Take an interest in someone’s life
At Thanksgiving this year, I’m especially grateful for the generosity of Mike and Sammye Myers, the Myers–LeCroy Scholarship and Dallas College. Their belief in me and their investment in my education and personal growth have opened the door to a better life.
The old saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” rings true in my story, as it does for so many others who get to call this wonderful country home.
There is no greater investment than taking an interest in someone’s life. The ripple effects of kindness are endless. As we gather with our loved ones this holiday season, I encourage each of you to pay it forward and lend a hand to your neighbor. Your life and theirs will be richer for it.
Happy Thanksgiving, Dallas.
Rafael Kreklau, Rockwall
Billionaires, you can save City Hall
Saving our I.M. Pei-designed Dallas City Hall could be a Mort Meyerson moment for Dallas billionaires such as Ray Hunt, Jerry Jones, Trevor Rees-Jones and H. Ross Perot Jr. to emulate by showing their city some Thanksgiving love.
Opinion
Katherine Homan, Dallas/East Kessler Park
A writer of conscience
Of all of The Dallas Morning News contributing columnists, Peter Johnson is my favorite. His eloquence and honesty are refreshing in these days of moral equivalency in a nation torn in so many ways.
Johnson speaks with the authority of Moses, having literally walked the walk with Martin Luther King Jr. and the other heroes of the Civil Rights movement over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, putting their lives on the line and suffering the physical abuses inflicted by those who would deny them the ideal that all Americans are created equal.
I hope that Johnson will keep writing. He is among the few today who can be called the conscience of the nation.
Holmes Brannon, Plano
Deferring to suburbs
Re: “Rebuilding Trust Is Job 1 for DART,” Sunday Editorials.
Your editorial echoes Dallas Cothrum in blaming Dallas for suburban efforts to leave DART, yet Cothrum provided not a single example to support his thesis (“For DART, the train has left the station,” Nov. 20 Opinion). Reality could not be farther from the truth.
Because DART rail utilized abandoned freight corridors, it was understood from the agency’s creation that rail lines radiating from the urban core would expand out to the suburbs over time. With only minor deviations, DART has built the system promised voters in 1983.
From subordinating a Love Field tunnel on the Green and Orange lines to prioritizing the Silver Line over D2, DART has consistently put track miles ahead of investment in Dallas’ core. This deference has continued even as several suburbs repeatedly demanded claw-backs of their sales tax contributions, further draining resources from DART’s capital projects.
Plano, Carrollton and Farmers Branch pressured DART to indefinitely delay a second downtown line to accelerate the timetable for Cotton Belt expansion. Now, having secured the project they wanted, these same suburbs seem content to withdraw their support for the agency.
Ken Duble, Dallas/The Cedars
Violent confrontations
Re: “How can we allow ICE’s actions?” by John R. Dorgan, Nov. 18 Letters.
Recently, an unvetted immigrant armed with a hammer viciously attacked a female jogger in broad daylight at a local park where I had run safely for 40 years. My question is, how can we not allow ICE to act? Is it unreasonable to ask that those seeking to immigrate apply lawfully and be vetted?
Ken Ashby, Dallas/Lochwood
Role of Fourth Estate
Re: “From ‘Art of the Deal’ to Art of Denial,” Nov. 20 Editorials.
This editorial succinctly points out that President Donald Trump’s embrace of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman undermines our values, and our commander-in-chief once again took the word of a foreign leader over the information provided to him by our own highly respected U.S. intelligence community.
Remind anyone of how Trump took the word of Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence professionals during the disastrous 2017 Helsinki press conference? But it was Trump’s comments to Mary Bruce with ABC News during the press conference with bin Salman that are even more troubling. Trump castigated Bruce because she dared to ask the prince about the brutal murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Trump took issue with the “insubordinate” way in which Mary Bruce asked her questions.
The role of a free press in a democracy is not to be subordinate to those in control. The role of the Fourth Estate is to report the facts and thereby speak truth to power. Kudos to The News for doing just that in this brave editorial. Continue to fight the good fight by reporting the facts wherever they may lead.
David Alan Jones, Farmers Branch
Parenthood incentives
Re: “Worried about ‘mommy wars’? How quaint,” by Abby McCloskey, Sunday Opinion.
McCloskey paints a very dark future picture of our society solely because so many women — rich or poor, “some milling flour or others in the C-suite” — have rejected the role of motherhood and the trad wife.
Yes, the decreasing birth rate may significantly affect our demographics, but one must want to have a child, afford a child, raise a child and fully commit to the lifelong responsibility of being a parent. No matter what the demographic outcome, a society of unwanted children with unsuitable, reluctant and unfulfilled parents will not make us a better nation, nor will bonuses or cash for kids.
More likely, affordable child care, prenatal health care and quality public education would be much greater incentives for motherhood.
Malcolm D. Davidson, Far North Dallas