Austin American-Statesman Letters to the Editor: Jan. 1, 2023
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How long will Texans tolerate
the governor's heartless stunts?
Re: Dec. 26 article, "Migrants dropped near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home on Christmas Eve."
One wonders how long decent Texans will tolerate a governor as cruel and shameless as Gov. Abbott.
Shipping desperate immigrants to other parts of the country without any concern for their safety or well-being is despicable. These are human beings not farm animals!
His latest stunt had migrants, including children, dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris' residence in sub-freezing temperatures.
You have to wonder just how far he will push this cruelty to pander to his equally heartless base.
Patrick Cosgrove, Austin
One must ask, why did Texans
return the governor to office?
Gov. Greg Abbott’s self-serving political grandstanding has hit an all-time low.
Shipping migrants from the Texas border to the home of Vice President Harris shows a despicable disregard for human life. He's treating human beings like livestock in his ongoing, smarmy political game.
One must wonder why a majority of voters returned him to the governorship this past November. Do people really enjoy this kind of inhumane behavior from Abbott? It is akin to bear baiting and blood sports of days gone by, devoid of any empathy or concern for the lives of those he has so callously used to further divide the electorate by pandering to the very worst in us.
John Zeigler, Georgetown
Treatment of migrants: Is this
who we Texans really are?
Come unto me, all ye that labor; come unto me, all that are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Or razor wire.
How in the name of God can the Christmas-time message of Handel’s oratorio The Messiah, based on the scripture of the prophet Isaiah, be so blatantly violated at the Texas border?
Are all those people not heavy-laden? Are they not "people"? How can anyone look at that weary mother (or father) holding a confused and tired child and not believe that they need and deserve succor?
The brutal flinging up of razor wire on the Rio Grande to obstruct and reject these people, ordered by the governor, should give more than me pause. Is this indeed who we Texans really are? If so, God help us.
Edmund Nichols, Austin
Abbott fails in demonstrating
compassion for human beings
"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury … it is essential for human survival."
Those are the words of Dalai Lama.
Greg Abbott has no compassion, heart or feelings for his fellow human beings.
It's all about the show and never about actually helping people.
For immigrants, foster children and their parents, LGBTQ community, or anyone who truly needs compassion, Greg Abbott fails.
Linda and Raleigh Ross, Deary, Idaho
Abbott would do well to follow
the example of Jesus, not Herod
Gov. Abbott's political stunt of dumping migrants in Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve, the coldest one in decades, is truly deplorable. If someone treated dogs the way that Abbott treats migrants, that person would be in trouble with the SPCA. Apparently our self-proclaimed “Christian” governor feels that it is acceptable to treat human beings worse than dogs.
Our governor has apparently never read the Gospel of Matthew, New Revised Standard Version Matthew 25:40, where Jesus says that, "[J]ust as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."
If Texas' deplorable governor wishes to call himself a Christian, then I suggest that he follow the example of Jesus rather than the example of King Herod.
Dom Incollingo, Austin
Cruel acts are the opposite of
what Christian faith teaches
Gov. Abbott, you were described in a 2015 Texas Tribune article as "a practicing Roman Catholic."
On Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus — as all practicing Roman Catholics and Christians know and cherish — you "sent about 110 to 130 men, women and children on three buses that arrived at the Naval Observatory on Saturday night. Videos ... show many of them clutching blankets over their shoulders in the 18-degree weather after the two-day trip."
This repeated act of indescribable cruelty is the extreme opposite of what Jesus and Catholic/Christian faith teaches. Before you send away the next busloads of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, imagine that you are sending Jesus away on every bus.
Please find room in the inn as you recall Jesus' words from Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Diane Farley, State College, Penn.
Children are a casualty in Texas'
priorities for economic growth
Re: Dec. 28 editorial, "Texas Legislature should boost private duty nursing rates."
Medically fragile children are being left without Medicaid-funded Private Duty Nurses to help parents care for these children.
This is yet one more tragic consequence of Texas government’s extraordinarily selfish decisions about what is important.
Texas is first in the nation for economic growth, according to the Texas Economic Development Corporation. If it were a country, Texas would have the world’s 9th-largest economy, exceeding the economies of Australia, Mexico and others.
The state has $13.6 billion in its rainy day fund. Yet it ranks:
And has twice the national rate of kids without health insurance.
But our leaders have chosen to spend $4 billion to “secure” the border against "aliens," even transferring funds from other state agencies to do so. Criminal.
Pamela Monday, Austin
They believe the Big Lie, yet
they ridicule verifiable evidence
Lisa Benson's offensive and irresponsible — and infuriating — cartoon that ran on Christmas Day denigrates the Jan. 6 committee's vital work and extensive findings as "empty." It also implies that the vast evidence they gathered is either corruptly partisan or meaningless.
Hmm, let me get this straight: According to her and other right-wing zealots, the mountain of verifiable evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee is useless and ridicule-worthy, yet these folks fervently believe the mountains of totally disproven, made-up nonsense (lies) about the 2020 election being fraudulent and "stolen."
They, like their disgraced hero Trump, are truth deniers and are seditious and unpatriotic. They are willing to say and do anything to win. Their prime modus operandi is to deny facts and mutilate the truth, including about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Yet they call themselves "patriots." Shame on them!
Richard Lowenthal, Georgetown
Smear tactic intends to shield
Israel from legitimate criticism
Re: Dec. 22 commentary, "Texas commission's first study on antisemitism."
According to the chair and executive director of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission, progressives and far left critics of Israel possess an "anti-Israel ideology rooted in antisemitism." Nonsense. Their critiques of Israel are based on its mistreatment of native Palestinian Arabs, who are themselves Semites.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Presbyterian Church, several Israeli human rights organizations such as B'Tselem, and numerous American Jews have criticized Israel for practicing apartheid and collective punishment.
Claiming they are anti-Semites or self-hating Jews is a smear tactic designed to shield Israel from legitimate criticism.
George Aldridge, Belton
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman Letters to the Editor: Jan. 1, 2023
