FREEDOM TO VOTE ACT IMPORTANT

I’m writing to your paper to express my support for the Freedom To Vote Act. It is very important that anyone who wants to vote has that right. Our governor and legislature have passed a law that interferes with that right so I feel like the Freedom To Vote Act is the answer.

Linda Stegal

Hawkins

ROUGH TIMES AHEAD WITH DEBT LIMIT INCREASE

Why have a debt ceiling? Politicians on both sides have never used it to control out-of-control spending. The federal government has over $28 trillion in debt. That is nearly $80,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. Sadly, it is accelerating, debt ceilings be damned.

There are now politicians that say it doesn’t matter. It’s just paper. We can print all we want and it’s costless. Unfortunately we are all realizing the unfettered printing of money is not costless. Inflation is a cost and that printing means more of it. It is eroding our collective purchasing power by many measures at close to 6% annually. It is most devastating to those that live on fixed incomes and savings. The poorest of our communities are seeing their real wages buy less and less of the things they need.

It’s time to get control of the financial wheel but there is little political will to change it. From my perch it is looking a lot like the 1970s. Expect the sailing to be very rough.

Douglas Towns

Tyler

CONSIDER ALL FACETS OF ABORTION, LAW

Roe v. Wade is a well-written opinion about a complex constitutional issue. Most people have not read it. The pregnant person certainly has rights. Most feel birth control is reasonable even though sperm and ovum are lifeforms that can become a human. Even absence effectively kills life that would have eventually become a human. No reasonable person thinks it is okay to kill a child capable of independent life.

Texas has passed the most extreme criminal bill against girls and women seeking an abortion as well as anyone who assists them in any way. It also creates a bounty for anyone who turns them in. The threshold time in which the abortion becomes a crime is before the pregnancy is obvious and much sooner than set forth in Roe. Gov. Abbott insisted that abortion law will not require rape victims to give birth to their attacker’s child since he will “eliminate” all rapists. Attorney Gen. Paxton argued in a court filing that forcing pregnant people to travel out of state for medical help is “stimulating” the economy.

My recommendation for those on both sides of this issue: Read Roe v. Wade, listen carefully to the position of the other side, distinguish between moral or religious arguments and criminal law, address the consequences of “bounty law,” consider extreme issues that should be addressed such as a 12-year-old child raped by her father.

Blake Bailey

Tyler