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Presidential candidates and campaigns continues to dominate our forums, but other topics include state standardized tests, contributions of a local natural gas company and global warming. The most recent Tu Salud Si Cuenta column offers tips for healthier living. Comment also addressed workplace dissatisfaction, volunteer contributions and immigrants’ contributions.
As always, we welcome contributions to our public discourse, and thank those who have sent theirs.
Coronation of anarchy
Milwaukee, July 18, 2024: the beginning of the GOP presidential convention — and the day that began the coronation of anarchy. A day that will defy the infamy of its degree of separation from tradition and normalcy. A day that will far exceed the chaotic and traumatic assassination attempt on the United States 83 years earlier at Pearl Harbor.
This time, July 18 was a celebration, instead of bombers in the air. This time, no exploding bombs, slaughtered sailors or sinking ships. Instead, simply the madness and pandemonium of elation at the very thought of power, of distortion, of disruption. And the balloons rained down on the convention hall, while outside the rain fell like streaming tears and the clouds darkened like mourning veils.
A nation divided. A country without a soul. And in the background, the Star Spangled Banner, the dirge that adds insult to injury, as counterfeit patriots dance on the graves of heroes, warriors and champions of dreams once thought invulnerable, indomitable.
The coronation of anarchy in America almost complete. The crown, the scepter, the golden carriage in place. All that is missing: the sarcophagus that holds the shattered and crushed ashes of the virtues of America’s promise and greatness, draped in a torn and tattered flag that no longer waves through the dawn’s early light and no longer is hailed as the symbol of the free and the brave. And as the eagle flies one last time through what remains of the beautiful spacious skies, and over the smoldering ruins of once majestic purple mountains and fruited plains, God sheds his tears and grace on thee.
The GOP convention — the coronation of anarchy and the requiem for America, and for a dream.
And the blood-stained face of the GOP führer, captured in all his glory and delight, but the beginning of the end of America’s legacy of hope and of dreams.
And the nightmare begins.
Al Garcia-Wiltse
San Juan
Harris bashed
There I was, a cultish fanboy mental-tethered to my party’s news within my air-tight echo chamber, outsourcing my critical thinking and then — poof! — my candidate suddenly got yanked from the stage (by the “grassroots”) to nominate Kamala Harris.
Being facetious of course, in my leftist imitation.
It’s as if, at the height of Beatlemania, the Fab Four completely retired away and pushed Billy Preston (“the fifth Beatle”) to the fore under the same moniker. This feels like that.
Kamala, voted by leftist GovTrack as a liberal Democrat senator, is now a “centrist. Like Joe the “unifier” manufactured narrative, it’s wash, rinse, repeat.
Media fangirls are doing backflips in impossible feats of mental gymnastics, gushing over the VP with garish, disingenuous, flowery language.
Considering this woman’s dubious political history and icy reception even by Democrat voters, this is the fakest, lamest media campaign I think I’ve ever witnessed, though to the barking seals on here, it’s just a new variety of mackerel to approvingly flap their flippers to. Puffing up Kamala will stretch their intellectual dishonesty to unseen, unimaginable levels. Yet the Kamala puff pieces are a-coming. Pull your sleeves up, leftists, it’s homework time.
Jamey Honaker
Combes
Release handcuffs
I recently heard of one one person retiring after 30 years from a public service job proclaiming, “I hated every day of my job,” More concerning was a teacher counting nearby years to retire when I asked him if he would return as a sub-teacher. A quick middle finger raised with no language was his no-joking answer.
These two define a perfect definition of “golden handcuffs.” This 71-year-old begs you, if you hate your current work please release your golden handcuffs, especially if working with our young minds.
Mike Sawyer
Denver, Colo.
LNG company garners praise
Empowering students to obtain the knowledge and skills that make a difference in their lives is one of the greatest services we as educators can provide to the next generation. As a long-time resident of the Rio Grande Valley community, I’ve seen firsthand what meaningful empowerment looks like; I’ve sat in the classroom and absorbed insights from some incredible teachers and mentors.
