Corporations, MLB should get their noses out of Texas voting laws. It’s just about money

Corporations, butt out of elections

End all corporate tax breaks for companies that are directly trying to influence Texas voting laws. Shut up, American Airlines, Dell, Southwest Airlines, AT&T and others.

You are the collective recipients of millions in tax breaks and are not accountable to voters. You say nothing about any of the totalitarian regimes you take money from. You don’t care about voting rights. Money is the motive.

- Larry Gollaher, McKinney

Pro baseball has lost me now

Major League Baseball has gone over my red line. It was bad enough when the Houston Astros were caught red-handed cheating in 2017 and were given a slap on the wrist. Now, under pressure from the president, the league has moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s new voting laws. (April 4, 8B, “MLB was right to move All-Star Game”)

Why does MLB feel compelled to inject itself into our political culture? Why can’t baseball just be the great American pastime and let everybody enjoy the game?

I grew up playing baseball and watching professional baseball, but now I don’t want to go to games, watch them on TV or even read about them. I’ll relish the days of sitting at the ballpark downing a couple of cold brews while two teams went to battle without political acrimony. 

- Harry Thompson, Bedford

Not working on the real problems

It’s truly sad that Texas legislators will spend time trying to fix a problem that does not exist: “voter fraud.” Yet they ignore important items such as the obvious incompetence in managing the power grid, gas production and water infrastructure remain.

If they fix those, they could work to get Texas’ public education and health care systems up to average. Then there’s water, since we are heading into a drought again.

Maybe our elected officials could try to understand why we have such poor air quality or help more Texans make enough money to live on. There are plenty of real issues that need work, but the Republican legislature is worried about staying in power.

- Jerry A. Coover, Fort Worth

Pitts is completely wrong on this

Leonard Pitts Jr.’s Friday column was as mean as anything I’ve read in a long time. (13A, “Jim Crow 2.0 will not stand”) Democrats are always telling us on the right that we are hateful, but I would never call Pitts a coward, a liar or a fool. I don’t think he is. But I think he is very misguided and listens only to what fits the way he wants things to be. He will listen to no evidence to the contrary, however strong.

There was a time when newsmen actually tried to find the truth of a story. This past election, more than any other, shows that is no longer true.

- Pamela Howard, Colleyville

Presidents don’t run the markets

During the 2020 campaign, Donald Trump often warned that the stock market would crash if Joe Biden were elected. On April 1, the S&P 500 index topped 4,000 — an all-time high.

It is no more fair for Biden to be solely credited with that stock market record than it was for Trump to claim credit for market highs  built on seven years of growth that preceded his administration.

There will be ups and downs going forward. But if this is what Trump warned us about, could I have me another helping of that crash?

- Ermis Cliburn, Fort Worth

This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Corporations, MLB should get their noses out of Texas voting laws. It’s just about money."