A University of Texas student holds a sign reading “Reject the Compact” on Nov. 7, 2025, during a protest at the Capitol in Austin, opposing the Trump administration’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The next generation of leaders could upset the status quo and change the world. UT has made it clear it has no interest in such activities, a reader says.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
In late December, acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced the Texas Bullion Depository was marketing precious metal coins and notes. A lawsuit in Austin is taking aim at the program. Ending the Federal Reserve and returning to gold money is also in order, a reader says.
Comptroller of the State of Texa
MacKenzie Scott pauses on the red carpet of the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Instead of writing about which billionaire has the most money, people like Scott and Dolly Parton deserve coverage for how much good they’ve done with theirs, a reader says.
Javier Rojas/Prensa Internaciona/TNS
UT not changing world
Re: “UT student suspended after organizing protest over Trump compact,” Express-News.com, April 23:
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Congratulations to the University of Texas for successfully snuffing out any potential for students to participate in anything but the most powerless and meaningless activities in civic life.
Now is a time of great chaos and division. The young, the unconnected, the principled are calling for a change. They have a notion they deserve the right to have a say in how their lives are being organized.
The next generation of leaders could upset the status quo and change the world. UT has made it clear it has no interest in such activities.
Paul Vonder Haar, board member, Hands Off Central Texas (No King’s Austin organizers)
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Return to gold
Re: “Constitution on currency,” Your Turn, Sunday:
The letter writer is concerned Texas might begin minting its own money in violation of the Constitution.
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She does not seem concerned that the Constitution does not authorize the Federal Reserve — a central bank owned and controlled by banks, not the federal government. Nor does she seem to worry that the Constitution authorizes the “coining of money,” not the printing of money.
The writer states that the “Confederacy created a currency that was virtually worthless after the war.”
The Continental Congress did the same thing during the Colonies’ war of secession from Britain. Today, $1 purchases less than 3% of what it did when the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.
We should probably worry less about what Texas might do and more about what the federal government and the Federal Reserve has done.
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Ending the Federal Reserve and returning to gold money would be a start.
Who do tech titans help?
Re: “Bezos gains on Musk in billionaire race,” SA Inc., Sunday:
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I usually look forward to reading the SA Inc. section mostly to enhance my learning and understanding of the business world and to read Chris Tomlinson’s column.
When it comes to this article, who cares which one is richer?
I would much rather read articles about rich people using their wealth to help others and to protect our environment, or about any of the good deeds that ordinary people do every day.
Think what these guys could do with their wealth. The list is endless.
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How about writing about MacKenzie Scott, who has donated more than $26 billion to more than 2,000 charitable organizations, or Dolly Parton, who has provided books through the Imagination Library to more than 2.4 million children per month around the world?
There are many other philanthropists worthy of an article.
What have Amazon’s Mark Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk done to help anyone?
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