The coronavirus is here. Star-Telegram readers share suggestions to cope
Make the relief direct
As a small-business owner, I think Congress needs to do this to help: Send financial support directly to small businesses. This would allow people to remain employed rather than collect government checks.
Do not provide assistance in the form of tax credits. We need cash to fund payroll.
Do not means-test the assistance. I don’t know the personal situations of my 300 employees to say who needs the money most.
- Ted Beaman, Frisco
When the uninsured get sick
“Abbott acts on virus, but was response too late?” asked Sunday’s front-page headline. The answer is a simple yes, beginning with Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to accept federal funding for Medicaid under Obamacare.
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation. Segments of our population where health care is missing or deficient are like giant incubators for diseases that affect the rest of us.
If we don’t take care of our fellows, there may be no one left to take care of us when we need help.
- Larry Mason, Azle
Focus on the positives
How about a headline saying, “Gov. Abbott reacts to the coronavirus,” instead of the addition of asking whether it was too late. We could all use a large helping of positive thinking.
You are called upon to print facts. However, it’s time we pulled together as a nation and told one another that by God’s grace, we will come through this stronger and better.
Be an encourager who helps us through these hard times.
- Drenda Killion, Bedford
Let us smell the roses
Stores, fitness clubs, restaurants, schools and churches are closed. During this challenging time when sunshine, fresh air and exercise would be good for our health and spirits, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, in full bloom and spectacular, is closed. Lock the buildings and send the staff home, but open the garden to the public.
- Toni Wietholter, Fort Worth
Let’s be consistent here
Stimulus checks will soon be in the mail. Of course, a large number will be returned by all the people who are opposed to socialism, so those can be redistributed. The anti-socialists know they can’t keep the money, right?
- S.R. DeWees, Alvarado
What ridiculous precautions
The story on abandoning handshakes as a greeting is absolutely ridiculous. (March 22, 5B, “Coronavirus has us rethinking a long tradition: handshakes”) Let’s not travel more than three blocks from home. Let’s not push a grocery cart. Let’s stop talking to people if they’re within six feet.
It’s one thing to try to slow down a pandemic. It’s another to suggest garbage such as this.
- Mike Dugan, Arlington
Mac helped me with a laugh
Mac Engel has found an additional calling. His column on shopping carts and the coronavirus in the Sunday Star-Telegram had me laughing until I nearly cried. (1B, “Using shopping cart becomes an activity loaded with fear”)
Sports aren’t on my interest radar, but humor is. Many thanks to Engel for demonstrating he is at least as good a humorist as he is a sportswriter.
- Mike Jones, Fort Worth