Time for leadership; make music not war; enough with the weather!; cut emissions, create jobs

Time for leadership

In regards to the Feb. 23 article, “No plan yet…”

In it, Republican governors have convened to demand Congressional action to preserve Obamacare subsidies in their states from a potential Supreme Court ruling.

This echoes a previous GOP outrage over Obama’s delay of employer-mandated insurance, a facet of the Affordable Care Act they themselves protested heavily.

I think it is unconscionably hypocritical for our Republican leadership to do everything they can to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and then complain about the results at every step of the way.

What is the most disappointing aspect is that the Republicans have the opportunity to press some real conservative reform.

It’s time to stop acting like a minority party and show us some real, unified leadership.

— Patrick Crowley, Arlington

Make music, not war

I just returned from another piano concert at Texas Christian University by Marcin Koziak, a young student from Poland, who played works of Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

Listening to and watching his great performance, I wondered why some people compose and play beautiful music that brings so much joy to the world, while others kill innocent people just because they worship a different God or Prophet?

So I strongly recommend you go to concerts where great music just seems to bring things together, and helps get us through the trials and news of the day.

— Herman I. Morris, Fort Worth

Enough with the weather!

Enough already!

I have enjoyed just about all of this “global warming” I can stand!

— Bob Mowell, Fort Worth

Cut emissions, create jobs

This week, President Obama vetoed legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, immediately fielding the criticism about killing the jobs associated with the project.

While Keystone is dead for now, this is an opportunity for the public and our policy makers to examine stronger proposals.

REMI, a firm that corporations, governments and academic institutions turn to for economic forecasting, confirms that after 10 years George Shultz’s carbon fee-and-dividend proposal will create 2.1 million jobs and cut CO2 emissions by 33 percent.

This proposal works through a steadily rising fee that starts at $15 per ton of CO2, (increasing another $10 every subsequent year) that will be placed at or near the first point of sale and then divided equally to be returned to all households.

When we take an honest look at natural resource management as an economic opportunity, we cannot afford to pass up 2.1 million jobs; from an environmental policy perspective, the people and our government can agree that cutting 33 percent of CO2 emissions is crucial to the U.S. being successful in meeting national and international carbon emission goals.

— Gregory Thackston, Fort Worth

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Time for leadership; make music not war; enough with the weather!; cut emissions, create jobs."