Letters to the editor, June 7, 2009

Sober liberals?

Dear editor,

As bad as the recent shootings and killings of so many people we’ve heard on the national news, there is another problem in this country that caused about 10 times the number of deaths than guns do — that is DUIs.

When some mentally deranged person uses guns to kill someone, our liberal, left wing socialists starts crying for gun control. But drunk driving kills many more people. But our liberal, left wingers do not say anything.

I guess there are more drinkers than shooters among our liberal “friends.”

If they would put as much effort into trying to control the liquor industry as they do guns, we might have a better society.

Imagine, sober liberals among us.

Clifford E. Ball Sr.,

Springtown

Where’s our share of the stimulus?

Dear editor,

It is good to see construction begin on the Parker County road projects that will be funded by bonds approved by voters in the county. These are necessary and, to use the latest catch phrase, shovel ready and should be eligible for stimulus money.

Where is our stimulus money? Fort Worth is in line for $1,707,290,000 in stimulus money. A good chunk of that is going to Kay Granger’s pet project, to be run by her son, on the north side of downtown Fort Worth. Granger’s district includes the western part of Tarrant County and all of Parker and Wise counties.

Before the economy collapsed, the funding for this type of project came mostly from earmarks attached to unrelated bills in congress. Several hundred million dollars were dedicated to the Trinity River project through Granger earmarks.

With all the earmarks and all the stimulus money, not one dime comes to Parker or Wise County. Parker County residents and our elected officials need to be contacting the Honorable Ms. Granger and demanding our share. We need the infrastructure improvements and we need the jobs.

Darrel Behrens,

Aledo

My how quick things change

Dear editor,

Can you believe in less than eight years, a person of Hispanic heritage can go from being dangerous to being the greatest possible nominee for the Supreme Court.

President Bush nominated Miguel Estrada for the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit. Would you believe internal memos to Senate minority whip Dick Durbin mention liberal interest groups desire to keep Estrada off the court because of his Latino heritage made him “especially dangerous” as a potential future supreme court nominee. Roberto Gonzales was not very popular with the Democrats, either.

President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, who has the most compelling life story and will no doubt make the greatest justice to ever occupy a seat on the Supreme Court. She will no doubt make judgments based on her life experience rather than the Constitution.

In my opinion, her story is no more compelling than the life stories of Mr. Estrada and Gonzales.

The difference between Mrs. Sotomayor and the two gentlemen — she will base her rulings on feeling and they would have followed the Constitution. You tell me who is dangerous.

I have often wondered why we have to nominate Harvard graduates to be Supreme Court justices. Seems to me a home-schooled eight-grader could determine if a law was constitutional or not.

Richard Feuilly,

Weatherford

It was all wrong

Dear editor,

I don’t know just right where to begin, so first of all I’d like to say the headline, “Grim crash reported by few” is wrong!

A crash like that should only really have one person report it because almost the entire Weatherford Police Department was chasing this dirt bag. Maybe it should have read “Few witness grim crash”

This event should have ended a long time earlier and this little boy and his dad wouldn’t be in the hospital in critical condition. They started on the west side of the city and went all the way to Hudson Oaks! Then got turned around and headed back to the west side! The police department as well as the dirt bag are responsible for this accident happening!

I live along Fort Worth Highway on the east side and watched as they headed back west. There are several spots along Fort Worth Highway where they could have pinned him in and stopped him, but my guess is they didn’t want to get their shiny, new police cars dirty or damaged.

I hope they all had their dash cameras on so when the next training session comes along (maybe next time) they will have learned something from this. Someone on this force should have taken the Initiative to put an end to this chase sooner instead of waiting to see what was going to happen next.

We should all pray for this family and their recovery as well as the police department because those who see something like this happen, it affects them for a long time.

Keith Mears,

Weatherford

Kudos to WC and instructor Lori Gouge

Dear editor,

Awesome is just one of the words I could use to describe my experience with my first Weatherford College “mini mester” course.

The physical geology course work combined with the camping/hiking trip to Davis Mountains and Big Bend filled my head with so many new experiences and information, my head is still spinning! Not only was it more than evident that Lori Gouge is well versed in the field of geology and botany, but her organizational skills helped make this trip really enjoyable. Lori helped the class by fully preparing us before we left for the trip. A complete list of supplies was provided and she ran us through various drills to help prepare us for almost any situation. This was extremely beneficial since we set up camp twice in the rain!

With a group of 22 students and two instructors, Lori kept the group together, focused and on schedule the whole duration of the five-day camping/hiking trip. No easy task by any standard.

Her passion for geology was exposed by her eagerness to answer all of the “what kind of plant is that?” and “How did the rock get to be that color?” questions. I was truly mesmerized by her wealth of knowledge.

The two- to five-mile hikes were no walk in the park, but the reward was more than worth the work. The group was allowed the wonderful opportunity to see a part of Texas that I would say few people who were born in Texas have ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

I would personally like to extend my gratitude to Weatherford College for allowing the geology department to put together this class and experience for their students. This will definitely be a trip that will be talked about for a long time to come.

Claudia Struzick,

Weatherford