wear a flower in your hair. When you go to Minneapolis, wear a bulletproof vest.
Jim Wells, Irving
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