World War II veterans, government debt, Fort Worth swimming pools

Unbelievable claim

In response to A.L. McCluney's Thursday letter regarding WWII veterans born after 1925: Seriously? A kid born in 1927, who volunteered at 17 years of age to join the military in 1944, couldn't have possibly been a WWII vet? Some of us had better let our grandfathers know they need to turn in their medals and lifetime VFW memberships.

Unbelievable.

-- Capt. Christopher A.S. Combest, COB Basrah, Iraq

Bloated government

In these times of industry cutbacks, layoffs and "clearing out the deadwood," it is interesting to note that the largest employer in the U.S. has more than 500,000 employees whose base salary exceeds $100,000 per year and who enjoy a job security rate of more than 99 percent (per a recent CNN release).

That largest employer is the federal government. Our national leadership continues to tell us we need to tighten our belts and expect our households and our industries to do more with less and contribute more of our "fair share" to the general welfare of all citizens. If the federal government were to implement the same 15 percent reduction in force that Lockheed Martin is, it would reduce base salaries in the $100K club by $7.5 billion a year. Eliminate just a few of the anachronistic, useless agencies and the lifetime-benefit packages to former legislators and we could make some real strides in deficit reduction.

Seems like a good place to start reducing cost of government to me.

-- Drex Rutledge, Burleson

Fort Worth pools

It has come to my attention that the public pools of Fort Worth have closed because of a lack of maintenance and money to fix them. This is both shocking and disappointing, especially to a 14-year-old.

In some places in the city, there are no other places to swim except public pools. Kids in these parts of town need them, not only because this heat wave we are going through is brutal but to keep them out of trouble as well. Also, kids need to learn to swim for safety. This is not a skill that they can go through life without. Swimming is even a great source of summer exercise. The YMCAs are great for swimming. They have great facilities, and it only costs around a dollar to get in. But they are not placed conveniently around the city. They are only built in key places.

The public pools need to be restored and put back into business.

-- Trey S. Hille, Fort Worth

No longer receiving

The Dallas Cowboys were considering Roy Williams for the job of water boy, but with the drought we are having in Texas we just can't afford all the dropped water.

-- Kenneth Burch,

North Richland Hills

Power of forgiveness

The important Wednesday reflection by Bob Ray Sanders, a widely respected commentator, about the power of love over hate witnesses to the power for forgiveness and restorative justice over our selfish, fearful dependence on supposed revenge. But we are dehumanized by our disdain for any other being, the sorrowful callus on our soul.

-- J.W. "Bill" Matthews, Dallas

Left without choices

Republicans are adamant about not taxing the big-money boys and corporations with billions in cash: profits made at the expense of the middle-class working people, retirees, Social Security recipients etc.

Now they are unabashedly talking about cutting interest on homes as an income tax deduction and stopping increases for inflation on Social Security checks.

The sad part is that Democrats -- at one time the party of the people -- are going along with what their big-money bosses say. So what do we do? As entrenched as both parties are, there is no chance of having honest choices on a ballot with a chance for election.

-- Riley Sloan, Burleson

Looking for comments?