International misstep; Texas answer; with a feather

International misstep

The so-called leader of the free world was absent from the march in Paris, as was his Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry (“World unites in show of support for France,” Monday).

Even Attorney General Eric Holder, who was present in Paris, failed to join the other 50 world leaders in the solidarity march against extremist violence.

Although this administration will never agree that world terrorism is a radical Islamist phenomenon, the president’s failure to appear in Paris on Sunday has to be judged an enormous international misstep.

— Cargill Hall, Arlington

The photo showed five heads of state and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose term of office ended 10 years ago this month.

Abbas’ presence at this show of support for those Frenchmen so recently slaughtered by terrorists is the height of irony and of arrogance.

— Frankie Schwartzwald, Grand Prairie

Texas answer

A friend of mine defines resentment as taking poison in hopes the object of the resentment will get sick.

This accurately describes state Rep. Jonathan Stickland’s approach to education: Remove the incentives for immigrants to come to Texas by reducing Texas to a poor version of Mexico, where a narrow elite own everything and hopelessness is the lot one is born into.

It is no accident that cartels rival the government in Mexico. The failure to share economic and political power has a predictable outcome.

One nice thing about Stickland’s attempt to Mexicanize Texas is that when the Texas cartels begin to threaten our state and local governments, they won’t have to import guns.

So, by all means, lets keep immigrants poor, uneducated and hopeless. That will be Texas’ answer to Jesus’ commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

— Bill Lanford, Haltom City

With a feather

When I read Richard Greene’s commentary “Compromise is impossible for the infallible” (Sunday) I was so stunned that the former mayor could have knocked me over with a feather.

“It is reprehensible,” Greene wrote, “that party politics transcends the duty of all the players in this high-stakes drama to actually address the interests of the country.”

Really? Since when has this been an issue for Greene and his cohorts?

With the country torn by economic peril unseen since the Great Depression, the GOP leadership consciously chose not to focus on this country’s economic woes, but instead chose to focus on making Obama a one-term president.

That was reprehensible, yet I don’t seem to recall hearing a peep out of the former mayor or any of his like-minded citizens.

The economy is close to full recovery, illustrated by a booming stock market, unprecedented job growth and a rapidly shrinking national deficit.

All this after six years of GOP obstructionism, and yet Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had the audacity to imply that the recovery was “underway” because of a GOP sweep in Congress.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Again.

— T.E. Turpin, Bedford

This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 7:37 PM with the headline "International misstep; Texas answer; with a feather."