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This week’s offerings include Lisa Mitchell-Bennett’s column, Tu Salud Si Cuenta! that speaks about the benefits of spending time with nature. Other offerings include letters regarding which administration is better for the country, political cults and an invitation to an event honoring military mothers for Mother’s Day. In addition, a participant in recent Texas Revolutionary War reenactments describes the events.
As always, we thank those who share their thoughts with their fellow readers and welcome those who wish to add their comments.
Support for Israel
Jon Stewart melted down on “The Daily Show,” saying he’s had it with Joe Biden’s war hypocrisy.
Stewart, however, didn’t drill down far enough to get to the religious roots of America’s softness on Israel in Gaza vs. its toughness on Russia in Ukraine.
For Biden, Israel’s attack against Palestinians in Gaza is a twofer. It gives him great satisfaction for Christian America to support Jewish Israel.
It gives Biden equally great satisfaction to show indifference toward the tens of thousands of Muslim civilians killed in Gaza because hardly anybody reads the Quran and votes in America.
Biden’s satisfaction doesn’t even begin to diminish, nor does that of any of his many pro-Israel-war pals in Congress, until his war bucks-for-Israel program starts affecting everybody’s reelection chances with Christian voters.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Biden blasted
I wonder who is going to take responsibility when China invades Taiwan or Russia moves on to Poland in their march to the return of the former USSR. I ask this because of what is happening as we read with Iran attacking Israel directly.
I bet those voters who voted blue had no idea what kind of a coward they were electing in Joe Biden! Even members of the Obama administration went public with Biden’s totally failed legacy on foreign affairs!
I did not vote for the “Big Guy” but regardless of this fact, I am praying that his fecklessness doesn’t drag us into another world war!
How many of you ran off to college, used a medical or religious excuse to not serve our country? How many of you, back in the Sixties, volunteered to serve in our armed forces? I ask this because unless you have seen and experienced war first hand, you fail to see how horrible war is and how dangerous a road this president is putting us on! It was his decision to allow Russia a “minor incursion” into Ukraine! What has that decision turned into?
The release of billions of dollars to Iran! Yes, it was their money, but they couldn’t use it to finance terror! That turned into another deadly decision by this president! How about his decision to lift oil sanctions on Iran? How did that work out? More money for “Death to America” and all the unrest in the Middle East!
Now with all the foreign men, women and children we have killed in response to Sept. 11, our president has the idiotic audacity to tell Israel how to respond to the October slaughter and rape of innocent men, women and children? This is really messed up!
Sorry guys, but you all elected a catastrophe and I hope American lives are not lost because of your decision to vote for this poor excuse of a man! Don’t make the same mistake in November! Please!
Ernest Gorena
Brownsville
Trump times weren’t better
I can’t seem to start laughing when I hear Donald Trump-loving Republicans claim thing were better under him. If it was so, why did America lose 2.3 million jobs under his administration? Why was unemployment nearly 7% compared under Biden today at 3.6%? Have they forgotten all the empty food shelves during his last year in office due to his stupidity on handling COVID? How many businesses closed down permanently due to his stupidity on handling COVID also? Have Republicans forgotten how America looked like a Third World country, standing for hours outside the grocery store in hopes of buying food? Or have they all forgotten fighting to buy toilet paper.
Jesus Rodriguez
Elsa
Elected officials should be paid
We frequently hear about the value of education, and how it increases a person’s earning potential. We also hear about the importance of volunteering for city and community service, but is there a double standard between the two?
When any of us apply for a job, we’re expected to ask for the most money we can negotiate, but does this apply to serving on a city council or as mayor?
Ground Game, a non-profit group, has been active in our RGV area: first, in Edinburg with an increase in minimum wage for city employees and contractors, and now in McAllen to get “big money” out of politics. Why has it required this group to push for these changes? Why has it not been motivated by the city’s citizens? Do we see less community/civic engagement because it simply doesn’t pay to do so, and we’re too busy?
Cities are big businesses; we attempt to pay the staff well because of their expertise and experience. But what about the city council and mayor, who make the critical decisions — what are they paid? Brownsville citizens recently voted to pay their mayor and council along with health benefits — and rightly so, if our cities are expected to attract the best candidates and for them to be impartial.
Isn’t it time to stop the double standard of pay for private business expertise but not for city service for councils and mayors? Concurrently, we can stop large-scale real estate developers and construction companies that determine where and how our city grows by limiting campaign contributions to our elected city candidates to assure objectivity on issues of parks, residential subdivisions, commercial businesses and adequate roads.
We need to start paying a mayor and city council for their true business worth, and propel our cities into a future of wellness, impartiality, equality and prosperity.
Diane Teter
Edinburg
Feeding hatred
Message to Speaker Johnson:
We should never energize those who hate America, pure and simple.
They will feign crocodile tears, lying that they need more money to secure the border. After trillions of dollars from our blood and sweat they keep advancing their evil. Where’s all that money gone?
Poor American taxpayers are bleeding, not the migrants, not the corporations, not the elite, not the politicians, not the Marxists. Nobody seems to get it or wants to get it. We’re cowardly feeding the destruction of America by empowering and enriching hate. That is a betrayal of God Almighty.
Imelda Coronado
Mission
System at fault
Mr. Longoria’s letter printed April 19 blames a broken system, that as history shows has received little effective improvement for more than three decades of government, on one person who has served for three years. Certainly he could have done more, but how with the House of Representatives blocking his every move or providing inhumane legislation.
