There's a lot to complain about, but don't blame presidents | Letters

Most of you reading this already know these things (because you read this newspaper which prints verifiable facts, unlike many other "news" sources), but for those of you who don't:

The president doesn't control interest rates; the Federal Reserve does.

Presidents don't control the price of food or gasoline; our capitalist market system does.

Presidents, by and large, don't control border policy, Congress does.

Presidents don't control the rate of inflation; supply and demand of products and services do (including the supply of money, controlled by the Fed).

If you want to complain about these things, don't show your ignorance by blaming the president, Republican or Democrat.

Bob Petersen, Austin

How can the GOP claim to back

law enforcement and Trump, too?

The Republican Party has always championed itself as one that supports the law enforcement community.

One member of that community by the name of Nathan Tate recounted his experience at the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. He was hit in the face by bear spray “... and was immediately blinded. It was the most pain I’ve ever experienced. It was like living death.” He was one of the many police officers assaulted or injured that day by those wanting to overturn the election results.

Now this same Republican Party is poised to nominate for president an individual who has referred to those who attacked Mr. Tate and other officers as “J-6 patriots” and who would “absolutely” pardon those convicted of criminal conduct against the police if he is elected.

I would very much like to see a letter on this page from someone who supports law enforcement and plans to vote for Donald Trump explaining how you can do both with a clear conscience.

Joe Pastusek, Pflugerville

Take ballot privacy seriously,

or risk a distasteful alternative

From time to time, I have been publicly shamed by conservatives and liberals when I have expressed my views or candidate preferences. Accordingly, I rarely express opinions anymore. I hope that all will take ballot privacy seriously. I should not face the distasteful alternative of a public shaming or not casting a vote. By the way, I will choose the later.

Jack M. Wilhelm, Austin 

Don't be fooled by Abbott's choice

of words in his quest for vouchers

Since the primary runoff election, Governor Abbott has been proclaiming that he has the votes for school choice. Please don't be misled by his choice of words; he is not talking about school choice at all but about vouchers that would take public school funding and give it to private schools and vendors without transparency and accountability for how it is spent or learning outcomes.

Abbott's goal is to destroy public education altogether and put the education of Texas children in the hands of profiteers who would pocket most of it and evangelically minded religious leaders who dictate what teachers can say, what books students can read, and the content of curriculum materials. On November 5, please remember this and vote for legislators and State Board of Education members who will preserve and strengthen the Texas public school system that Governor Elisha Pease signed into being with the Common School Law of 1854.

Mary Ellen Scribner, American Association of University Women Public Policy Committee, Austin

These are exactly the kinds of books

you do want in your public library

Re: June 8 article, 'Court reverses 8 book removals'In the Llano public library decision, a dissenting judge on the Fifth Circuit wrote, "No one thinks the Constitution requires public libraries to shelve books promoting quackeries like phrenology, spontaneous generation, tobacco-smoke enemas, Holocaust denial, or the theory that the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked. ...The First Amendment does not force public libraries to have a Flat Earth Section."

These are exactly the kinds of books you do want in your local public library. You don't want your librarian, or your county commissioners, deciding what's crazy. Respect our intelligence. If someone wants to see for themselves whether there's anything creditable to these ideas, let them read the source material.

Several of those ideas, like Holocaust denial and Apollo 11, have political implications and must be constitutionally protected. And tobacco-smoke enemas? I'm intrigued -- off to the library to learn more.

Hugh Winkler, Dripping Springs

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: There's a lot to complain about, but don't blame presidents