Support one another
Re: “When Dallas gathered at the synagogue door — This Hanukkah, amid antisemitic threats, remember when interfaith partnership was celebrated,” by Austin Albanese, Dec. 14 Opinion.
Historian Austin Albanese wrote of different faith congregations in Texas supporting each other in the late 1800s through their singing, fundraising and celebratory events because the occasions “enriched the whole community.”
Those 19th century Texans recognized they shared with others more values and standards than beliefs that differed. They supported each other, especially during special times, and claimed the others “joy their own.”
Albanese reminds us: “Remembering the better stories does not cancel the harder ones, but it does give us another strand of our inheritance to work with.”
Opinion
With the benefit of history and those different strands, we now have the capability to choose a more tolerant legacy and to be more accepting of views supporting broader communities and diverse neighborhoods. Some of our predecessors successfully built and lived in more open and pluralistic communities.
We can today as well with engagement, effort and affirmation, just as those “old-timers” did.
V.C. Patterson, Carrollton
Arlington Pride also caved
I am disgusted that the Arlington City Council caved into pressure to eliminate its LGBTQ protections without a stronger fight. But it’s equally discouraging that Arlington Pride organizers canceled one of the largest Pride events in North Texas.
Instead, we should be doing all we can to elevate the LGBTQ presence in the very places that visibility is needed. Ever since marriage equality was achieved, our opponents have fought fiercely to erase us, and we can’t sit back.
Gov. Greg Abbott wants to remove rainbow sidewalks — fine we’re adding rainbows everywhere else. Check out the steps of Oak Lawn Methodist Church in Dallas.
Canceling Arlington Pride plays right into their hands. I hope the organizers rethink this so instead, we can attract the largest number ever to Arlington Pride. That’s the way to fight back against hate.
Chris Heinbaugh, Dallas
Halt premium increases
Odds are Congress will not pass a new national health care bill before the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies expire on Dec. 31. Without a replacement, tens of millions of Americans will wake up on Jan. 1 facing sharply higher insurance premiums through no fault of their own.
There is a simple, commonsense way to ease the blow.
The House and Senate should immediately agree to a 90-day moratorium on premium increases, requiring insurance companies to hold 2025 premium rates steady through March 31, 2026. This pause would give Congress the time it needs to fix the problem without punishing families caught in the middle.
Health care should never be a political piñata. Freezing planned premium hikes for three months would protect consumers, stabilize the market and show Americans coast to coast that Congress can act responsibly when it truly matters.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach, Calif.
Ask how, not why
Faced with the carnage at Brown University and Bondi Beach, we question the why.
The men who randomly shot unarmed women, men and children are cowards. Their weapons guaranteed them an unchallenged dominance over people who could not fight back.
How could these murderers hate their victims? They didn’t know them. How can hate justify taking lives? How do people come to believe that they have the right to decide who will die?
Political and religious discourses have fueled antisemitism for thousands of years, resulting in the Crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms and the Holocaust. Perhaps it motivated the 50-year-old Australian father and his 24-year-old son. But not all antisemites commit mass murder.
What about the man who killed students in Rhode Island? The perpetrators of random killings in other schools? The shooters at the children’s birthday party in California?
We must stop obsessing over the why, and — despite entrenched opposition — finally address the how. Recent events make gun control an even more pressing moral imperative.
Barbara Chiarello, Austin
A prize for fiction
I think President Donald Trump will finally get his Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzer for fiction goes to Trump for his address Wednesday to the nation.
Kurt Wolfenbarger, East Dallas
Bring on the age limits
Re: “Wake up on age limits,” by T.P. O’Mahoney, Dec. 9 Letters.
It is way past time to add an age limit to a candidate’s application bid for public office. All public offices!
An aging politician may be wise beyond measure, but the toll of holding political office is not for the weak or faint of heart, mind or soul. I’ve watched too many forget their thoughts in midsentence, even on TV.
Age limits will allow politicians to retire (with dignity) as they pass on their knowledge. And as a politician’s age limit approaches, there should be no exceptions.
This will get rid of the likes of Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott. Are you as tired as I am continually watching these two self-righteous men continue their sneaky journeys of controlling Texans and wasting taxpayers’ money? Bring on the age limits!
Judy Webster, Plano