Letters

Personal responsibility

In response to Pat Gentry’s May 24 letter about Blue Bell’s failure being linked to the state not inspecting thoroughly enough:

Supposedly, government must protect stupid or incompetent people, or entities in the case of Blue Bell, from themselves.

Really? What happened to personal responsibility?

Blue Bell, a multimillion-dollar business, failed because Texas didn’t inspect them aggressively enough? What if Blue Bell followed regulations and its employees did a better job of policing themselves?

No rocket scientist is required to sniff that out.

Bigger government is never the solution.

— Jack Lewis,

North Richland Hills

Matter of honor

Gil LeBreton compared the deflation of New England Patriots’ footballs to “a time-honored sandlot protocol” of getting the advantage of a better grip and he said this dispute is “much ado about nothing” (“Tom Brady should sue Goodell’s pants off,” May 18).

This is an issue about lying, not so much as the cheating seemingly condoned by LeBreton as the American Way.

Brady said he had “no knowledge of anything, any wrongdoing” regarding the deflated footballs. An investigation upheld the judgment of Troy Aikman: “It’s obvious Tom Brady had something to do with this.” Tom Brady lied to reporters and NFL investigators.

The honor of a man’s word matters more than anything. Brady aligns himself with such sports prevaricators as Pete Rose and Lance Armstrong.

— Michael Myers, Fort Worth

Revive the Interurban

Dallas is way ahead of all the other Metroplex cities with its continual expansion of the DART system and connecting electric trolley lines.

What’s needed more than a high-speed train to Austin, San Antonio and Houston is a revival of the old Interurban rail system of many years ago that operated very efficiently throughout the Metroplex.

But it would be updated and modernized like the Metro system that serves Washington, D.C., and its surrounding area.

It could serve Mineral Wells and Weatherford, then thread its way through downtown Fort Worth and Arlington to serve the University of Texas at Arlington, AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Ballpark and Hurricane Harbor, Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie and through Dallas to Fair Park, Mesquite, Terrell and points east where many people commute daily from outlaying areas.

This would help to prevent traffic gridlock when all of the sports and amusement parks are operating, and through much of the bad weather that occurs during the year.

— Charles A.L. Moore, Arlington

Death penalty needed

In response Bob Ray Sanders’ May 20 column, “Death penalty still a blight on the soul of Texas”:

Don Leonard and 167 others were murdered by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing. Leonard was a police officer, served his country in the armed forces and was a Secret Service agent at the time of his death. His wife and sons were devastated by his passing.

My wife and I attended the funeral at which his widow had the courage to address the congregation. It was beyond emotional.

McVeigh earned and deserved the death penalty. I reviewed the names of those recently executed in Texas and the names of their victims. They also earned and deserved the death penalty.

None of these murderers probably ever contributed anything to society other than violence and heartbreak for their victims and their own families.

The death penalty may be cruel and unusual. But so were the actions these monsters inflicted on their victims. Compassion is a quality that must be reserved for those who need and deserve it — not cold-blooded killers.

— Don Whiteman, Mansfield

Nepotism

In voting against the award of a contract to Thos. S. Byrne Construction Services, because the CEO of Byrne is a member of the Fort Worth school board, Trustee T.A. Sims said, “It has the appearance of nepotism.” If Sims were a member of the board of the Tarrant Regional Water District, what would he say about the Trinity River Vision boondoggle?

— Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Letters."