COVID-19 is traffic, and vaccines are red lights. We ignore either at society’s peril

Keep COVID-19 in the slow lane

Michael Peppard, who teaches philosophy at Fordham University, came up with an analogy to try to persuade the unvaccinated: The vaccine is like traffic. Traffic lights impinge on our freedom, but if 25% of us refused to abide by them, our streets would be more deadly. That is why close to 100% of us choose to obey traffic laws.

The protection of traffic signals is not flawless. We must still be cautious and wear seat belts. But traffic lights increase our freedom to travel more safely. Likewise for vaccines: They are not perfect, but they greatly increase everyone’s freedom.

- Darby Riley, San Antonio

Now is the time to focus on peace

Nov. 11 originally commemorated Armistice Day, created to celebrate the end of World War I, “the war to end all wars.” During the Cold War era, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day, and the holiday’s emphasis on fostering peace among all nations was lost.

Our country now engages in military conflicts across the globe, maintains hundreds of military bases around the world and invests inordinate resources in the defense industry and armed forces. Nuclear war, drone and cyberwarfare and conventional warfare threaten humankind and the future of the planet.

There no longer exists a national holiday dedicated to peace, as was the intent behind Armistice Day, and never before has the need to bring peace among all nations been more urgent.

Armistice Day should be reclaimed as a celebration of peace among all nations.

- Harold L. Parkey, Fort Worth

Care for US veterans first

Who deserves payments from the U.S. government? Those who illegally come to our country and are separated from their children at the border, or American citizens who are separated from their children and families to protect our country in war zones around the world?

If we are to build back our country better, we must first help those who serve in the military and their families. The homeless veteran population continues to grow, while more veterans are seeing their benefits denied and those in the military are forced to use food stamps because of their low military income.

- Cleo Grounds, Arlington

They’ll be asking for those dollars

Texas congressional Republicans should be ashamed for voting no on the infrastructure bill. (Nov. 7, 8A, “Biden celebrates bipartisan infrastructure win”) My guess is that they will be the first with hands out to make sure Texas gets all the money it can from the federal government, while saying it is a waste of money.

- Gabrielle Gordon, unincorporated Tarrant County

Fell right into Rufo’s trap

You have to give credit to Republicans: They know how to play the long game. In 2018, activist Christopher Rufo started talking about the evils of “critical race theory,” as he falsely described it. As we have seen, this has spread like wildfire among far-right Republicans.

As he has openly done many times in the past, Rufo stated his strategy plainly on his Twitter account earlier this year: “The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”

In other words, Americans are being played.

- Victoria Kemp, Granbury