The Scout Law and Oath are displayed in the lobby of the Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum in Irving. A reader writes about the law of being reverent.
Special Contributor
The Scout Law
Bo French, Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott and countless others in their collective zeal are all out to eradicate what they view as suspect religions in Texas. They must have never been members of Scouting America, or Boy Scouts as they were once known.
Elsewise, they would remember the Scout Law, which has 12 values. The last one on the list, and probably the most pertinent is that a Scout is “reverent.”
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The term has nothing to do with religion. Rather it means a scout is forever deeply respectful of others’ beliefs, customs and appearances.
Reverence seems to be sorely lacking among many of today’s politicians. It starts at the top with a president, and gushes in a torrent all the way down to our hometown city councils. Intolerance, it seems, has become the norm.
Richard Street, Carrollton
History repeats itself
Re: “ICE is hiding the locations of thousands of detainees,” Tuesday news story.
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Reading this story about ICE “hiding the locations of thousands of detainees” by Ryan J. Foley, I was flooded with the memory of Argentina and their military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
Argentina’s military dictatorship made thousands of people disappear. Security forces abducted them, held them in secret and denied their families any knowledge of their fate. The practice ended with the dictatorship’s fall and the return of democracy in 1983.
Families and human rights groups pressed for answers. A national commission documented the crimes, and the courts convicted several junta leaders in 1985.
Later laws stalled many prosecutions, but those laws were overturned, and trials resumed.
Argentina has pursued truth and accountability for decades, though many families still do not know what happened to their loved ones.
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When they say history repeats itself, they were not lying.
ICE in his heart
Stephen Miller, the chief architect of this administration’s immigration policies, has ICE in his veins — and his heart.
No further explanation needed.
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A sham public hearing
Along with four of my fellow senior Texas Alliance for Retired Americans activists, we were invited to attend the public hearing of the House budget committee held in Dallas on Monday. It was stated that the hearing’s purpose was to examine the federal debt and the need to establish a fiscal commission. We had learned it was also an attempt to provide a way to cut Social Security.
As instructed, we arrived at 1:30 p.m. on a 98-degree day and were not allowed inside the outer lobby of the building where there was air conditioning. We were told to wait outside.
Shortly before it was time for the hearing, they brought some water out to us. The door monitor knew we had five people and at 2 p.m., we were told that the hearing room was too small and we could only have three people to go in.
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Several of us had the collective thought sweep through our minds wondering if it was a broom closet. So much for a public hearing when the public was not allowed in.
The hearing room was a big rotunda-type room with plenty of space for all five of us. What a sham of a public hearing!
Judy Bryant, Dallas/Lake Highlands
Comfort the faithful
The continuing battle between Highland Park United Methodist Church and the Horizon Texas Conference of the UMC (of which HPUMC is a part) has now achieved legal parity. Both sides have presented their positions to the court and, per usual procedure, asked the court to rule in their favor. The legal arguments will follow, and the court will ultimately decide.
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The business issue at hand is, what does the conference bring to the party? Why should HPUMC be in the conference?
Historically a conference brought management skills, professional development support, consistency of message and protection for local pastors in small churches from local heavy-handedness. But for a very large church, such as HPUMC, it offers little value. Large churches often include members with management skills from other large organizations. Indeed, large churches often bring experience to the conference that it cannot otherwise provide.
The conference model no longer works for large churches such as HPUMC. The conference can still provide support for declining and small-growing churches. But to do so it must ask for the support of large churches, not demand that it follow an old paradigm that is no longer appropriate.
The Horizon Texas Conference and HPUMC need to recognize that they are, together, in cooperative roles, not competitive roles. Realize this. Agree to this. Stop the litigation, and move forward to bring comfort to the faithful.
Continuing the charade
Re: “All in favor?” by Lori Block, Monday letters.
This letter states that since the top three GOP candidates refuse to debate, Gina Hinojosa, Vikki Goodwin and James Talarico should go around the state debating the cardboard cutouts of their GOP opponents. This is obviously meant to be a putdown of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
Since The Dallas Morning News thought this was so cute, let’s carry this charade a step further. The moderator can toss the Democratic candidates softball questions to which they can give the answers all voters want to hear, even though they know there is not a way they can deliver on their promises.
Donald Reichert, Garland