And while lessons learned in the classroom are worth their weight in gold, plenty more can be done in partnership with community members like Rio Grande LNG to cultivate the next wave of Valley leaders and difference makers. Since joining our community, we’ve seen NextDecade Corporation’s Rio Grande LNG invest in RGV youth education in local schools and through programs at events like the Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation’s Rally in the Valley with the intent of raising industry awareness for future opportunities to position the next generation for long-term success.
Throughout my 20 years with Brownsville Independent School District and as our Career & Technical Education director, I’ve witnessed the significance of young students receiving early career guidance as it can steer them toward high-quality opportunities. Rio Grande LNG’s partnership with BISD further educates students about the region’s energy economy and their facility’s future operations, which will absolutely play a pivotal role in piquing new interest and growing prosperity across the RGV.
In the vein of growth and setting our students up for success, BISD reevaluated its curriculum alongside Rio Grande LNG’s experts to inform industry-oriented educational tracks and CTE programs geared toward post-graduation career opportunities. The direct benefits of our collaboration can already be seen with our Pipefitter Program, which helps students learn the skills needed for high-demand construction-related jobs, with more engineering skills and other industry-related programs on the way.
Brownsville has the potential to be a global economic powerhouse, and Rio Grande LNG is helping drive this status by bringing job opportunities to our community. I am deeply excited about the growth potential that stems from this project’s development and can’t wait to see what’s next.
Benita E. Becerra-Villareal
Brownsville ISD director of Career & Technical Education
Brownsville
Election changes
We are less than two months away from electing a president and the stakes cannot be higher. The sudden change of a candidate dropping from the race due to low support because of his age turned this election on its head. Most were surprised and confused by this sudden change so close to election day. This changed the tone by confusing the voter. This is a game changer for the Democrats who knew they had a weak candidate, yet continued to support him considering his age and mental instability.
Now we begin at square one once again, and Donald Trump is worried for good reason. He has two months to figure out how he can get ready to challenge his new opponent. The newcomer has the edge this November. No debate with Trump will increase the chances of a Democrat win this November.
Trump’s weakness is his mouth. The less he says, the better off he is. Will he behave and act more presidential or go all out for the jugular and give the appearance of being a bully and lose votes from Republicans, swing voters and some Democrats?
At this point in time it is hard to predict the outcome. Only time will tell. It can go either way. We cannot be optimists or pessimists and just sit and do nothing just because we expect a dilutional outcome. We need to meet in the middle to make a rational decision or accept the outcome by a toss of a coin.
Rafael Madrigal
Pharr
Immigration antagonism
Republicans hate foreigners who show up at our borders and are granted “immigration parole” here. Many of these, according to popular Republican propaganda, are felons who have been emptied out of prisons so they can find fertile new ground for committing crime in America.
Republicans must hate our own country and its history. America was populated by many parolees from England during colonial days. Social misdemeanants, criminal felons and religious misfits were shipped off to the New World both to punish them and get them out of the hair of the motherland. There are numerous stories about how the rigors of surviving life in rugged North America turned them into upstanding, landholding, and faithful Americans.
At the same time Republican Marco Rubio is sermonizing about how earlier immigrants like his own family “could not achieve God’s purpose for their lives in the country of their birth,” Donald Trump and his platform writers are clamoring for mass deportation of millions of undocumented who have found temporary shelter here.
Mass deportation makes a rousing, emotionally satisfying platform plank. However, mindful observers, including a former Homeland Security official interviewed the second day of the convention, mention the extreme difficulty of first locating and then rounding up migrants from God knows wherever they have landed in this very big country. Deportation officials must then learn their legal stories, house them and transport them back to where they came from. In other words, this particular platform plank is a great big load of hooey, and real Republicans know it.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Yes, it can happen here
Mass deportations? Look up Project 2025.
My mind recalls my student days in Madrid, Spain, when the fascist Generalisimo Francisco Franco was still in power. I saw him propped up in a convertible during the annual “victory parade” in 1974. There was no free speech back then and journalism was reduced to pictures of the royal family in magazines.
I studied Spanish history. In 1492 the Moors were defeated in Granada and deported to Africa and the end of a golden age of theological pluralism. It was the same year that began the persecution of the Jews, who either had to convert or experience “mass deportations” to the Americas. A pejorative term was developed to describe them. Sound familiar? Good ole queen Isabella wanted a theocracy and got it, even sanctioned the cruel Inquisition because in her mind the unjust suffering of the innocent justified the means to and end, a theocratic monarchy.
