Thank you, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Your performances lift our spirits

Voting can adapt to today

In response to a Sept. 17 letter stating that if you can go shopping, you can go vote: (9A) If I can pay bills using my banking app, have groceries delivered to my car, get a margarita with my takeout order and watch my church service via YouTube, I should be able to vote online. But I’ll take an old-fashioned mail-in-ballot.

Unfortunately, because I am younger than 65 years old, not disabled and will be home during the voting period, Texas requires me to stand in line.

Mail-in ballots are not socialistic. The system has worked for millions of registered voters from all parties.

- Nancy Bennett, Granbury

Happy to be in Will Rogers

Grateful thanks to Mercedes Bass, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the staff, conductor Patrick Summers and pianist Stewart Goodyear for an incredible world-class performance. Our gratitude also to the staff and management of the Will Rogers Auditorium, who make us welcomed and comfortable. (Sept. 8, star-telegram.com, “Fort Worth Symphony shifts concerts to Will Rogers after Bass Hall postpones reopening”)

We in Fort Worth should proudly support our world-class orchestra.

- Toni Wietholter, Fort Worth

Your vote doesn’t really count

How democratic do we expect America to be? Two of the last five presidential elections have been “won” by a candidate who came in second in the popular vote. Many of us believe the 2020 electoral results could be challenged and, as in 2000, eventually decided by the Supreme Court.

That court will probably have a majority of justices appointed by two less-than-popular presidents and confirmed by a Senate majority that doesn’t represent a majority of voters.

Our Constitution was written to prevent a tyranny of the majority, but we are governed by a tyranny of the minority. Does that sound like a democracy to you?

- Charles Stonick, Granbury

One proven killer goes on

As coronavirus lockdowns began in March, my email was flooded with messages from retailers detailing the steps they were taking to protect their customers’ health and welfare.

But many of these retailers also push tobacco, which injures and kills many more people than any virus (and exacerbates COVID-19). So I wrote to several company executives asking when they planned to end sales of this catastrophic killer.

Six months later, none has done so, and I have received zero responses. To paraphrase an old Texas saying: “Please don’t wet on me and tell me it’s raining.”

- David Fusco, Arlington

Needs before high-speed rail

Why do we need high-speed rail? (Sept. 22, 1A, “Texas high-speed rail project gets federal approval”) That $20 billion it’s estimated to cost could be spent on education or health care so Texas would not be near the bottom in each. It could improve electrical grids, reducing brownouts. It could be used to protect communities against hurricanes, clean up the environment, reduce property taxes or maintain existing infrastructure.

A high-speed line would provide many jobs and revenue for overseas companies. It will cut through pristine farm and ranch lands.

Maybe we just want it for bragging rights. Many Texas families want a lot of things, but most of us spend our money on what we need.

- Jerry Allan Coover, Fort Worth