Opinion

To the citizens of my hometown who do not vote in local elections:

It’s not hard to see why the GOP in Congress wish the country to default on its debts. They simply want President Biden to fail and they may have a chance at winning back the White House in 2024.

It’s always nauseating to stomach a politician’s rosy spin on the state of things, with the recent Harlingen State of the City address being no exception.

As Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation in the Texas Legislature, I have had the privilege of working toward improving our ability to deliver road projects in the Rio Grande Valley. Throughout my tenure, one issue has become increasingly clear: Hidalgo County’s transportation system is being left behind. It is time for a change. It is time for HidalgoCounty to embrace a centralized system of managing its road construction and maintenance.

I am happy to report that Gov. Abbott signed House Bill 4742 into law last month. It becomes effective Sept. 1.

Re: the headline, “Debt deal imposes new work requirements for food aid” (June 4): What could be a more descriptive difference between the terms “conservative” and “liberal” than a sticking point in compromise over food aid to the poor or the just-hanging-on?

After years of demonizing same-sex marriage and losing on that issue, Republicans have found a new bogeyman. In this land of equal rights for all citizens, Republicans are refusing these rights to some of our citizens. Republicans in 2023 have introduced 525 anti-LGBT laws in 41 states; 220-plus bills target transgender people. More than 76 anti-LGBT laws have already been enacted so far.

We are in a strange era when nothing is normal. It’s like we have entered into a twilight zone.

I have made at least a half dozen trips up the Texas and Louisiana coast over the past 10 years, have seen the many refineries and petrochemical plants around St. Charles, Beaumont, Port Arthur, the Houston Ship Channel, Baytown and Corpus Christi. I always return home grateful and relieved that where I live, the Rio GrandeValley, we have none of those. The defunct 1970s’ small Brownsville Union Carbide refinery left its legacy as a designated superfund site due to its nationally significant hazardous pollution of soils and/or groundwater.

On Memorial Day weekend I saw parades and marches and a gathering of people, and speeches given by our leaders to honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I remembered my father, Manuel M. Moreno, who served during WWII.