Welcome to Irving, Caterpillar employees. Here’s some Texas political reality for you

Rules of your new home state

Welcome to Irving, employees of Caterpillar. (June 15, 1A, “Caterpillar moving headquarters from Illinois to Irving”) Here is some information about Texas to help you transition.

We love guns. Texas has easy access to assault weapons, and you can carry them in public without training or a license.

We don’t like gay people, gay marriage or transgender people.

Our elected officials don’t like public education or teachers but want to arm them with guns.

Texas bans women’s choice, so if you or your daughter is raped and becomes pregnant, rest assured the state will give you thoughts and prayers.

Our power grid is fragile, and our electricity rates have skyrocketed. So have home prices, property taxes, insurance rates and college tuition. Our air isn’t the cleanest. Neither is our water.

So, welcome and good luck. You will need it.

- John Cobarruvias, Houston

The best schools for children

The debate about school vouchers often centers on the concept that private schools are better than public schools. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but one could hardly be blamed for holding that view. After all, there is no shortage of school choice opponents who argue that giving parents options is sure to result in public schools losing students.

Why does it necessarily follow that given a choice between a free private school and free public school, the latter will lose? Hint: When they are allowed, parents are inclined to choose the best schools for their children.

Are opponents of school choice conceding an important point when they assume that it inevitably leads to fewer students in traditional public schools?

-Steven Alan Rowe, Arlington

This isn’t my father’s GOP

I remember being raised in a Republican household in the 1970s. I voted Republican for many years. But the priorities agreed upon at the Texas Republican convention recently have me shaking my head. (June 18, 1A, “Texas GOP delegates boo Cornyn during gun legislation speech”)

Sen. John Cornyn received boos because he is trying to work in a bipartisan way? Defending gun rights is among its declared priorities? On the heels of the terror in Uvalde?

Who are these people and what have they done with my dad’s Republican Party? The party lost my vote years ago when it lost its soul.

- Diane Ossenkop, Keller

I blame Biden for gas prices

American gas prices are double what they were when Donald Trump left office. We are all stunned, but then these high prices should have been expected with what President Joe Biden did in his first week as leader of the free world. He suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He put a halt on all new drilling permits on federal lands (later overturned by a federal judge). He directed federal agencies to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels. And he imposed new regulations on all oil and gas emissions.

Then, after declaring war on the American oil industry, he has the gall to blame these high gas prices on Russia instead of his very own policies. Nice try.

- Mike Cloud, Lubbock

Supreme Court out of control

We have moved from government by a president’s tweets to government by the Supreme Court he shaped. The court has compelled government money to go to private and religious schools when our public schools and teachers require our support. It has permitted citizens to carry guns in public for self-defense, a challenge for our police, and at a time when we mourn the gun violence.

You can vote for a Congress that will make laws to steer the country to common sense on these issues.

- Rebecca Bertoni, Argyle

This story was originally published June 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.