Letters to the Editor

I read the editorial of July 31 on the grant UTHC received with much gratitude. The editorial correctly notes that this is but a drop in the large bucket of needs our community faces in addressing mental health (MH) needs in our region. Since we lost our son to suicide in 2012, my wife and I have dedicated ourselves to improving the delivery of MH services in East Texas.

We and many others are seeing a change. Our region now has the Behavioral Health Leadership Team, which brings together institutions, nonprofits, hospitals, city and county representatives who regularly deal with MH. Through this collaborative, we are making strides toward improvement. One in 5 deal with MH and when you add the families, it approximates to 50% who are affected by MH. Our jails are full of people suffering from MH needs. The problem is acute. We have received a grant of $900K from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to create courts to help with MH. Our region has a conference in October on MH called Peace of Mind, which brings speakers to address MH. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has seen significant growth. NAMI Tyler is doing great things. The editorial is right: We have a long way to go. I applaud Dr. Kirk Calhoun and his staff for obtaining this needed grant. As the editorial notes this is but a drop in the bucket. But the good news is that there is water in the bucket and the faucet is on!

Doug McSwane

Tyler

PROUD OF GOHMERT’S

REPRESENTATION

We strongly disagree with both Tolbert and Pianta comments regarding Rep. Gohmert in the Sunday paper (July 28 letters to the editor). We are proud of his representation of our district. He is a genuine American in a time when our country has too few.

We will support Rep. Gohmert as long as he is willing to do so.

Bill and Lois Sanders

Tyler

RIDICULOUS DEBT

The national debt is ridiculous. We have a hard time paying the interest. All our politicians do is vote to increase it. All they care about is getting reelected, so they can get the special interest money. Now they vote to keep increasing for two years. We put money in it for defense, which is important, but a lot of times the money goes for some useless stuff some representative wants for his district. Awhile ago it was tanks that military people said they did not need. On top of all that, now $2 billion or so of the military budget is going for the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. We keep getting lied to and a lot of people believe the lies.

We are at 20 or so trillion dollars in debt now. How can we keep electing these same idiots back in office? How much debt can we incur before we default? It goes from bad to worse. All these politicians do is blame someone else, and go on spending like there is no tomorrow. What are our children and grandchildren going to inherit?

Harvey Collen

Tyler

COMMON SENSE

President Donald Trump is a businessman who is trained and experienced at facing up to and solving problems quickly. He does this by using common sense and attacking the root cause of any problem instead of just throwing taxpayer money at all problems as politicians always do. The politicians do this so their friends and associates get rich and many politicians then get their cut after leaving office and wind up multimillionaires on a politicians salary.

President Trump is not even a true classic Republican conservative, as his common sense overrides free trade when it is not good for America. Nixon and George Bush gave away the store to China and other countries on trade. Trump turned America away from the Democrat march to evil socialism.

Trump is maybe the greatest president since George Washington, Lincoln or Jefferson. They all put America first and back on the road to continued greatness with jobs and prosperity for all willing to work.

Harry Bergman

Tyler