Commentary roundup: What newspapers around the state are saying
Dallas Morning News
Dec. 12 editorial, "State TikTok bans should just be the start."
Gov. Greg Abbott wasn’t the first to ban TikTok from state-owned devices, but he was absolutely right to get in line fast.
Last week, there was finally bipartisan action across the country targeting an app that is plainly hurting our national security as it raises profound questions about its impact on young users.
South Dakota, Maryland, South Carolina and Nebraska are among states that have banned the app on government devices. Indiana, meanwhile, has sued TikTok not only over its data exploitation but because it exposes children to sexual content. The U.S. military blocked access in 2020 and advised all military personnel to delete the app from their smartphones.
States across the country need to take the minimum step of getting TikTok off of government computers and smartphones. And more states should follow Indiana’s lead in suing TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance for harmful business practices.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration needs to stop working with ByteDance on a security deal for the U.S. and instead focus on keeping this company out of the U.S. social media market.
In a briefing to the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee last month, FBI director Christopher Wray said TikTok is a cause for national security concerns. The Chinese government could use the app to control data of “millions of users” and use TikTok to generate influence operations to impact U.S. society and politics, he said.
— Dallas Morning News Editorial Board
Houston Chronicle
Dec. 15 editorial, "All we want for Christmas is a deal for Dreamers. Finally, one looks promising."
For more than two decades, Congress hasteased at finding a solution for Dreamers, who have already contributed so much to our society, and are critical to our future economic prosperity. They work essential jobs as nurses and paramedics. They teach our children, harvest our produce and pave our roads.
Yet despite 10 separate attempts in Congress, the DREAM Act — a bill that would create a path to citizenship or legal residency for undocumented young people following the completion of two years of college or military service — has consistently been thwarted. President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which immediately protected 800,000 Dreamers from deportation, but has since been subject to numerous legal challenges, including a Texas-led lawsuit that has blocked future applicants.
Instead, the Dreamers are now a popular pawn for legislative bargaining, lumped into fights over raising the debt ceiling or funding the federal government or building a largely symbolic border wall.
The latest hope comes in the form of a “white paper” drafted by Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema an Arizona independent. The Tillis-Sinema compromise on immigration is not even a bill yet, so details are scant, but it would include “some form of path to citizenship for 2 million Dreamers,” according to the Washington Post. The bill would also pack in some Republican priorities that are typically non-starters with Democrats, including $25 billion to $45 billion in funds for border security, and an extension of the Trump-era Title 42 border policy that has been used to expel more than 2 million migrants seeking asylum since March 2020.
Yet the Tillis-Sinema framework would also fund new processing centers for asylum seekers, with the goal of facilitating fast expulsion of those who fail initial screenings, and invest in new immigration courts to expedite final hearings. The proposal would also establish systems for tracking migrants awaiting final hearings in the U.S. With border encounters topping 2 million for the year, this compromise would both help border officials better manage the flow of migrants while humanely processing those fleeing their home in search of safety and protection.
— Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
San Antonio Express-News
Dec. 13 editorial, "Guillén’s legacy sparking change in the military."
The Netflix film “I am Vanessa Guillén,” released Nov. 17, chronicles Guillén’s assault and murder at Fort Hood by another soldier in 2020, the military’s flawed response and her family’s battle to create legislation to help protect service members from abuse.
The timing was perfect.
It came three months after Guillén’s family filed a $35 million wrongful death suit against the Army and two weeks before Cecily Aguilar pleaded guilty for her role in the aftermath of the murder.
And it happened just before the final push for the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which included provisions to remove “all prosecutorial authority from the chain of command for sexual harassment, sexual assault and 12 other serious crimes,” according to a statement from Protect Our Defenders.
The NDAA also mandates “independent civilian investigators for all claims of sexual harassment,” random juror selection and notification by the military to sexual assault victims of civilian legal resources.
— San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board
The Lufkin Daily News
Dec. 10 editorial, "Water Woes: Band-Aid approach will not support future growth in East Texas."
''Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.''
This saying was coined by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,'' published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. It is often misquoted as "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink."
Coleridge's longest major poem is an allegory that symbolizes the inherent struggle of humans facing the ideas of sin and redemption, warning readers about the dangers of acting without regard for the consequences.
Unfortunately for many East Texas residents in 2022, ''nor any drop to drink'' is neither an allegory nor any other literary device commonly used by poets or authors. There are issues with the drinking water supply available to many residents outside Lufkin's city limits.
It wasn't supposed to be that way.
When President Gerald Ford signed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, he said, "Nothing is more essential to the life of every single American" than cleanwater todrink. He also mentioned clean air and pure food at that time. The law protected Americans against 22 contaminants. Nearly half a century later, evolving science has broadened the coverage to more than 90 substances and strengthened standards along the way.
— The Lufkin Daily News
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman Commentary Roundup: Dec. 18, 2022
