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Special bonds
I read how organ bonds families. Chase Crompvoets became an organ donor at the young age of 18. His lungs were donated to Eric Sheets in Indianapolis. After a few years of grieving, Sheets decided to do his part and met up with his donor’s family. This is such a heartwarming act and should be done more frequently by other people.
More survivors should reach out to the family of their organ donor. After losing a loved one there are a lot of mixed feelings such as anger and grief. The simple act of reaching out can mean so much to these families going through hard times. Interacting with one another can help people get through the grieving process faster and get a sense of peace in their lives from both families. They share a special moment like no other, the “meeting of two lifetimes” in remembrance of their loved one.
People who have received organ transplants should visit the family of their organ donor to show how much they appreciate getting a second chance in life. These families are comforted knowing that part of their loved one is still alive. Chase’s mother Kelly said, “You lose a child, but you’re so thankful to know he has been a gift of life to someone else.” This gives them hope and reminds them that a person is never gone until they are forgotten. It also gives them hope of finishing the goals and dreams their loved one had before passing. In a similar way, getting to get to know the family of the donor is a wonderful feeling and thoughtful idea. Taking the time to meet one another and build a close friendship can mean a lot to both families.
Some people believe that an organ donor gets mistreated medical attention to take their organs for other bodies. If we can support that this idea is not true with advertisement and publicity, we can encourage more people to become organ donors and save lives.
All in all, acknowledging the family of the organ donor should become normalized and more common as it is a beautiful feeling for both families.
Giselle Guajardo
Edinburg
Immigrant population
An immigration overpopulation; what will it take to sustain this amount of overpopulation on a nation?
1) Jobs need to be in place to sustain it for a healthy economy.
2) The immigrants who come needing to work to sustain their families, afford housing, health insurance and public schools are free to attend and must know the laws before they migrate to know the consequence of their violation.
3) Loyalty: Will they be loyal to the new nation they migrate to by obeying the laws and support the nation and better the nation by their presence, or are they here for personal gain to live off of government welfare programs as their final destination?
China struggles to maintain its large population, which is 10 times more than the U.S. population. China under president Deng Xiaoping placed an order allowing only one female baby per family to control its population. This caused a shortage of women in China. Today there are 110 men for every 100 women. This increases the single population of men in China and a result, they marry foreigners to have families.
Can America survive an immigration invasion? I cannot say; we will have to experience it in real time and the immigration invasion is taking place in real time. We will witness its success or failure from our own homes.
Rafael Madrigal
Pharr
Biden should support Israel
After reading that Hamas had released a group of Hostages, I hope President Joe Biden can do much more to condemn the Hamas kidnapping of Israelis and vow to work closely with international partners to ensure the safe return of hostages.
Hamas handed over 13 Israeli hostages and four foreigners to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Nov. 25. President Biden should support diplomatic efforts and provide aid to foster stability and peace in Israel.
President Biden should support Israel due to the enduring alliance and partnership between the United States and Israel, a testament to the trustworthiness of their relationship. This support aligns with American interests in fostering stability in the intricate Middle Eastern landscape.
Israel’s extensive history of intelligence sharing and military collaboration with the U.S. speaks volumes about the credibility of their alliance. Furthermore, aiding Israel not only enhances regional security but also reinforces a democracy that shares similar values and principles, further solidifying the ethical foundation of this enduring partnership, crucial for maintaining a strategic foothold in the Middle East. Biden should act urgently to assist the hostages in Palestine, emphasizing the human aspect and the moral obligation to protect innocent lives amidst conflict. Addressing their plight resonates with American values of human rights and compassion. This action aligns with the ethical imperative of safeguarding individuals affected by the turmoil.
By intervening decisively for their release, Biden shows empathetic leadership in nurturing peace and stability in the region. Moreover, aiding the hostages adheres to the U.S. commitment to upholding international norms, providing a logical step toward resolving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promoting global security and stability.
The argument surrounding Israel and Palestine hostages revolves around the ethical responsibility to protect innocent civilians amid the ongoing conflict.
