Safe at school; unchanging church; not for Trump; Margaret Sanger; why a sidewalk

Safe at school

As a teacher with nearly 40 years in high school classrooms, my first call would be to security if a student showed up in class with a case that had wires running around in it. (See Thursday news story, “Teen in clock case will meet Obama.”)

I would not have recognized it as a clock, and I would have erred on the side of caution.

The student is obviously creative, but in this day and age, I would have called security.

Better safe than sorry.

— Carol Graves, Fort Worth

Unchanging church

Kudos to Deborah Fleischmann for her Wednesday letter, “The Catholic Church.” She is spot-on!

The church, as established by Christ with St. Peter as its first bishop and pope, should never change to meet the needs of the people.

Rather, the people should change to meet the needs of the church, as God so intended.

It’s the same from decades past, plain and simple: Undisciplined folks don’t want to follow rules. Just do your own thing.

Results? Offshoots known as “Protestants.”

— Ben Bethke, Arlington

Not for Trump

I am a 73-year-old white conservative, both fiscally and socially. I have never voted for a Democrat.

If anyone, with a clear conscience, after watching the Republican debates on CNN on Wednesday evening, can support or vote for Donald Trump, God help this country.

— Dave Waldrop, Hurst

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, devoted her life to legalizing birth control and making it universally available for women.

She challenged the Comstock Law, a federal statute that criminalized contraceptives, and fought federal and state laws to bring birth control information and contraceptive devices to women.

Her fervent ambition was to find the perfect contraceptive to relieve women from the horrible strain of repeated, unwanted pregnancies.

Now, as part of the politically inspired anti-abortion movement, Richard Greene wants her statue removed from the Smithsonian Institution. (See Sunday column, “Of all statues to be removed, this one should top the list.”)

Neither Planned Parenthood nor its founder, Margaret Sanger, ever advocated abortion.

They advocated eliminating the cause of abortion.

How many lives and how much anguish has Planned Parenthood saved?

The media should do a better job of informing the public of the true benefit of 97 percent of Planned Parenthood’s efforts instead of focusing on its tiny abortion involvement.

— Carl Flores, Grandview

Why a sidewalk?

I noticed as I was driving on West Vickery Boulevard that workers are laying a sidewalk along the eastbound side of the road from Hulen Street to Clover Lane.

My first question is: Why? My second question is: Who is going to use it?

My third question is: Why would the mayor and City Council approve the money for this when it could have been used to help a much-needed resurface of Vickery from Montgomery Street to Southwest Boulevard?

Seems like a very poor decision by city leaders.

— Don Gerik, Fort Worth

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Safe at school; unchanging church; not for Trump; Margaret Sanger; why a sidewalk."