Letters to the Editor – Mass shootings, digital divide, Baptist ministers, crypto mining

How long must we wait?

What remains of our American conscience will be revealed by those whom we elected in their response to Tuesday’s school shooting. This horrific tragedy in which 19 innocent children lost their lives demands actions that transcend political parties, the gun lobby and any other distraction.

We are living in a very dark time, one not only exemplified by Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, the potential of an errant North Korean missile attack and China’s threat to Taiwan, but our own inexcusable failure to enact laws protecting our children and families.

At this seminal moment in our nation’s history, the actions of our leaders will define us as a people. My deep fear is that they again choose to do nothing. Party and power and Second Amendment camouflage will carry the day as grieving families bury their children and we wait for the next mass shooting.

America is better than this. How long must our families and children wait for those with the power to also have the courage not to make America great again, but safe again?

Bill Lively, Dallas

So much has changed

It used to be we got to the last day of the school year, and the thought was we made it through and summer is here! Now parents’ thoughts are that we made it through the school year without our kids being shot. So sad.

Sara Gandy, Richardson

Texas has wrong priorities

Another mass gun shooting in Texas, in a school, no less. No serious legislation has been proposed to protect the innocent, but don’t we all sleep better at night knowing that public school libraries are being deeply scrutinized. Texas should be very ashamed.

Kathy Johnston, Carrollton

Kampis misunderstands issue

Re: “There are better ways to close the digital divide — Dallas’ broadband proposal is expensive and unnecessary,” by Johnny Kampis, Sunday Opinion.

Kampis does not understand Dallas, much less South Dallas.

Being glued to an ideology in evaluating solutions when you don’t understand the subject always leads to bad outcomes. Had he read the report I delivered to the Dallas County Commissioners Court on May 4, 2021, he may better understand that areas in Dallas do not have access or affordable access. We need equality of access and opportunity for all of Dallas.

Question the number, not the need. Cooperation is needed across city and county departments to deliver cost-effective access to the underserved in Dallas. DISD has facilities. DART has fiber. Dallas Water Utilities has easements. The list of assets goes on.

Subsidies don’t work. They stifle quality and innovation. Handouts do not work but breed dependence. Underserved communities should not have to decide between broadband expenses that exceed 8% of household income or all they spend on utilities, education and health care, combined!

Bold leadership is needed. I commend the work of Commissioners J.J. Koch and John Wiley Price, but they can’t do it all. Statewide, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar is doing a great job.

But leaders need to do better.

Todd Furniss, Highland Park

A house without a door

Re: “Sex abuse response is faulted — Leaders stonewalled, ‘even vilified,’ victims, damning report says,” Monday news story.

The sad dark side of the Guidepost Solutions report on sexual abuse by Southern Baptist ministers is knowing how easily any male of any age — there are precious few women in their pulpits — can find a church somewhere that believes being “called by God” is the only real credential required for stepping into a pulpit.

Not to ignore the sexually scandalous behavior by some well-educated leaders who were actually seminary-trained, Southern Baptists must find a cure for their unfortunate addiction to individual church autonomy, under which notion every Baptist church answers to God and no one else. It may sound wonderfully democratic, but it is a house without a door for any predator eager to give pastoral ministry a shot.

My father was a Texas Baptist pastor for 52 years, and I believe he would join me in viewing this scandal as one more reason to reflect on the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.

Hal Wingo, Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Clamp down on crypto mining

Re: “Texas’ crypto welcome mat — Bitcoin, blockchain companies drawn here by regulatory environment, success,” Sunday business story.

China’s restrictions on crypto mining (the use of vast amounts of computer power, hence electrical energy, to “earn” bitcoins) has prompted a rush to other regions with more favorable climate and regulatory environments. Texas is one of these targets, which the Legislature should preempt as an unnecessary burden on our grid and elevated carbon load.

Texans are already justifiably on edge about the reliability of our energy supply and are being told to conserve during even modest weather events. The general public should not be made to take on additional cost, risk and environmental burden (for generator usage, infrastructure and distribution necessitated by the intense operation and cooling of crypto mining hardware) so that a few can create money for themselves while impacting the needs of others.

Computers crave cooling as much as we do! It’s the hidden burden ploy with little to no societal benefit: A small additional cost to each of many consumers would go directly into the pockets of a few crypto tycoons. Or we could be like Kazakhstan and suffer more brownouts and blackouts before, as ultimately China did, flipping the switch on these miners.

Robert M. Lebovitz, North Dallas

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