'Good Americans' and other letters from readers

Good Americans

Instead of talking about gun control, how about addressing the underlying cause of school shootings?

Children aren’t being taught how to be good Americans.

The government, teachers and even parents have failed them.

This country needs to be reminded of what it means to be an American. Americans are kind, honorable, tolerant and respectful.

The words of Emma Lazarus “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are a testament to the kindness, tolerance and respect Americans have for all.

Too long have these morals been absent from our society. Control of any weapon is moot if the underlying problem is not addressed.

—Rose E. Bohr, Fort Worth

Guns are an enabling factor?

Columnist Cynthia Allen wrote that guns were an “enabling factor” in the massacre of 17 people in a Florida high school two weeks ago. (The gun control dialogue should be about more than guns; March 1).

Guns were not an enabling factor, but the proximate factor in those deaths!

We may discuss the myriad of contributing factors to gun deaths — such as young white men, social media, mental illness, school bureaucracy, or whatever — but guns are the common denominator in each and every death.

The amorphous factors that Allen talks about in gun violence are too extensive and varied to be resolved in one person’s lifetime.

But, an immediate and tangible action to start reducing the number of gun deaths would be to ban the manufacturing and sale of assault weapons like the AR-15 and using Federal or State funds to buy back existing models.

—John Edstrom, Fort Worth

Do the math

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley's recent remarks opposing caps on local taxation, and blaming the state legislature for high property taxes levied locally, drew a strong joint rebuttal from Tarrant County state senators.

Judge Whitley, a liberal-spending former Hurst-Euless-Bedford school trustee, failed to address the real cause of exorbitant school taxes and that the tax burden falls on the same taxpayers whether levied locally or by the state.

Exorbitant school taxes are primarily caused by wasteful, unnecessary spending on bloated, high-salaried independent school districts’ administrative staffs and excessive spending on extracurricular activities.

ISDs build multi-million dollar sports facilities and continue to increase administrative staffs of overpaid directors, associates and assistants to the associates.

Administrative overhead costs are outlandish as compared to amounts spent for academic classroom training.

Do the math. A dollar saved equates to a dollar reduction in property taxes.

—Bob Stewart, Bedford

This story was originally published March 8, 2018 at 11:23 AM with the headline "'Good Americans' and other letters from readers."