Vote to stop school takeovers
Re: “PACs targeting school boards — Bolstered by CRT, book fights, conservative groups aim to ‘take back’ Texas school trustee seats,” Sunday news story.
The movement to make school boards part of the partisan political divide in this country threatens the survival of public schools in Texas. It is another indication that the GOP has ceased to be a party of ideas, but is now driven by fear and hatred. Many of these GOP leaders attack those who have given their lives to the education of our children.
Falsely claiming that critical race theory is being taught in schools, they attack every effort at diversity and inclusion. Shouting “pornography,” they attack books that challenge their white, heterosexual view of the world.
I am old enough to remember when the GOP was a party of conservative economic views, but was also a party that supported civil rights. Sadly, it seems that party is dead, and we are left with a group of extremists who have caused our national government to become ineffective and mired in partisan divide. They seek to do the same thing in our schools, unless we all vote to stop them.
Cecil Larry Pool, Midlothian
Aim for diversity of thought at colleges
Re: “Patrick, tenure and critical race theory,” Feb. 27 Letters.
In this opinion section, you printed 14 letters about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s call to withhold tenure from newly hired professors, 13 of which lambasted Patrick. Unless the editor’s thumb is on the scale when selecting letters, it appears you are losing right-wing readers at a faster pace than left-wing readers.
Patrick’s idea is overreach, but it does call attention to the woeful lack of political diversity among college professors. It is time for an affirmative action program in hiring professors until we are able to attain a diversity of political thought at the college level that mirrors the diversity of political thought among all Americans.
Joe Strawn, Far North Dallas
Academic freedom equals truth
Prairie View A&M University is the only HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the Texas A&M system, and the first publicly funded HBCU in Texas. Prairie View A&M is rich in history and proud to have risen to a Carnegie R2 tier university for “high research activity.” We, as faculty, have passed a resolution through our faculty senate to protect our faculty’s tenure and uphold the foundation of higher education, which is academic freedom.
To protect our faculty from any censure, impunity and repression of free discourse in our classrooms, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s attempt to silence faculty must be opposed. Topics such as critical race theory, gender and LGBT should be discussed in our colleges and universities, as these topics affect our understanding of history, economics, political science, sociology and other disciplines.
We, the faculty of Prairie View A&M, raise our voices through our united pen in defiance to any attempt to silence professors with the threat of revoking tenure for speaking on critical race theory. We will fight with our pen and our votes against backward thinking.
Revoking the tenure status would not only hurt intellectual freedom but would have commercial impacts as well. Think of the global impact of the discovery of fullerene, which gave rise to nanotechnology that has impacted us on the global level. Two of three Nobel Prize winners for that discovery were tenured professors from Rice University. Tenure equals prosperity in Texas. Academic freedom equals truth.
Merlyn Pulikkathara, Prairie View
Assistant professor and Faculty Senate speaker, Prairie View A&M University
Biden not to blame for gas prices
Re: “Energy costs already up,” by Patricia Johnson, Feb. 27 Letters.
Johnson would like us to believe that President Joe Biden is the sole cause of the increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline. Johnson states that one of Biden’s first acts as president was to curtail oil and gas production when in fact the president only halted new oil and gas leasing on federal onshore lands and offshore waters “to the extent consistent with applicable law.” Note the use of the word “new” as it pertains to oil and gas leases. And according to a recent story in The Washington Post, the Biden “administration approved more than 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits in its first year, nearly 900 more” than the previous administration approved.
Additionally, Johnson suggests that this administration surely knew that because of simple economic supply and demand factors that the price of all goods and services would increase. I would invite Johnson to learn about the substitution effect and how electric cars, wind-generated electricity and rooftop photovoltaic systems change that dynamic.
Bruce Turner, Mesquite
Back Ukraine even if it hurts
Those of us who value democracy and freedom should be standing with Ukraine. All nations should cut off Russian oil imports. If it means paying higher gas prices, so be it. Are we so soft and entitled that higher energy prices cause us to look the other way when fascism and dictators threaten the free world? That’s a pittance compared to what Ukrainians are enduring and what our fathers and grandfathers suffered in World War II.
Danny Barnes, East Dallas
No newspaper in ice for us
There have been so many letters in the newspaper commending their carriers for delivery during the two most recent ice storms. I feel the need to chime in and say that if there is even a hint of ice, we do not receive our newspaper, including during the two most recent bad weather incidents. What gives? I guess those of us in our neighborhood who read the newspaper daily don’t rate!
Ronnie Roese, Dallas/Lake Highlands
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