A statue of Alan Bean; Texas time; contentious senator; ‘old school’ time

A statue of Alan Bean

We the residents of Fort Worth need to erect a statue of former astronaut Alan Bean.

He was the fourth man to walk on the moon, as a crew member on the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, and one of only 12 to do so. Four of those men are deceased and all of them are beyond the average life span.

Alan Bean spent part of his youth in Fort Worth and graduated from Paschal High School. Although there is a display there honoring him, a bronze statue of him wearing his Apollo astronaut suit should be placed somewhere downtown.

The statue would be a tribute to his great achievement and would let residents who were not alive in 1969 and visitors know that the fourth man to walk on the moon was from our proud city.

World-class cities have numerous statues of their notable citizens. We should do the same, and we need to do it with dispatch so that we can invite Mr. Bean to the dedication.

People who love Fort Worth, let’s get going on this.

— Brad Shaw, Fort Worth

Texas time

It is very unlikely that state Rep. Dan Flynn’s silly contention that Texas should be a time zone unto itself will get any consideration at all.

Reasons are many.

For instance, consider airline scheduling, something critical not only to the convenience of the customers, but to the success of the affected airline and to our state’s economy as well.

— James Strickland, Keller

Contentious senator

I wish Sen. Ted Cruz would save his narcissistic ego-tripping for the fools and idiots he so obviously loves to court.

His pandering and fear-mongering do far more damage to this state and country than any of his histrionic, self-serving pronouncements could ever possibly hope to atone for.

— Stephen L. Kelly, Arlington

Ted Cruz is correct to say that our campaign laws are crazy.

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are in business to generate profits for their stockholders and not created for the public good. When they give money to elected officials or those running for office they are doing so to generate profits for their stockholders and not for the public good.

This is blatant corruption at the expense of democracy. Receivers of corporate money as well as the donors should be in jail. Corporate millions to Cruz renders my $10 to anyone else mute.

— Warren M. Lynn, Fort Worth

‘Old school’ method

I am so glad that I am a senior citizen and won’t have to worry about the politicians and their unrealistic lawmaking, self interests and perpetuating careers much longer.

The latest concerns are the “open carry” gun proposals and now the newest “bill to bypass exams.”(State dictated exam laws recently passed) have to be concessions to a small populace.

The education system has been deteriorating for at least 40 years and all kinds of “new” concepts have been tried, from open classrooms to the now teacher (only) accountability.

The “old” school method was very effective — making the student and their parents the primary accountable parties (they are the primary beneficiaries) and also bring back some old school discipline.

— Richard Baumgartner, Arlington

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 5:50 PM with the headline "A statue of Alan Bean; Texas time; contentious senator; ‘old school’ time."