Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows
Brandon Bell
Getty Images
Bad apples
I read Bud Kennedy’s column on Texas considering annexing part of New Mexico with interest, amusement and horror. (April 5, 1C, “Texas wants to take oil land from New Mexico. What could go wrong?”)
As a 49-year resident of Fort Worth now living in Albuquerque, I was not surprised by Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows considering plans to take land from eastern New Mexico. Such is the mentality of the uniquely grandiose Republican-dominated Texas Legislature. That kind of Texan gives Texas a bad name in my home state of New Mexico.
It’s too bad, because I found during my years there that Texans are a welcoming and friendly people. A few bad apples continue to spoil their reputation.
– Arturo Montoya, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Control, not care
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy is a harmful setback for LGBTQ+ Americans. (April 5, 6A, “Our best-read U.S. & World stories”) In its 8-1 ruling, the court ignored well-documented evidence of harm, especially for young people. The Trevor Project reports that LGBTQ+ young people subjected to conversion therapy are much more likely to attempt suicide.
Framed as “faith-based,” conversion therapy is not care — it is control. It is a pseudoscience that pressures individuals to deny who they are to be accepted. It silences and shames, and is particularly damaging during the formative years of adolescence.
This ruling risks undoing protections across the country and legitimizing unsafe, unregulated practices. It also reflects a false theology that narrows God’s love rather than embracing it.
God’s love is not conditional. It affirms that we are already beloved and already worthy — just the way we are.
– Rev. Jordan Conley, Fort Worth
No on G
As Fort Worth voters consider Proposition G, a proposed pay raise for City Council members, we are being told that doubling salaries is the only way to diversify the pool of candidates. It’s a compelling narrative, but the data tells a much different story.
Decades of political science research shows that higher legislative salaries do not increase representation for blue-collar or working-class residents. Instead, higher pay makes these seats more attractive to professionalized, white-collar career politicians who have the networks to outraise the average neighbor.
In District 6, where I intend to run, it costs $30,000 to $40,000 to mount a winning campaign. Doubling the salary would invite high-spending outside interests to flood our local races, effectively pricing out the very citizen-servants our city charter was designed to empower.
Let’s keep City Hall grounded in our neighborhoods, not on the city payroll. Vote no on Prop G.
– Conly Brewer, Fort Worth
Whose choice
The Tarrant County Republican Party did not make the decision to remove GOP convention delegates who opposed the Keller school district split. The delegates to the Senate District 9 convention and the Nominations Committee did. (April 4, 6A, “Tarrant County GOP removes delegates who opposed Keller ISD split”)
As a former convention chair and nominations chair in another district, I know it was the convention’s policy that any delegate at the Senate District convention who wanted to go to the state convention could, if a slot was available. It is not the party as a whole. It is the members who attend precinct and district conventions who choose state delegates.
– Kal Silverberg, Fort Worth