Letters to the Editor — Israel and Iran, work ethic, No Labels, IVF

Stop arming Israel

I urge all U.S. citizens to contact President Joe Biden to ask him to suspend all transfers of offensive arms to Israel to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the killing and starving of Palestinians.

This must be done before other Muslim countries in the Middle East join Iran in attacking Israel, leading to a regional war. As we can see from the attacks by Iran, there is no way for the fighting in the Middle East to end unless Israel ceases hostilities.

Israel is not equipped, even with U.S. support, to fight multiple Middle East countries. There is no fighting solution to the Middle East conflict and the attempted purge of Palestinians from Israel. The only solution is for Israel to stop its genocide of the Palestinians before more attacks from other countries are made and the war widens, causing more devastation in Israel and across the region.

Then the world can then work on reducing other hostilities in the region, including the rights of Palestine and Israel to exist in the Middle East.

David Troiano, Highland Village

Holey reasoning

Re: “Get to work, America — A shocking number of people have left the labor force when jobs abound, hurting themselves and their country,” by Dallas Cothrum, Sunday Opinion.

Thanks so much for publishing this hilarious rant on the working-age idlers who are poisoning America by failing to live up to his work standards. I’ll bet he’s a big hit at Thanksgiving and other family gatherings.

His reasoning is so full of holes, it’s hard to pick where to quibble, but I will say this: If he would stop to think way back to when he (and I) were young, he might recall that at any given time, upwards of 50% of U.S. residents between 25 and 54 in some locales did not work by his definition — they were called housewives.

Many of these housewives met with hostility and resistance from their husbands and others when they attempted to join the ranks of wage-earners. Now it appears we’ve come around 180 degrees to where housewives, househusbands and others who opt out of chasing the dime are dumped on for that decision.

This would be a sad statement on human nature if it weren’t so absurd.

Jennifer Kolmes, Richardson

Many-headed monster

Cothrum assures his readers at the beginning of his polycephalous column that, because we’re newspaper readers, we’re bound to agree with the unsupported thesis that America is losing its work ethic. He then scatter shoots at readers even more unsupported claims, non sequiturs, gripes, clichés and whole topics. Channeling bosses everywhere?

Speaking of work, he should buckle down, choose one issue, and give his thesis the support of some warrants and backing that might actually persuade his readers, before we quit this gig.

John Ogren, Dallas/Oak Cliff

Hungry for leadership

Re: “No Labels didn’t fail; political parties did,” by Mike Rawlings, Sunday Opinion.

It is disappointing that No Labels couldn’t place a candidate, although I fully understand the reasons why.

Rawlings suggested that disruption may well be headed for U.S. politics. I sure hope so. Disruption has impacted so many industries — Uber, Airbnb, Amazon shopping. My business, the film and video production industry, was turned upside down.

These disruptions, while bumpy, ultimately resulted in far superior user experiences. Some make the point that former President Donald Trump was a political disruptor. They are right. He was certainly heavy on the disruption part, but there was no subsequent improvement to the institution he disrupted.

There is a hunger in the country for reasonable and rational leadership, officials who work for everyone’s benefit, not just their own party members. No Labels has four and a half years to find, groom and market a new centrist candidate. Hopefully the group will spend that time wisely. If it does, the landscape may be quite different for the next presidential election.

David Seay, Plano

Restricting IVF

Re: “GOP groups seek to restrict IVF — But state party isn’t so sure about adopting resolution,” Sunday Metro story.

Texans, wake up. The Republican Party is coming after you, your rights and freedom. The decision of the Alabama Supreme Court that a few human cells in a freezer is a child makes as much sense as saying that an empty beer can in your recycling bin is an automobile.

The fact is that the majority of first attempts at IVF fail. If a frozen embryo is a child, then that must mean parents who knowingly expose that embryo to that outcome are at least guilty of attempted manslaughter and maybe murder.

Well, that’s Alabama; this is Texas, and that would never happen here. Well, guess again. Sunday’s News reports two county Republican parties have passed resolutions to ban or restrict IVF. Now the issue will be taken up by the state party, and state leaders, rather than standing against this hard-right agenda, are hedging.

I have an adorable granddaughter whose smile lights up a room. She is the result of her parents’ first attempt at IVF. But what if, like most first attempts, they had failed? Should her parents be in jail?

Paul Sokal, Dallas

Men’s opinions

Wes Thomas, Greg Abbott, Matt Mackowiak, Matt Rinaldi, Jon Speed: What do these names have in common? They are all men. Not one single woman was quoted regarding whether the Texas GOP should adopt a resolution to ban or regulate IVF.

I have an idea. How about passing a resolution that to make reproductive decisions for women in Texas, you have to be able to carry a baby?

Betsy Crawford, University Park

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