Sen. Cruz invitation is ‘disappointing’
I cannot bear to think about the decision by the City of McAllen to invite U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to our Fourth of July Parade. I have been a resident of our beautiful city for almost 40 years and on a few occasions I have been disturbed by invitations like this one. Growing up and raising my family in McAllen has not only taught us to care about others, but to keep on living the values of this great nation.
I am disturbed that the City of McAllen would invite Cruz to lead our 89th Annual Independence Day Celebration and Parade. I have attended and been part of this celebration for close to 40 years and this is an event that reflects our community. Unfortunately, Sen. Cruz has never represented the Rio Grande Valley and the residents from our different cities the way he should. He has shown very little interest in our area by not having town hall meetings with the residents that he represents in the Senate and I can count with my hands the times that he has come to the Rio Grande Valley.
As a registered and active voter in the City of McAllen, I know the struggles that our community faces each and every day, and our city inviting this man is not only disappointing but is also a bad choice. This is the same man who plans to eliminate the only source of health care for RGV residents, the ACA. This is the man that is meeting in closed doors, without our input, to purposely plan how to remove access to health care, which could allow some Valley residents to die. This and other barriers is what Cruz is creating so that Valley residents have a harder time succeeding. This is not who should come here to represent the RGV, especially on one of our most important holidays of the year.
When we celebrate our independence, our troops, and our nation, we do not want someone who keeps secrets from the American people. We should be elevating the success of our troops and the accomplishments of our beautiful city. We want someone who represents our best values of equality, freedom, honesty, accountability and representation of a public servant.
I call on the City of McAllen to cancel their invitation to Cruz and instead invite a Rio Grande Valley native, a U.S. veteran, or a person who truly holds our values close to their heart, to be a part of this special event for our community.
Martha Sanchez, McAllen
‘Appalling,’ ‘un-American’ letter
At a time of unprecedented U.S. violence and when healing, not additional division, is needed; I am appalled that any American would write, or any newspaper would print, a letter such as that published Friday from Darrell Williams Sr., “Democrats, not guns are problem.” His blanket and unsubstantiated condemnation of nearly half the U.S. population as “in need of investigation” because “most gun crimes are committed by Democrats” and “Democrats are the problem” would be laughable if not so dangerous to our Democracy that they approach an act of sedition. Mr. Williams: You may not demand an investigation of, or accuse any group —Republicans, Democrats, Jews, Christians — without more proof than a passing reference to some unlisted and undocumented “government statistics.” It would be impossible, seeing that we still have a secret ballot, to accurately verify any such data. As a moderate Independent, all I can say is you clearly illustrate the overriding problem we have in this country, which are persons like yourself.
To The Monitor, maybe you shouldn’t have printed either the conciliatory cartoon or Williams’ letter. One of them, it is not hard to tell which, is certainly very un-American.
Ned Sheats, Mission
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It is hard to believe that Darrell Williams Sr., really believes that Democrats are to blame for most gun crimes and isn’t ashamed to put it in writing! He bases his claim by citing an imprecise and unnamed government statistic to back his claim. He also attempts to use James Hodgkinson who police say shot U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and several others during a baseball practice for their annual charity baseball game between Democrats and Republicans. Hodgkinson was a Bernie Sanders supporter. So based on this vague statistic and that Hodgkinson supported a Democrat he concludes that Democrats commit the majority of gun deaths! President Donald Trump has shown that reality for him can change even within a single sentence, which is something that he and Mr. Williams seem to have in common.
Manolo Garibay, Mission
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Mr. Williams must get all his information from Fox News. Apparently he does not mind acting “nuts” and running with Fox misinformation. The thing is that “nuts” are the real demographics on gun violence. I wonder how many guns he owns?
Felipe Garcia Jr., Edinburg
