Academic freedom
Re: “Who is protecting Texas A&M’s independence? University system’s regents sit by as political pressure, obedience rob our state of a great institution,” by Jon Hagler, Sunday Opinion.
I thought the few young scholars scattered around Texas A&M’s Academic Plaza at a recent protest made exactly the same “institutional independence” case as Hagler, if more poetically and succinctly: “Board of Regents. We Don’t Need Em! What We Want Is Total Freedom!”
Of course, as Hagler well knows, President James Earl Rudder would have tolerated such unspanked petulance for about five minutes. And that is longer than he would have tolerated his students being asked to identify their pronouns or being enticed into the pseudoscience of campus transgender medicine, as they were until recently exposed by the dark forces of conservatism, which Hagler has become so fearful of.
I also don’t recall Hagler defending academic freedom back when a majority of Texas A&M departments implemented diversity statements intended to purge the few remaining conservatives of any color from the faculty ranks.
Opinion
Will excellent faculty really demand to teach that sex is not biologically determined or that individuals should be judged by their race? Those are the guardrails now in place after decades of institutional capture finally compelled the tax and tuition payers to demand some institutional accountability. Academic freedom requires academic responsibility.
Matt Poling, College Station
Expressing hatred
Re: “Damm: Frisco just showed its ugly side. Thankfully, city leaders condemned the hate,” by Tyra Damm, online column.
It is actually scary to see people using city meetings to express hatred. What makes America America is its openness. As the Frisco mayor said, except for very few, everyone is a migrant here. Skin color alone doesn’t define who is American.
It is unfortunate that hatred is getting a bigger voice today. Being Indian is not wrong, and being an Asian in the United States of America is not wrong.
If there are gaps in the system regarding immigration, the government needs to fix them. Not everyone in your neighborhood with an Indian name is an Indian citizen. Most of them are American citizens or permanent residents here.
I am concerned about what is going to happen tomorrow in some other city, since this same hatred can spread. I really wish our leaders would focus on real issues, such as, are we ready to live in an AI world?
The number of jobs H-1Bs are working is minuscule compared to the domains and opportunities here, and AI is going to change most of these anyway.
How we navigate, prepare for the future and find avenues to prosper is an urgent need, and badmouthing a community doesn’t make anyone great!
Hari Mallepally, Flower Mound
Research candidates
To the voters in Texas, please take the time to research those who want your vote. Make sure the candidate can answer why it is that Texans are not allowed to vote on key issues that affect the average citizen. Why is it that voters cannot decide on matters like increasing the minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, a woman’s right to choose and the school voucher issue?
Why is it that homeowners do not get the same tax breaks that businesses do? Most important, learn to do your own thinking. There is no need for any politician or political group to think for you.
I.A. Campbell, Fort Worth
A nonpartisan project
Re: “A nonpartisan experiment,” by Ralph E. Williams, Sunday Letters.
Williams hit the nail on the head with his letter. The majority of people in this country want a rational, non-extremist government with a lot less name calling and a lot more listening to the great ideas on both sides.
Our organization, CitizensforRationalGovernment.org, was formed to address this very issue and to educate people on how they can help remove extremism from our politics.
Our website hosts a fictional political candidate, an AI bot trained on finding rational solutions that polls show the majority of Americans would support, for some of our most difficult problems.
It’s amazing how much we all really agree once you take the very vocal partisan extremists out of the conversation.
Russ Olivier, Dallas
Comparing Cowboys and Seahawks
Re: “The Cowboys last Super Bowl was in dial-up era,” Sunday Business story.
I enjoyed the amusing story regarding the Dallas Cowboys not winning a Super Bowl since the “dial-up era” 30 years ago. All of us above a certain age can remember the whizzing of the early dial-up modems to access the internet and, perhaps, the omnipresent AOL greeting, “You’ve got mail.”
Of course, during this period the Cowboys have had only one owner/general manager. Now, let’s contrast that with the Seattle Seahawks who just won Super Bowl LX. They also had a rich owner, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who bought the team almost 30 years ago. Allen sadly passed away in 2018 but left the team in a trust until it is sold.
The last piece to the story is that Allen knew his limitations and had the good sense to hire John Schneider as general manager in 2010, whose tenure continues today. Oh, and he just won his second Super Bowl with the team. We don’t need AI to figure this out.
Bill Moss, Frisco
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