Nothing has been accomplished even though billions have been spent on ineffectual walls, buoys, razor wire and manpower. Do not incorrectly mass-categorize all of those who cross our border as “forever dependent.” They do the jobs Americans won’t, pay taxes and have the poorest of available health care, if any. Yet on average, 700,000 of them per year go on to gain citizenship and work the same jobs that present citizens do.
Ned Sheats
Mission
The real problem
Duane Rasmussen, in his letter to the editor on April 4, tells us that the Democratic Party is unfriendly to the U.S. Constitution. Not true. What’s true is that Donald Trump and his hoodlum GOPers are “unfriendly” to the Constitution, and to prove it they viciously attacked the Capitol in an effort to destroy it. Did Duane support this lunacy? If yes, why the hypocrisy?
Duane believes Trump’s policies and the beautiful wall he promised to build and that Mexico would pay for will help with the apprehension of illegals.
Apprehending immigrants seeking asylum has never been a problem. These people do not try to avoid border security, they are simply looking for a safe place to stay.
Those coming into the U.S. illegally seeking work that Americans don’t want to do are not the problem either. Our demand for cheap labor is the problem. It’s happening now and it happens all the time. If it’s good for both parties involved, why not?
This immigration problem is not something new, it’s as old as I can remember and obviously our legislators have a difficult time resolving it. Recently, when the two parties finally worked something out, which nowadays is really rare, the Republicans backed off. Not because there was a problem with their bipartisan agreement, but because the “Orange Jesus” told them to discard it. The reason: It would make President Joe Biden look good and the O.J. wasn’t comfortable with that. Hoo-boy.
So, folks, the greatest problem we have is not illegal immigration; it’s the looney GOP legislators who currently occupy Congress. As U.S. citizens, our job is to vote them out!
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
Republican hardliners
So the ultra-right conservative Republicans are at it once again in the House of Representatives. First, they ousted Liz Cheney as one of the top Republicans in that chamber not too long ago. Then, they helped remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House last year.
Now, a small handful of those GOP hardliners, led by the infamous Marjorie Taylor Greene, are already threatening to remove the newly installed Mike Johnson as its speaker.
Why? Because Johnson had the courage to bring up votes in the House to provide a foreign aid package to Ukraine in its ongoing fight to keep Russian forces at bay. Wow! That’s quite an excuse, isn’t it?
When GOP hardliners don’t get things done their way in the House, they try to start another “revolt” just for the love of grabbing the spotlight for all to see. Let’s face it. You’ve seen one revolt on Capitol Hill, you’ve seen them all.
If those hardliners find it hard to stay on the same team with the rest of the GOP, they should either vacate and form their own party or simply vacate the House altogether.
One political uprising after another is not what we, the American public, want to see in our lifetime. Either lead or step out of the way.
The choice is theirs to make.
Roberto Lopez
McAllen
Not cults
Ben Castillo tells us he does not like those who support Donald Trump being called “cult members” (Letters, April 17). So, is Castillo telling us that some Trump supporters don’t idolize or have an extravagant admiration for Trump?
Fine, I suppose this is true. But it’s also true that some Trump supporters believe Trump is the “chosen” one, that he is the “Orange Jesus.” So, this issue is indeed debatable.
Castillo also tells us that those who call Trump supporters “cult members” display a “pathological” fear and hatred for Trump and his supporters. This is not true. That they don’t like Trump’s un-presidential demeanor, his being accused of multiple crimes and and his “poor loser” attitude doesn’t mean they hate him. And they don’t hate those who support Trump, either. They just don’t understand why they do.
If Barack Obama had committed the crimes and instigated the attack on our revered Capitol just so that he could stay in power, would Castillo be OK with that? Or would he be outraged? Hoo-boy, just asking.
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
Comments draw praise
Kudos to Imelda Coronado for exposing the sinister and morally bankrupt political agenda of Democrats in her column printed April 17.
Democrats keep harping about how Donald Trump and his supporters are an existential threat to our democracy while at the same using every dirty trick in the book to sabotage former President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and thus deny a large percentage of the electorate a choice or voice the matter. So much for “saving our democracy.”
The only thing that Ms. Coronado could have added is the fact that Democrats have formed an unholy alliance with the corrupt mainstream media and big tech to control the message and keep a large percentage of the population misinformed and ignorant regarding their misguided and destructive agenda. Just another tool at the disposal of Democrats who are masters at the art of deception.
Again, kudos to Ms. Coronado for exposing the true colors of Democrat gangster politicians. It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it.
Ben Castillo
Harlingen
Touring Europe
My wife and I booked a 12-day ground tour of Western Europe titled The World Wind, a speedy way to tour Europe in a short time. It was a group of 50 of us and It was get-up-and-go from day one; spend one day when arriving, visit sights, and the next day tour popular sights. And ready to go out the door the next day by 7 a.m. to the next nation in line.
Was it fast? Yes. Did we visit every nation in Western Europe? Yes. Visit every Western European nation and tour several cities before leaving to our next nation by schedule. Three-to-four-hour drive to our next destination, tour until nighttime, stop at a 4-star hotel, meal included, and ready to go the next day to tour the city popular sights.
I filled out my diary on my iPhone, wrote notes and added pictures. Loved it. It’s an album by itself.
My wife and I decided to do it before we get too old to physically do it. Never regret it. Tour guides were excellent all the way through.
Rafael A Madrigal
Pharr
Editor’s note: We welcome your letters and commentary. Submissions must include the writer’s full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters of 200 words or fewer will be given preference. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Letters may be mailed to P.O Box 3267, McAllen, Texas 78502-3267, or emailed to [email protected].
