Letters to the Editor: Work to strengthen safety nets must continue
Work to build better safety nets
for families must get more funding
Re: Jan. 18 commentary, "Not time to stop short: Building a just future."
Rep. Doggett’s op-ed highlighted the need to build better safety nets for the thousands of families still on the brink in these still-perilous times.
I applaud him for that. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 87% of Texas families with yearly incomes below $35,000 spent their expanded Child Tax Credits on basic needs (food, clothing, rent, mortgage payments and utilities).
If the Senate chooses not to continue robust funding for the Child Tax Credits, low-income families will lose this critical lifeline, and we will deny funds to the 91% of Texas’ children who stand to benefit from expansion.
Without the measures in the Build Back Better Plan to buoy Texas’ families how will we end this pandemic? What kind of world will we leave for the next generation?
At this point, Sens. Cruz and Cornyn must support Build Back Better or make peace with doing a disservice to all of us.
Hwa Young Lee, Austin
Invest in welfare of foster kids,
or stop calling yourself pro-life
Re: Jan. 17 article, "Judge abhors conditions for foster kids sent out of state."
It appears that Texas isn’t ready to take care of the children that they are now forcing women to have. These are women who knew they weren’t ready or prepared to take care of children. Texas legislators are pro-birth, not pro-life. Once the child is born, the child and mother are on their own for affordable housing, medical care, food and childcare. If the parents are unable to provide these for their children, the children frequently end up in foster care.
And now we read in the Statesman that Texas is also unprepared to care for these children, that Texas is sending its foster children to other states. States that are also not prepared to responsibly care for these children, whom neither their parents, nor their home state could care for adequately.
Texans, stand-up and invest in our children’s ongoing welfare, or stop calling yourselves pro-life, you are only pro-birth.
Karen Balthrop, Austin
Insufficient Texas gun laws
or we're not enforcing them
A British man with a criminal record comes to Texas, obtains a firearm and ammunition, and takes worshippers hostage. Four U.S. citizens are held for nearly 11 hours and narrowly escape death. They freed themselves because they had previously chosen to be trained for this, because this is a reasonable fear in Texas today.
I expect the FBI will tell us how long this terrorist was in the U.S. before he was able to get the weapons and where he got them. His brother, Gulbar Akram, said: "He's known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?"
Who benefits when our system allows this to happen? Texas laws are either insufficient and need to be strengthened, or we are not enforcing them, and should put more resources into that work. Who exactly is being protected? Legislators, do your job.
William V. Dower, Austin
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman Letters to the Editor: Jan. 23, 2022
