Arlington's old growth trees, sanctuary city law, military spending

Arlington's trees

Our fight lost in fall 2010 to save the huge trees at 1000 W. Abram and Kirby streets in Arlington hit home hard today. I was horrified as I drove past that old Cribbs Building turned American Campus "Opportunities" L.P. (for more apartments) and saw many of the huge beautiful trees bulldozed, cracked at the base and left to wilt in the sun. Trees once filled with songbirds and squirrels, now dead or gone. Rack up another stand of old trees lost in Central Arlington.

"Progress," said Councilman Mel LeBlanc, lecturing residents months ago. Progress? Arlington a "Tree City USA" -- laughable! Code-required replacement trees take decades to grow, then become targets too.

Residents of the beautiful Oak Hill neighborhood west of this devastation, our lots brimming with very old red oaks filled with dozens of protected birds, wonder how long it will take the city to come after our trees.

UTA students, our future leaders, learn nothing through these "progressive" actions, except that it is OK to clear-cut well-established stands of trees, decimating the birds and wildlife within, all for a few apartment buildings that in 10 years will be trash.

Way to go, Arlington leadership, you're on a roll!

-- Linda Yarbrough, Arlington

Sanctuary city law

I glanced over "How did Perry's issues fare?" in the Thursday Star-Telegram. I could not believe I saw "An immigration bill banning 'so-called' sanctuary cities [Failed]."

I don't know if this bill failed because of bravery or cowardice. The bravery part must be that the public officials are not afraid of drug dealers, terrorists and illegal aliens (who live off our taxes) getting by without being screened.

The cowardice part is that the officials are afraid of illegal aliens' and their supporters' feedback for passing the bill. Either way, I'm ashamed of the result. We need city, county and state officials with some backbone.

Furthermore, I thought the media are supposed to be unbiased. Isn't the phrase "so-called" an opinion?

-- Don Eidson, Fort Worth

Military spending

As our legislators come to grips with the federal deficit and try to bring our national budget in balance, it is important to understand why military spending will have to be a crucial part of these discussions.

The total military expenditures of the world's nations in 2009 alone were $1.531 trillion. The U.S. spent $663 billion, or 43 percent of the world's total. This total and percentage does not include U.S. expenditures for nuclear weapons, Homeland Security, spy satellites or veterans programs. The total also does not include costs for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which were never budgeted. Adding these, the U.S. spent about $1.2 trillion on defense in 2009.

The second-highest military expenditure in 2009 was by China, $98 billion; the third was the United Kingdom, $69 billion, and Iran was 24th in the world, $9 billion.

Our part in the effort to free Libya from Ghadafi is now approaching $1 billion in costs. Since 1990 our armed military forces have been sent into or bombed foreign territory 127 times. The costs of freedom are high, but it's time to get them under budgetary control.

-- Bronson C. Davis, Fort Worth

Kudos to local airline

With all of the talk about jobs in America, I believe American Airlines does not get the credit it deserves for maintaining call centers in the United States, continuing with maintenance operations in Tulsa, avoiding bankruptcy and continuing with health and pension obligations to current and previous employees.

United Airlines and others have taken to outsourcing call centers to India and maintenance operations to Central America. The companies pushed themselves through bankruptcy court to void much of their debt load and previous obligations to their workforce. This has given United and Delta a short-term cost advantage over American that shows in every quarterly profit statement.

Rather than succumb to the temptation to follow these two down the same road, American is trying to compete while holding true to principals I wish more U.S. businesses would follow.

We can talk about jobs in America, but we can keep and expand those jobs only with the decisions we as consumers make every day about whom we patronize.

-- David Workman, Colleyville

Looking for comments?