Here’s an idea about how to compute Fort Worth city employee mileage fairly | Opinion

Go by the standard IRS rate

To solve the issue of city vehicles taken outside Fort Worth: Why can’t driving beyond city limits be computed and charged at the standard IRS rate for mileage? (Dec. 15, 13A, “Fort Worth’s take-home car rules need work”)

This would not apply to travel in the city. Start the program by giving employees a stipend covering 75% of the cost, but make it optional for future recruits.

- Daryl Knowles, Purdon

Think of what our kids lack

Thanks to the Fort Worth City Council for unanimously allocating much-needed money to improve the Worth Heights and Seminary neighborhoods. (Dec. 12, 1A, “Fort Worth will spend $8M to fix up two south side areas”) Yes, the Worth Heights community has been vocal about wanting a new branch library and will continue to be vocal until that plan comes to fruition. To say the La Gran Plaza shopping center’s library doesn’t meet the community’s needs is putting it mildly. What could be more important than children’s educational needs?

- Dora Gonzales, Arlington

Leave immigration to states

It’s interesting to see the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union stating that the new Texas law allowing authorities to arrest illegal immigrants would “harm Texans, in particular brown and Black communities.” (Dec. 20, 6A, “Groups sue over Texas law on illegal immigration”) It seems to me that illegal immigration harms all Texans, regardless of race. It’s going to crush this country.

We can’t take care of everybody here now, much less continue to add people requiring federal resources we simply don’t have. It would be nice if the federal government would uphold existing immigration laws or else get out of the way of states that have demonstrated they can do the job.

- Steve Himes, Fort Worth

Trump meets the requirements

After the events of Jan. 6, 2021, there have been calls for accountability for those who participated, as well as for those who may have helped instigate these occurrences. it. More than 1,100 people have been charged for their actions, and many invoked Donald Trump.

Can these individuals and Trump be disqualified from holding public office as it relates to Jan. 6? Yes. The Disqualification Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment explains that “no person, shall hold any office, civil or military, that engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. government.” That includes Trump.

- Les Smith, Grapevine

Nothing noble about suffering

According to Cynthia M. Allen, childbearing women must expect to suffer without recourse to medical assistance. (Dec. 19, 11A, “Kate Cox, abortion and a culture that rejects suffering, brokenness”) Is that true only of childbearing women, or should it be extended? Should none of us access the modern medical interventions that prolong life, reduce pain, prevent disease and enhance or preserve fertility because suffering must be expected?

I doubt Allen declines local anesthetics when she gets a filling. There is nothing noble about suffering, and I think Kate Cox, the woman in the abortion case in question, has suffered enough. Thank goodness medical care minimized it. Too bad she had to leave Texas to do that.

- Karen R. Gambrell, Fort Worth

Excellence is what matters

The Dec. 10 front-page story “Foundational trust” about the quality of teachers could have been an honest evaluation of competence and offered ways to improve. Instead, the Star-Telegram wrapped its arms around the progressive idea that skin color and ethnicity trump everything else. I am concerned about what this means for the future of our country. Without pursuing excellence, we are doomed.

- Michael Korenman, Fort Worth