I met Charley Pride, and he showed me and my fellow Marines that he was pure class
Charley Pride was a real class act
In 1972, the Bob Hope USO show came to the U.S.Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to entertain the sailors and Marines there. I was a Marine infantry company commander there. Charley Pride was one of the entertainers who came with Hope.
The evening after the big show, Hope and all the celebrities were attending a party at the Officer’s Club. But Pride chose instead to drive in a jeep with me and the Marine battalion commander to all seven enlisted clubs on the base. He sang for them for free, with zero publicity, and sat and talked to them.
Charley Pride was a great country singer. But he was a greater human being — a truly good, humble, generous man.
- Brooks Harrington, Fort Worth
Not the news we need to see
Congratulations — you win the prize for the most encouraging headline on Friday’s front page. What we all really need to read right now is that two refrigerated trucks are ready to store bodies. (“County has 2 refrigerated trucks ready to use to store bodies”)
Enough. Merry Christmas to you, too.
- Margaret Jones, Arlington
Don’t mix messages
The Dec. 10 story about a shortage of space to store bodies in Tarrant County pointed out that an increase in homicides in Fort Worth has contributed to the overflow at the county morgue. While I agree that the increase in homicides is significant news, the increase of 40-plus deaths in no way relates to the need for trucks to store bodies. All of those extra deaths would have to occur at the same time to make a significant impact on the need for body storage.
Citizens who like to think of themselves as law-abiding are killing our neighbors by the hundreds by refusing to wear masks and socially distance. Please don’t conflate the two issues.
- Natalie Parker, Fort Worth
Money comes before safety
I was aghast at the incompetence and ignorance behind the NFL’s decision to usurp its COVID-19 protocols. Mac Engel’s Dec. 10 column, “NFL reveals its COVID-19 protocol priorities after Bryant tests positive for virus,” reads like the famous commentator Paul Harvey’s “The Rest Of The Story.”
Now football audiences know that the NFL’s primary concern is the health of the owners’ wallets, not protecting the players or the public.
- Delores Cantrell, Fort Worth
It’s become a matter of faith
President-elect Joe Biden has won the election with 306 electoral votes. These are now certified facts. The widespread Republican resistance to these facts is not based in observable reality. Their insistence that President Donald Trump really won is a religious claim that cannot be disputed in the arena of fact-based reality.
This claim is part of the creed of the Church of Trump which professes that only Republican votes count. It’s the death of democracy.
- Shelly Matthews, Fort Worth
Let’s just see the numbers
Obviously, we are all tired of masks, not going anywhere and missing our friends. I would suggest that the Star-Telegram just print the daily numbers of new COVID-19 cases and deaths, leaving out whether they had pre-existing conditions. Although announcing those conditions may heighten awareness of risk, the corollary is that many healthy people just do as they please. It’s not a good plan for you or your neighbors.
- Lee S. Anderson, Fort Worth
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "I met Charley Pride, and he showed me and my fellow Marines that he was pure class."