Spain under Franco was much like that as I remember it. Religious fascism justified the dropping of bombs on Guernica and a whole city of innocents was destroyed. Just ask Picasso.
Let’s move it closer to our shores and 2025. Much will depend on what happens in November. The “what can possibly happen” is currently talked about in the abstract. I know better. November will reveal “what will happen.”
Mass deportations, you ask? They happened before in this country in the 1950s with “Operation Wetback.” Look it up. Ask the Japanese and the Native Americans if they have any experience to recall.
As my good friend and mentor Dr. Justo Gonzalez used to teach, “Don’t be seduced by an innocent view of history!” Critically examine it for yourself and see if a “nationalist Christian political theocracy” cannot happen here to justify mass deportations in our own country.
Let’s hope our families and our congregants are not among them! And let’s hope that a form of religion is not used to justify the means to a political end.
Javier Alanis
San Juan
Volunteers draw thanks
High schoolers and college students in the RGV are making our community a better place for everyone! In July the Rio Grande Valley Down Syndrome Association and Team Mario partnered to host an ICanBike camp to help individuals with disabilities learn how to ride a traditional two-wheeled bicycle.
At least 75 volunteers were needed to provide support to riders as they practiced pedaling and steering. More than 90 young people from the RGV signed up to help. We had volunteers from PSJA ISD, Edinburg CISD, South Texas ISD, South Texas College, Palm Valley Church, South Texas Cotillion and more.
It was wonderful to see the riders putting in the hard work to learn a new skill and the volunteers building relationships and supporting riders in their efforts.
The RGV and our local educators can be proud of creating a community and climate where everyone is encouraged to do their best. Thank you to everyone who volunteered! And thank you to the brave riders and parents who showed up every day to work, persevere, learn and try new things. We are excited to see you keep riding this year!
Deborah Tomai
Edinburg
Water meters draw complaint
Calling the new water meters “smart” is a psychological play on words to make you feel stupid for protesting what in reality are air-polluting, privacy-invading water meters! Please beware of word-trickery! Words have power and the new water meters being shoved down the throats of McAllen residents are best called ‘evil’ water meters. These horrible devices bring up three major concerns that must be placed for discussion and approval by the people living in McAllen who will be the victims of this administrative invasion into our lives.
First, when I take a bath, use my washing machine, water my garden, clean my car, fill my pool or do not use water at all because I am on vacation with my family is no concern of the city of McAllen. This is invasion of privacy and voyeurism hidden under the costume of technology.
Second, there is nothing smart about a water meter that emits radiation poisoning consisting of electromagnetic pulsations 24/7. This may result in serious health problems to human beings and pets walking by the continuously transmitting demons.
Third, this technology is anti-green energy. The carbon dioxide emission of the MPU trucks gathering data from the meters once a month is minuscule compared to the 24/7 continuous water meter radiation poisoning forced upon citizens by MPU — an administrative agency gone wild.
Marelyn Medina
McAllen
Trump said it
I hope no one disagrees with me that Donald Trump is one self-centered, egotistical, blustering piece of work who knows little about the real world except how to make money. Please note I did not say earn. His lack of morals and ethics would be the envy of any 18th century Russian czar or other despot. So, to illustrate this I am providing a compendium of his quotes, all quickly verifiable with appropriate sources by a quick search under “trumps quotes.”
About himself:
“The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p—-y.”
“I’m intelligent. Some people would say I’m very, very, very intelligent.”
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person.”
“I could stand in the middle Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
“(Kim Jong-Un) speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
About women:
“Do you believe in punishment for abortion — yes or no — as a principle?” “The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.” “For the woman?” “Yeah, there has to be some form.”
“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
“I would never buy Ivana any decent jewels or pictures. Why give her negotiable assets?”
About politics:
“Climate change is a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money.”
“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
“They’re (Mexico) sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us.” “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
About COVID:
“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear”
After digesting the above evidence of a lack of morals, ethics and lack of understanding of the real world, do you still believe he should ever have been or should again be the president of anything? If you do, don’t cry for the America you are creating — real Americans will do that for you.
Ned Sheats
Mission
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].
