I live in North McAllen and every day I drive on the streets. I see car wrecks very often and I have wondered why.
As I drove along I figured it out. The street striping is so faint you can’t see it. This is the case on Trenton, Nolana, Pecan, Dove and North 10th. Business 83 has no stripes, and many people swerve into the next lane. These are the busiest streets and need stripe refreshing often. It looks like the stripes haven’t been repainted in a long time.
This is very dangerous, and I’m sure it has been the cause of many car wrecks.
We pay taxes so the city of McAllen can make and keep things safe for its citizens. Our taxes are too high already, and we need to get what we are paying for and desperately need. Maybe the city should lower costs in the city office building so there is money available to keep up their services. This is easy to do. I did it when I was president of a corporate division.
1. Set the air-conditioning temperatures 1 or 2 degree higher in the summer and 1 or 2 degrees lower in the winter.
2. Stop buying expensive furniture. It’s not needed.
3. Don’t increase the payroll annually. You can wait for a year or two longer.
4. Don’t keep buying new vehicles frequently for city services.
5. Eliminate unneeded jobs; for instance, the street sweeper that only causes dust clouds when it comes by my house.
6. Combine some jobs and reduce the payroll.
7. Stop spending surplus budget money at the last minute to ensure there is no budget reduction for the next fiscal year.
8. It’s easy to spend someone else’s money. Government entities are notorious for this.
The infrequent striping I have seen done is always during the day when traffic is heavy, and this is hazardous. It should be done at night like Houston and other cities. This practice interrupts traffic and makes people late for work, school and medical appointments.
Another example of something strange is North Sixth Street; from Violet to Zinnia it is very smooth, but this is only a few blocks. Also, there is a stop sign at an alley, so you have to stop. Low-hanging tree branches cover the stop sign. You should be able to continue on North Sixth because you have the right of way. This is very curious. Maybe a city commissioner lives in the neighborhood and wants a smooth street in case he wants to raise the value of his house if he wants to sell it.
All these will cause lawsuits and maybe that would get things taken care of properly,
This is my opinion, and other people I have talked to feel the same way but are reluctant register complaints. Thank you for listening to me.
John Launer
McAllen
Who will
be next?
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one to speak for me.”
These words of Martin Niemöller ring in my heart. A German Lutheran pastor, Niemöller traveled the Allied-held post-war places on a lecture tour to publicly confess his inaction and indifference to the fate of Nazi victims in the early stages of the Nazi regime. He said, “We preferred to keep quiet.” He was a conservative. Many of the Nazis’ earliest victims were members of a leftist movement that Niemöller vehemently opposed.
Today I heard that a candidate for governor of Pennsylvania told a reporter that yes, if a woman violated the abortion ban she could be charged with murder.
Donald Trump is singing the theme song at his rallies with the QAnon who see him as a kind of god or avatar who will rise up and save the world from the others who are cannibals and pedophiles.
Which “group” do you belong to, dear reader?
What Niemöller is trying to teach us may well be the biggest lesson of the century. If one group is attacked and tortured, imprisoned, victimized, had their civil and human rights taken away, then any “group” may be next.
It has been a relatively short time ago that women could not vote. The suffragettes paid for that privilege — which they should have had in the first place — with imprisonment, forced feeding when they went on a hunger strike, and much more. Do women not have civil rights, human rights? Do they not have choices that affect their lives, their families’ lives, and futures? Can proponents, men and women who want control of women’s lives, make decisions for women to satisfy a political agenda?
Please don’t quote religious text to me. You may believe what you believe, and I may believe what I believe. Those are individual rights we all enjoy.
Who will speak for women? Especially for women of color? For women who are poor?
History shows us the ugly progression of fascism. Even Hitler was not fully satisfied with murdering Jews because they were Jews, which he turned into his scapegoat. He lined up gypsies, gay people, the very old, the mentally ill, the mentally deficient for the ovens, and anyone else who got in his way.
Who will be next? People of color? Gay or lesbian people? University professors? (The Nazis started there.) People who belong to unions? Think about the import of Niemöller’s words.
Shirley Rickett,
Alamo
Demagoguery
and the truth
This letter won’t change any minds because people will believe what they want to believe. But here are the facts:
According to Trading Economics, the inflation rates (by percentage) for the month are as follows: France, 5.9; Germany, 7.9; U.S., 8.3; Italy, 8.4; Mexico, 8.7; U.K., 9.9; Spain, 10.5; Netherlands, 12; Russia, 14.3. (The good thing is that all of those percentages are down from the previous month.) According to Global Petrol Prices.com, gasoline per liter are as follows: U.S., 1.052; Japan, 1.142; Mexico, 1.171; South Africa, 1.280; Canada, 1.308; South Korea, 1.368; France, 1.427; Italy, 1.598; Sweden, 1.663; U.K., 1.757; and Germany1.837.
Obviously, there are more countries than those listed here, some lower and some higher, but room does not permit the entire listing. My point is that inflation and gas prices are up all over the world. They are not due to any governmental action, either Republican or Democratic. They are still due to the response of the COVID pandemic and its economic impact.
On the bright side, the U.S. dollar is worth 1.09 compared to the U.K. pound. Usually, the pound is worth about $1.50. Likewise, the dollar is worth 0.97 compared to the Euro. Again, the Euro is usually worth about $1.50.
For the next few weeks, you will see political ads on TV blaming this or that party for increases in grocery and gas prices. The facts tell the truth: Neither party has an impact. It is called demagoguery — telling people what they want to hear, rather than making a truthful argument.
Inflation and gas prices are coming down and will continue to come down — and either party will take credit for it. You can believe what you want to believe, or you can check the facts.
Gerard Pahl
Edinburg
