Thanks for school history
Re: “Activist finds key piece of Dallas history — Kroger project site was once first Black school,” by Sharon Grigsby, Sunday Metro column.
Grigsby’s column about B.F. Darrell Colored High School was priceless.
By 1971, the year B.F. Darrell was torn down, Dallas ISD white enrollment had fallen from 127,124 in 1965 to 94,373. By 2009, the white Dallas ISD enrollment had reached its lowest number for the past century — 7,207. The next year a very slow increase started. Today Dallas ISD white enrollment is 7,779.
Dallas remains a too segregated city with too many one-race schools, usually in the highest poverty areas. Progress is happening, but it is very slow.
Sharon and racial equity advocate Amber Sims, thank you both for your work. Please continue to do what you are doing to share our history.
Bill R. Betzen, Dallas
Special envoy awaits approval
It is wonderful that Sen. Ted Cruz finds fighting antisemitism to be “a labor of love” and something he has been “proud to lead on,” and rightfully condemns antisemitic comments when they are made by Democrats.
So why, then, has Cruz not used his position on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to urge his fellow Republicans on the committee to confirm Deborah Lipstadt as the U.S. special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism? She was nominated five months ago and has yet to receive a hearing due to Republican opposition.
Charles Katz, Dallas
Argument for gun control
Stewart Rhodes, leader and founder of the Oath Keepers militia, spent $40,000 on weapons just before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on our Capitol. Further, he urged his followers that there was a need for a “massively bloody” civil war and revolution.
Is there really any logical argument that can be made to deny the need for immediate, strict control over gun ownership in our country? I think not. Too many guns are available to the dangerous and unstable among us.
Thomas D. Kelly, Lantana
Slippery slope of gerrymandering
Gerrymandering voting districts to favor incumbents should be outlawed, regardless of which party or special interest group is doing it. Our states should favor democratic processes that give the party in power no advantage in picking the winners of the next election other than the record they can run on.
We surely think that it is a bad thing when we see elections in other countries that are highly biased or even predetermined by the party in power that uses overt methods such as banning the media or suppressing opposing candidates. Are we on a slippery slope?
Robert Rathmell, Murphy
Give all vote-by-mail numbers
I appreciate your having mentioned vote-by-mail application snarls at county election offices in Texas. But screaming news headlines around the country misrepresent the Texas situation and leave out significant analysis. They use the word “rejected” for vote-by-mail applications when they should have said “delayed.” The county election officers are working hard to fix the applications with problems and will probably succeed before the Feb. 18 deadline.
It is a lot easier for them if the applicant included their optional contact information. The other big problem is this: all of the articles I’ve read give inflammatory statistics on the number of applications delayed, but none of them give any figures on how many applications they have received this election year relative to the past. More total applications would naturally include more applications with problems.
If reporters would check on those numbers, I believe they will find that more Texas seniors are applying this year. The reason is because we intend to overcome all efforts to stop us from voting, and we will succeed!
Gene Lantz, Dallas/Oak Cliff
Misinformation fuels tragedies
Re: “COVID isn’t only threat to health care — Conspiracy theories, social media, lack of science education drive tragedy,” by Dona Kim Murphey, Jan. 23 Opinion.
On the day this excellent column was published, we lost a dear friend to COVID-19. He was not vaccinated because he believed the vaccine would alter his DNA.
In addition to the tragedies resulting from misinformation, Murphey points out that framing vaccination and masking as individual choices results in collective harm. We’ve seen politicians exploit the concept of personal decision while they could have greatly lessened the effects of the pandemic by supporting public health recommendations.
Action against social media companies that perpetuate false information for financial gain is indeed needed. I would add that politicians who have equivocated on this vital issue should be defeated at the ballot box.
But more simply, we should all just realize that our personal behavior affects others — our family, our friends, the stressed medical workers and the population as a whole.
Linda Johnston Arage, Waxahachie
A wish for patriotism
Watching the opening ceremony of both National Football League conference championship games Sunday, I paid attention as the cameras panned the crowd and field during the singing of the national anthem.” I know it is a pipe dream, but I so wish every hand, whether in the stands or on the field of play, regardless of color or creed, would be placed over the heart and eyes focused on our flag.
I am 76 years old and do remember when such was the case. I wish I could right every wrong and retroactively balance the scales of every injustice, but no one can. All we can hope for is to reach a more equitable future, and the only way we’ll ever get there is by going together, hands clasped and hearts open.
Ted M. Moore, Dallas/Preston Hollow
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