Supporters of intervention advocate for immediate action to ensure the safety and release of the hostages, citing humanitarian concerns and the urgency to alleviate human suffering. Conversely, some argue for a cautious approach, citing complexities in the conflict and potential risks involved in direct involvement, emphasizing the need for careful diplomatic negotiations to achieve a long-term resolution.
In order to secure Israel’s hostages’ safe release and promote peace and stability, President Biden needs to give priority to diplomatic initiatives and humanitarian relief.
Alyna Rodriguez
Weslaco
Streets blasted
I have written to several Brownsville city commissioners regarding the lack of attention to many of our roads, including several where two schools are located (Egly Elementary and Oliveira Middle School). It is amazing to me how much we pay in taxes yet something as simple as our roads cannot get fixed in a timely manner.
What is the problem? Can someone explain? Why does it take a five-year plan to fix these roads when it is obvious they need to be fixed sooner?
Donald H. Cadriel
Brownsville
Corruption is a concern
After reading that a former Weslaco city commissioner was sentenced to more than 2 years for bribery, we can confirm that corruption is everywhere. The former commissioner was bribed to benefit legally some companies from 2005 to 2015, getting arrested with his partners.
Governments and even citizens should be more careful about the people they put in charge. They should put more barriers to people who want to oversee something of the community.
Throughout history, a lot of corrupt people have overseen important powers. Having a lot of levers and keys makes it easy for them to do things that benefit them and go against the law. According to Caily Griffin and Amy Mackinnon, “In the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), the United States fell to a low of 67 out of a maximum possible score of 100, down from a high of 76 in 2015.” Several articles like this agree that this is the worst administration in a decade when we talk about corruption.
This situation concerns Americans about their people in power and their credibility. This needs to change. When the government loses the support of the citizens, it collapses. To avoid this, they need to provide people in whom they can put their trust.
At the other side of the sea, Denmark is least corrupt country, scoring 90 in 2022 according to Transparency International. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said some of the strategies this country uses to prevent bribery are “Proactively detect, investigate and prosecute foreign briber, clarify the legal basis for the small facilitation payment exception to the foreign bribery offence, adopt a clear and transparent framework for non-trial resolutions, etc.”
A lot of times we need to look at the outside to learn and improve our inside. Our government needs to improve our reinforcements and protect our citizens’ benefits, necessities and rights.
I hope this inconvenience becomes extinct for the health of this country.
Mayte Cedillo
McAllen
No book bans in high school
From just a quick search online you could find that Texas leads the nation in book bans. The movement may have a good motivation at heart, but book banning comes with dire repercussions.
I’m a junior in high school, and I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest bookworm. However, I fell in love with a few titles, and I found out they were all under threat of being removed.
Universally loved classics such as the Great Gatsby, East of Eden and the Catcher in the Rye provide amazing and profound themes that offer a lot to young readers. The main argument against these books is that they contain aspects considered too mature for high schoolers, but most of the time they are only being read by upperclassmen growing into adults.
It’s wrong to keep these books off the shelves solely for the purpose of sheltering already mature readers. Besides that, parents shouldn’t be so protective over these things, because the students reading these books are only months away from becoming free adults entering the outside world.
These bans aren’t necessary and are only hindering students from thinking for themselves. Arguments could be made for bans in grade school and maybe middle school, but in my opinion, there should never be any in high schools.
Dominic Policarpio
Mission
Teacher pay up to voters
Ms. Ada Keila Estrada expressed her opinion about school vouchers and deficient teacher’s salaries in your Dec. 18 edition. I am one of those teachers and one of many who have worked in the business world and the field of education and have feelings on both sides of the fence!
Teachers are special! Working with students all day long is a true testament of the moral fiber required to be a classroom teacher!
In the business world, the average person works five to six days a week and eventually earns a two-week vacation opportunity. That amounts to about 298 working days with the two weeks off. At $15 an hour, that weekly paycheck averages $600 or $30,000 a year.
A beginning teacher in Brownsville starts at $48,000, works 187 days a year. They get a week off for Thanksgiving, a week for spring break, two weeks off for Christmas, seven weeks off for summer and a day for Charro Days. The average teacher’s salary at BISD is $61,491. The funds are paid out in 12 payments over the year.
