National security at stake

Re: “Global health is good for security — Pandemic compels us to see the importance of preparedness and international cooperation,” by Dr. Bill Frist, Sunday Opinion.

As we stumble our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, this column by Frist was spot on. In 2003, the Senate, with Frist as the majority leader, enacted legislation that became known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It focused on how America would lead the world in combating the AIDS pandemic that killed millions worldwide by following a road map based on the principle that “our national health ... depends on global health. And the ability of other countries to prepare for and respond to outbreaks directly affects our own health security.”

President Donald Trump has totally ignored this road map by playing politics and the blame game. Our economy has been devastated, and unemployment is soaring. He has slashed health preparedness while spending billions on national defense while more Americans have died from COVID-19 than died in the Vietnam War. Trump is more concerned about slashing U.S. Postal Service funds to influence voting than supporting public health by following the science. In November, vote like our country’s health security depends on it — yours does!

Susan R. Ansley, Colleyville

Moral compass not included

Re: “A Fractured World Needs U.S. Leadership — America must not lose sight of its greatest strength: the morality of individual liberty,” Sunday Editorials.

This editorial was as unpalatable as a salt-free diet. The morality of individual liberty assumes everyone has a moral compass with a sense of community in which “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.” I don’t see that in a country where violence is the response to being asked to wear a mask.

Individual liberty will not confer power as long as it is not recognized universally. It does no good to build institutions to fight disease and bolster democracy anywhere if there is no infrastructure to maintain these things. We have seen this in our own country. As for the abandonment of people struggling against tyranny, what did the House and Senate just do when they recessed for vacation?

America is no longer in a position to fix the world’s problems until it repairs the damage being done to our democracy by elitist, self-serving politicians.

Cynthia Stock, Garland

An argument against Biden-Harris

Your editorial emphasized, “America must not lose sight of its greatest strength: the morality of individual liberty.”

I am sure you did not intend to give the perfect reason to reject the Democratic party and especially the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020.

The new Democrats are collectivists to the core and despise individual liberty. Their answer to any issue is more government control, not individual liberty. It is Social Security, Medicare for All, free college for all, a guaranteed income, a right to housing, etc. All paid for by transferring wealth or purchasing power from one group to another. The antithesis of individual liberty. They are about the power of the state and bureaucracy over the individual.

Thanks for giving this insightful revelation to all your readers. Triple dog dare you to print this response.

Neal Okerblom, Garland

Same old, same old

This editorial is nothing more than the same old left-wing “blame America first” ideology. “In the presidential election this November, it should be clear that what’s at stake is the strategy that will determine American leadership and therefore shape world affairs for years and perhaps decades to come.”

If this statement had been followed by, “And that is why we are recommending Joe Biden for our 46th president of the United States; he will emerge from his basement and lead us into a millennium of peace and prosperity,” those statements would have expressed the essence of what this editorial was trying to accomplish.

Don Skaggs, Garland

Best of luck

Here’s wishing the New York attorney general more success in her lawsuit against the National Rifle Association than 19th-century creditors. They frequently closed noncollectable debt ledgers with the entry, “GTT” — Gone to Texas.

Michael E. Egan, Far North Dallas

A commitment to vote

As we celebrate the centennial of the passing of the 19th Amendment, I applaud the commemoration. However, as a woman of color, I am well aware of the fact that the 19th Amendment did not give minority women the right to vote. It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that my ancestors were given the right to vote. And that is why I am so committed to voting myself in each election for which I’m eligible and to encourage and push my family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

The need to vote this year is even more evident than ever. The shenanigans utilized by the Trump administration and the Republican Party to suppress voter rights is so evident that it is sad. The late Rep. John Lewis and others like him did not go through all of what they did for us to sit back, even in the midst of a pandemic, to be complacent. So, I say to those who would try to deprive us of our legal rights, bring it on. We will not back down.

Thelma S. Clardy, DeSoto