Opinion articles provide independent perspectives on key community issues, separate from our newsroom reporting.

Letters to the Editor

We should be applauding the millionaires fighting COVID-19, not tearing them down

Carol Salers examines her mailbox next to a sign she put up on her yard thanking the various professions of service providers who are working during the new coronavirus pandemic, Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Brandon, Miss. Salers said she wanted to honor everyone from medical professionals to delivery personnel and grocery store employees for their services. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Carol Salers examines her mailbox next to a sign she put up on her yard thanking the various professions of service providers who are working during the new coronavirus pandemic, Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Brandon, Miss. Salers said she wanted to honor everyone from medical professionals to delivery personnel and grocery store employees for their services. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) AP

Many more to thank

Kudos, Star-Telegram employees. Local news has never been so crucial. In this suddenly self-isolating era, non-physical human “touches” mean more than ever.

Like reading Carol Roark’s fascinating tidbits of forgotten city history. Or Mac Engel’s fine and fun writing on the new, not-so-simple ways of life we must follow.

And even readers: Robert Marcotte’s letter to the editor Tuesday (9A) thanking the many people helping us out in public places prompted me to add “Thank you for your service” to my front door sign for delivery drivers to see.

- Carole Nelson Douglas, Fort Worth

Not a gift from the president

The president has ordered his name to be put on millions of relief checks. Does he want people to think the money is coming from him?

It isn’t his money, so this is deceitful — and it’s disrespectful to people who pay their taxes and are just getting some of their money back.

- Ailene Gibson, Fort Worth

Government can’t get it right

We can put a dog and a chimp into space to operate a rocket ship, so how is it that a federal entity can’t even read the necessary numbers to correctly route and deposit stimulus checks to tax filers, not to tax preparers?

- Barry D. Wilson, Haltom City

The timing couldn’t be worse

President Donald Trump’s defunding of the World Health Organization during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic is idiotic. It’s another example of his failure as president and his efforts to blame others for his slow response to the health crisis.

At a time when we desperately need international cooperation, Trump’s action against WHO is insane.

- Douglas Harman, Fort Worth

Disengage with China — now

We must immediately begin ending our dependence on critical manufactured goods, medicine and food that originate in communist China.

It is insane to provide the Chinese a choke hold on our livelihoods and our very lives. They are not our friends, and they do not share our respect for human life and human dignity.

Today is the time to start the disengagement. The process will be difficult and expensive, and it will not be a fair fight, but we will win.

- Charles Wedemeyer, Fort Worth

Three cheers for millionaires

As I watch news reports, I rejoice that capitalism was discovered. Imagine if we didn’t have the many millionaires who are making substantial contributions to the efforts fighting the coronavirus. The innovation of private entrepreneurs not only made them rich — it’s now coming home to rescue us.

Poverty kills. Medical research, converting factories to ventilator production and providing unemployed Americans with cash are possible only because there were enough free markets at work to foster wealth accumulation.

Governments take action, but their income derives from taxing workers, and their level of innovation lags greatly behind the private sector.

- Ed Olson, Fort Worth

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