I am comparing a professional to a non-professional in salaries paid but a professional exempt employee in the business world works more hours and days than their hourly employees! The state of Texas is not the problem!
Are teachers unhappy with their pay, their work environment and general work requirements? Absolutely! How do you fix this? Go out and vote! Elect school board members who don’t pay ridiculous salaries to superintendents and then allow the super to pay exorbitant salaries to administrators to buy their smiles! That is an area where funds could be better spent!
That is the problem and I have given you the fix! Get off your booty and go out and vote!
Ernest Gorena
Brownsville
Affirmative action backed
I read Ernest Gorena’s opposition to affirmative action (Dec. 22) and as a “perceived” white woman who grew up evidently at the same time, we had far different experiences. Women in my family in the New Jersey-New York area had difficulty advancing because “they would take a man’s job.” My mother told me of one of her employment experiences in the 1950s to advance in the aerospace industry; she related that she was told confidentially by her boss that she was well-qualified — but wasn’t a man. Her retort: “What if I wore pants to work?” She still didn’t get the job.
Fast forward to the mid-1960s when women and minorities were finally and lawfully encouraged to be hired due to affirmative action. As a woman, I was now considered a minority, and I benefited greatly. In the 1970s I was now college-educated, articulate and adventurous, and ready to find a job, and did in the insurance industry in Dallas. I worked for 10 years and every day, women and minorities (my friends/associates) all thanked affirmative action for “opening the door” — so qualified people previously underemployed or unemployed could be productive workers and contributors to their communities.
Can we conclude then that people’s experiences, as well as their gender and “perceived” race determine vastly different fates and vastly different opinions?
I wholeheartedly agree with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her dissenting opinion on Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College in June. She wrote, “Deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Diane Teter
Edinburg
Cheney praised
I am reading Liz Cheney’s best seller, “Oath and Honor,” and it’s an eye opener. Liz is an intelligent human being; she is decent, dignified, honorable and a patriotic Republican. Unfortunately, her fellow GOPers don’t see it that way. Because she won’t support Trump’s “big lie,” they vilify, disrespect and demote her. Instead of siding with the truth, they side with the liar. Yes, the guy who tried to overturn an election, who went to war with the rule of law and violated his oath to the Constitution. Yes, the guy who wants to be the first dictator of the United States! His supporters still believe his first “big lie,” so, surely they will believe his second “big lie,” that he wants to be a dictator only for one day. Everyone by now should be smart enough to know that when Trump says “one day,” it means a lifetime.
What disappoints me most about the MAGA crowd is that they selfishly believe they are the only people who belong here in the good old U-S-of-A. And after reading just a fraction of Liz Cheney’s book, my disappointment turned into a sickening disgust.
I am obliged to thank Liz for her courage and for defending our Constitution and the rule of law. Grumpy MAGA GOPers don’t appreciate this. They continue to side with the guy who does not possess an ounce of the virtues that Liz Cheney possesses. The guy who would in an instant call them “vermin” if they suddenly refused to support him.
It’s not because these people are naïve. They know very well what Trump did was insane and very wrong. But for fear of retribution, they remain silent and do nothing. Protecting themselves and their families from Trump’s threats is understandable. But if they don’t have the guts to speak up when they see someone disgracing our Constitution, then perhaps they should resign. They should open their eyes and realize that opting to join Trump’s shameless sycophants is even more disgraceful. Our representatives pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, not to some whiny, poor-loser, wannabe dictator.
If the MAGA crowds sincerely believe a majority of Americans side with them, why do they need to destroy democracy in order to win an election? Do their chosen leaders not know how to communicate intelligently with others to solve our problems? Are their brains those of Neanderthals who can only get what they want by being bullies? God bless it, man, it’s 2024!
So, what happens when MAGA presidential nominee loses again, but this time more badly? Will they again storm the Capitol, but this time with more force? Or will they finally see the light? Will they finally dump Trump and end this ludicrous and lingering insanity? Hoo-boy, ya basta, que no?
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
Statements to consider
Benjamin Netanyahu says, “Israel will keep fighting in Gaza until a complete victory over Hamas is achieved. “ Hamas says, “The compete destruction of Israel is an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine.”
Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
Lyon Rathbun
Rancho Viejo
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].
