Letters to the Editor: Jan. 18-19, 2025

Published 4:00 am Saturday, January 18, 2025

By Staff Reports

Biden’s based disaster relief

I read the Tyler Telegraph article: “Fueling the Los Angeles fires: the Santa Ana winds” (Jan 13 issue). These winds are regular and violent. That state should be prepared and reduce brush and make sure water supplies are available. The winds were horrible, but so are hurricanes.

It’s truly been a rough period of many months for manmade and natural disasters. Just this past March 26, 2024, a foreign-flagged ship hit the Francis Scott Key bridge near Baltimore, Maryland. That shipping-vessel is required to be insured. President Joe Biden said the U.S. taxpayers would cover the repair costs now and settle-up later. Seems OK, but lawyers are creative and a delay could give an insurance company time to go out-of-business. Thus, the American taxpayer remains on the hook for the negligence of the ship’s crew. What I find additionally troubling is that Joe Biden’s father Joseph Biden Sr. was born in Baltimore. Was President Joe favoring a “favored city”?

To be clear, I feel sad over any tragedy, including the North Carolina hurricane victims and the California fire victims. Yet, Biden again showed bias in extending overwhelming resources toward Hollywood celebrities/donors (who sometimes own a second or third home elsewhere) versus a token response toward North Carolina victims. Is Biden showing bias? Yes, he is.

I would rather help regular Americans recover, rather than pour endless billions to Ukraine. America’s national-debt is so terrible, we must help ourselves first.



Americans need equal attention in crisis.

James A. Marples

Longview

Plenty to do in Texas cold

It is cold. We are not used to this cold; we are Texans. Cold is for those up North. We did not ask for this cold; we do not like this cold. This cold disturbs our lives. We do not tolerate the cold. We do not understand “turn into the skid”; if it were mud, we could get through it. This cold is more than an inconvenience; it’s a mental, physical, and spiritual interruption of our lives. The cold makes us where we cannot think right, keeps us from going places and our spirit is supposed to be warm; this is cold.

The cold comes with shorter days and a change, a stoppage, in activities. Hunting season is about over; football is coming to a finish; it is uncomfortable to fish; there is no yard work. What is a person to do? Plan a trip – we have two National Parks in Texas: Big Bend National Park, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We have 89 state parks in Texas with Palo Duro Canyon State Park known as the most breathtakingly beautiful park in the Southwest and Garner State Park is the most visited State Park in Texas.

We could go to our wonderful libraries and get good books to read. We could visit museums. We could volunteer at our not-for-profit organizations. Extremely popular nowadays is to get healthy by giving up the harmful stuff (alcohol, sugar, laziness) and doing the good stuff (eat good, meditate, exercise). We could do something!

We can get through this cold season. It will not be long before we will be sweating, swatting mosquitoes, and treating sunburn. Hang in there – we are Texans.

Michael Banks, DDS

Friends of the Neches River, Jacksonville

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