Planned Parenthood; child left in car; gun confusion; prison sentences

Planned Parenthood

With the release of videos showing top-level Planned Parenthood executives discussing the market value of fetal remains, I’d like to know where U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey and state Rep. Nicole Collier stand.

Both have received campaign money and endorsements from Planned Parenthood and have raised money for the organization.

The voters in east Fort Worth are entitled to know whether Veasey and Collier support the practices of Planned Parenthood.

They deserve to know whether any of the campaign money Veasey and Collier received came from sales of fetal organs or tissue.

They deserve to know whether the Planned Parenthood facility in southeast Fort Worth is involved.

The demand for answers is not political. It is motivated simply by human outrage toward the inhumane disregard of human life.

— Milton Gutierrez, Fort Worth

Child left in car

Nearly every time someone forgets and leaves a small child in a car with fatal results, the person is charged with a crime. That is not a reasonable response to the tragedy.

Short-term memory loss is neither criminal nor negligence because it is neither intentional nor foreseeable.

It is an unfortunate byproduct of the human condition. It is both unpredictable and unavoidable, like an illness.

Treating it like a crime is not the pursuit of justice, but the addition of insult to injury. Those who do not agree with this are in for a very rude awakening one day.

— James D. Llewellyn, Fort Worth

Gun confusion

If I see a person with a gun in movie theater, church, mall, sports facility, etc., do I call 911 and run? Or do I assume he is a good person enjoying his government-given rights and is there to protect me in case another privileged citizen suddenly goes off?

I pray the good guy is a sharpshooter and hits only his target, especially in the dark. When the police arrive, how do they identify the good from the bad when all guns are displayed? Sounds like a free-for-all to me.

— Barbara Berry, Fort Worth

Prison sentences

President Obama and former President Clinton are reconsidering the outrageous prison sentences that some individuals have to serve for nonviolent crimes.

One woman was sentenced to the equivalent of life in prison for possession of cocaine. Sadly, she was never found to have possession of any drug, but was sentenced because her co-conspirators told the prosecutors that she had purchased cocaine.

She, however, never showed positive for drug use and no drugs were found in her home.

That is outrageous. Her real crime was being born black.

I support what both presidents are doing to undo those insane sentencing guidelines.

— Beverly Margolis, Hurst

This story was originally published July 30, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Planned Parenthood; child left in car; gun confusion; prison sentences."