Cameras on traffic lights? Absolutely. We need protection

Red-light cameras are essential

Any legislator who would oppose red-light cameras needs to be voted out of office. (March 22, 13A, “Leaders should ban red-light cameras as unconstitutional, unfair and unsafe”)

As for people being rear-ended by vehicles tailgating them, well, that’s all on the tailgaters. They shouldn’t be trying to push the vehicles stopping for the light on through it.

They should make the fines so high that people wouldn’t even want to run red lights. Same for caution lights.

Young people are all talk on climate

Students from across the world recently organized to skip school to protest what they perceive as inaction on climate change, touting it as the real crisis and making speeches supporting the Green New Deal.

Surely, they could all sign a pledge never to own or use a gas vehicle. Pledge never to use air travel, and that means for spring and summer breaks. Pledge only to walk, bicycle or use public transit, excluding school buses, for daily transportation. Pledge never to eat hamburgers or steak.

It’s easy to skip school and run your mouth. (Why wasn’t this done on a Saturday? Were schools part of the protest?). Sign and stick to these pledges, and people will take you seriously.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sponsored this idiocy, doesn’t adhere to it. Schools need to teach the meaning of “hypocrite.”

Green New Deal is the market at work

For those of you who are worried, the Green New Deal is a paradigm shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. So yes, it’s a job killer in the strictest sense. But really, it is more of a job creator in terms of the overall future.

It’s sort of like Netflix and Blockbuster Video. You don’t have Blockbuster stores stocking up on VHS tapes anymore, but Netflix has created far more jobs than Blockbuster lost.

I find it fascinating that my alleged “free market” friends on the right want to prohibit fair competition against the fossil fuel industry. If solar panels put ExxonMobil out of business because they’re cheaper, cleaner and better for the environment, so be it.

Do we want to talk about emergencies?

It’s astounding that a March 21 letter writer is worried about communists invading our southern border but seemingly not concerned about Russians invading our democracy. (9A)

Or he apparently isn’t worried about our president issuing a fake “national emergency” to build a wall that can be flown over or tunneled under while ignoring true national emergencies: caged immigrant children; 47,000 deaths from opioid abuse in 2017; climate change; 33,000 annual firearm deaths; poisoned water in Flint, Mich.; millions of homeless children; escalating animal extinctions.

But the most alarming national concern is allowing this narcissistic dictator-wannabe to use the National Emergencies Act just to feed his enormous ego and cater to his base.

Voting is the right of every Texan

SB 9 would absolutely undermine our democracy in Texas by criminalizing honest mistakes in the voting process, imposing new restrictions on the voter-assistance process and making voter purges easier. We should be making every possible consideration for every Texan’s vote to be counted and voice heard.