Re: \u201cThe consequence of tragedy,\u201d Sunday Opinion.<\/p>\n
Your piece on Camp Mystic\u00a0stated\u00a0that \u201cyoung adults spend their summers differently now, taking summer classes and working in pre-professional internships, which is probably making it harder for camp directors to find young people to work as camp counselors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
An addition to this is that counselors are paid a pittance.\u00a0It seems all camps\u00a0believe it is a privilege to work at a summer\u00a0camp,\u00a0and the salary reflects this.<\/p>\n
These camps make millions, charge thousands per\u00a0camper,\u00a0and yet counselors are underpaid. Many\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0afford to work at a camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My kids worked at Camp\u00a0Ozark,\u00a0and the pay was not\u00a0commensurate\u00a0with the amount of work or responsibility that was\u00a0required.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Mulac Goss, Houston<\/p>\n
Re: \u201cHard truths from a good man \u2014 Ben Sasse urges Americans to invest in local communities and reject hate,” by Ronell Smith, Sunday Opinion.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s column detailing former\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Ben Sasse\u2019s battles is a profile of courage. When Sasse\u00a0voted to convict President Donald Trump after the Capitol riots, he heard that Nebraska leaders were considering censuring him for not bending his knee to Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2021, Sasse said,\u00a0\u201cPolitics isn\u2019t about the weird worship of one dude.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0unfortunate that only a handful of Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to stand up and disagree with Trump. Sasse had the courage to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He resigned from Congress in 2023. In 2025, he was diagnosed with metastasized stage 4 pancreatic cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since this\u00a0bad news, he has been advocating for Americans to reject hate, prioritize local communities and to work together. He truly epitomizes what courage really is.<\/p>\n
J. R.\u00a0Krystinik, Dallas\/Preston Hollow<\/p>\n
Re: \u201cA Breach of Trust \u2014\u00a0Homeschool group cannot excuse sex offender hire,” Thursday editorial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This editorial calling for greater oversight of\u00a0homeschooling in Texas relies on a troubling assumption: that the failures of one organization justify increased state control over all families. That conclusion misses the mark.<\/p>\n
The incident involving the Texas\u00a0Home\u00a0Educators Sports Association is serious and deserves scrutiny. But it does not follow that\u00a0homeschooling families should be subject to broader government regulation. Public institutions, despite layers of oversight, have faced similar failures. More regulation is not a guarantee of better protection.<\/p>\n
More importantly, the editorial overlooks a foundational principle.\u00a0Parents are not agents of the state; they are the primary stewards of their children\u2019s upbringing.\u00a0As the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed, \u201cthe child is not the mere creature of the State.\u201d (Parham v. J.R.) Our legal tradition begins with trust in parents, not suspicion of them.<\/p>\n
We are already seeing where the editorial\u2019s logic leads.\u00a0In Connecticut, lawmakers are considering requiring background checks for all families before they can\u00a0homeschool \u2014 treating every parent as a potential risk rather than a responsible guardian. That approach turns a rare and tragic exception into justification for broad intrusion into family life.<\/p>\n
As the court said in the Parham case, \u201cThe statist notion that governmental power should supersede parental authority in all cases because some parents abuse and neglect their children is repugnant to American tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
We can safeguard children without abandoning the principle that parental rights are\u00a0fundamental, and\u00a0should remain so.<\/p>\n
Robert Choate, Little Elm<\/p>\n
Re: “How tall is too tall,” by Nick Wooten, Sunday Business<\/p>\n
Nick Wooten’s\u00a0article \u00a0about\u00a0future\u00a0development \u00a0plans\u00a0for the Preston Royal area makes me wonder if Burk Interests and Greenway\u00a0Investment Co.,\u00a0City\u00a0Council representatives, and zoning committee members think\u00a0Dallas citizens are gullible,\u00a0ignorant\u00a0or both. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Traffic studies paid for by Leland\u00a0Burk’s\u00a0company\u00a0minimize\u00a0the impact on an already-challenged Preston Road.\u00a0Ask the people who try to travel it now between early morning and evening hours\u00a0\u2014\u00a0we know.\u00a0Also ask the people in\u00a0Far North Dallas near Preston and Beltline\u00a0roads\u00a0how their\u00a0protests against\u00a0the\u00a0major\u00a0developments at that intersection went for two years.\u00a0As a lifelong\u00a0resident,\u00a0I\u00a0do love this city and am sad to see her beautiful neighborhoods sold out. \u00a0Preston\u00a0Royal fought hard to come back from\u00a0the\u00a0\u00a0devastation\u00a0of the 2019 tornado\u00a0only to now\u00a0experience future devastation disguised as “progress.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Good luck to Preston Hollow\u00a0Preservation – you need it!<\/p>\n
\nShe blames Elizabeth Warren\n<\/p>\n
Re: \u201cSpirit blames higher oil prices for its decision to shut down,\u201d Sunday news story.<\/p>\n
Your story left out substantial context on the demise of this airline. Your ending paragraph says the White House says it was President Joe Biden\u2019s fault.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0partly true. But it was more Elizabeth Warren, the socialist crusader who must be so proud to add another casket to her accomplishments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JetBlue offered\u00a0$3.8 billion\u00a0in cash to buy Spirit in 2022. Shareholders,\u00a0the\u00a0flight attendants’ union \u2014\u00a0literally everyone\u00a0voted yes. The combined company would have held 9% of the U.S. market, against the Big Four that already owned 80%.<\/p>\n
Instead, thanks to her, 14,000 jobs\u00a0are\u00a0gone\u00a0and 30-plus smaller airports lose service.<\/p>\n
\nConcerns about our water supply\n<\/p>\n
We moved to Dallas from Abilene 20 years ago. Abilene uses effluent water to water parks and golf courses \u2014 with signs posted not to drink. As I read about water shortages in\u00a0The Dallas Morning News, I wonder why effluent water is never mentioned. Yes, it would be expensive. What price do we put on our water\u00a0supply?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because of\u00a0the impending water\u00a0shortage, I have seen more ads for\u00a0artificial\u00a0grass and shrubs. Which direction will be our choice in the future?<\/p>\n
Leilani Salisbury, Dallas<\/p>\n
Have\u00a0thoughts\u00a0about this?\u00a0Send a letter to the editor\u00a0using our letters form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Re: \u201cThe consequence of tragedy,\u201d Sunday Opinion. Your piece on Camp Mystic\u00a0stated\u00a0that \u201cyoung adults spend their summers differently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,90649],"class_list":["post-279459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279459","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=279459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}