As a native-born Dallasite and a guy who gets called \u201ccheap\u201d by his kids, I have a heart for saving old things. But as a taxpayer and someone cheering for downtown Dallas, this\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0too hard for me to say: get rid of City Hall and partner with the Mavericks to change the trajectory of historic downtown Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sure, the building was done by a famous architect, but that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0make it great. The Meyerson?\u00a0Absolutely! But City Hall?\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been to it many times and have had family members that have had to work in it. It was not a positive experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People feel like they \u201chave\u201d to go to City Hall, not that they \u201cget\u201d to. Let\u2019s create a downtown Dallas where people are excited to go downtown \u2014 just like it was when I was a kid in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n
The federal government\u2019s move highlights and locks in a clear inequity: The policy automatically registers men, but not women.<\/p>\n
Men who\u00a0fail to\u00a0register can face fines,\u00a0imprisonment\u00a0and the loss of federal benefits. Soon, they\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0even have a choice. Yet, these legal obligations apply to only one sex.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court upheld this system in\u00a0Rostker\u00a0v. Goldberg\u00a0(1981) based on the claim that women were excluded from combat. That reality has changed. Thousands of women now serve in combat roles across the armed forces.<\/p>\n
Texas has already been at the center of this issue. In 2019, a federal court here ruled that male-only registration is unconstitutional. A national commission later recommended expanding registration to women. Still, no reform has followed.<\/p>\n
If Selective Service\u00a0remains\u00a0necessary, it should apply equally.\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0hard to justify is a system that places civic obligations \u2014 and penalties \u2014 on only half the population.<\/p>\n
Equal responsibility should\u00a0accompany\u00a0equal rights.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0time for the Supreme Court to revisit this issue.<\/p>\n
Steven Prohaska, Richmond, Texas<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t it amazing how much money it takes to win a state election? And yet we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0afford to fully fund our public schools, help everyone access our universities, provide food, lodging and healthcare for even our poorest neighbors or treat those choosing these United States over their home countries as better than criminals. Amazing.<\/p>\n
Should we recheck our priorities?<\/p>\n
I recently attended a presentation about immigration at my church. I heard the stories of human beings who were detained, abused, abducted, imprisoned or killed by agents of ICE without due process. These victims of ICE were of all ages from infancy to gray hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like\u00a0the majority of\u00a0ICE victims, they were law-abiding residents of the U.S. Some were citizens of the U.S. Those who were not citizens already were following the complex processes laid out by U.S. law to pursue their eventual citizenship or to\u00a0maintain\u00a0their legal work and residency permissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ICE agents were the ones who ignored U.S. laws. They and their leaders have still not been held accountable for agents\u2019 inhumane and illegal behavior.<\/p>\n
Congress tried to reform our complex immigration and border laws in\u00a0February\u00a02024, when then-candidate Donald Trump ordered Republican senators to vote against the bipartisan bill because he wanted to use the old border policies to scare people into voting for him. Instilling fear was the practice of Joseph Stalin. Who should you fear?<\/p>\n
Christine Anderson Guldi, Dallas<\/p>\n
\nHistorians\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0agree\n<\/p>\n
Re: \u201cNew look for social studies \u2014 Texas officials give early OK to revamped curriculum, Bible-infused reading\u00a0list,” April\u00a011 news story.<\/p>\n
In their reporting, Jessica Ma and Silas Allen cover the Texas State Board of Education\u2019s go-ahead for public school reading lists to include stories taken from the Christian\u00a0Bible. Their reporting points out that supporters feel inclusion of such biblical texts is crucial because they contend the founding fathers intended this nation to be a Christian one.<\/p>\n
The story also points out that historians contest this idea. Unconstitutionality of the board\u2019s recommendation aside,\u00a0perhaps in\u00a0the interest of educational\u00a0balance, the\u00a0reading lists the\u00a0board supports should also include founders\u2019 writings that\u00a0actually opposed\u00a0a nation based upon religion. Thomas Jefferson\u2019s and John Adams\u2019s come to mind, and\u00a0I believe there\u00a0are many others.<\/p>\n
\nHow about the Golden Rule?\n<\/p>\n
Once again, the Texas Board of Education has swung and missed. Bible-infused reading to be added to the social studies curriculum is surely a joke. And please\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0insult us by\u00a0attempting\u00a0to disguise them as learned lessons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why should 5.5 million Texas children be exposed to Christianity and the Bible in the classroom? Those lessons are best served in Sunday\u00a0school if\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the desire. Christianity should not be imposed on those with different religious beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I grew up in\u00a0New York,\u00a0and this would be viewed as a joke in the true melting pot of our country. The\u00a0forefathers\u00a0had it\u00a0right\u00a0when they wanted church separated from state.<\/p>\n
Sure, parents can opt out for their children, but having the board include some questions\u00a0regarding\u00a0the Bible readings on state tests would be a complete travesty and grossly unfair.<\/p>\n
If board members and supposed Christian politicians want to impose their beliefs on Texas children, then become members of their local church board of elders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
History should be all about freedom from tyranny and include the American Revolutionary War, the end of slavery, abuse of the native Americans, violence toward Mexicans by the Texas Rangers and even Brigham Young, who demanded homage from those going West who stopped in his state.<\/p>\n
At the same time,\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0not forget some of our country\u2019s saddest moments: Pearl Harbor, Sept.\u00a011\u00a0and Jan. 6 \u2014 when democracy almost\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0survive thanks to our sitting president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One can never go wrong by discussing The Golden Rule in every classroom for about five minutes each day. Unfortunately, that rule has fallen by the wayside today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a native-born Dallasite and a guy who gets called \u201ccheap\u201d by his kids, I have a heart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-256587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}