Opinion

“My fellow Americans, I am today ordering that Monday, August 3, shall be a national day of mourning. All of us should take time on that day to honor the memories of more than 134,000 souls taken by COVID-19. Flags will be lowered to half staff.” - Donald J. Trump, President

Much of the nation is experiencing a prolonged heat wave, so of course your humble columnist counterintuitively conjures up WARM MEMORIES to comfort himself.

The real question for thousands of Texas Republican delegates on the invitation list for what was going to be an in-person state convention next week is just like the one facing parents deciding whether they’re comfortable sending their kids to school in a few weeks.

Editor,

I’m getting a whole-house attic fan installed this week – just like the one my father had installed in my childhood home – and I cannot wait to cool my house using his oldtime methods.

Say what you will about the things Gov. Greg Abbott has been doing during this pandemic, but make note of the verb: “doing.”

The construction of the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) by the Kinder Morgan Corporation is a perilous and unprecedented threat to the Texas Hill Country. From the beginning of this project, Kinder Morgan demonstrated a thorough lack of concern and understanding of the ecological sensitivities, the hydrological uniqueness, and the sensitive nature of our region.

Today, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our local municipal and county courts, are, through their actions or unwillingness to act, creating an insurmountable roadblock to employment and education for the economically disadvantaged in our community. This burden manifests itself in the form of inaction or a hardened and unwavering reaction on the part of local prosecutors and/or the courts to attempts made to resolve outstanding arrest warrants by these individuals that, in many cases, stem only from minor violations of the law like speeding, illegal lane change or running a red light.

The spread of the coronavirus in Texas is accelerating. State leaders dither, following the example of national leaders — all of them afraid to impose unpopular restrictions and many of them doubting epidemiologists and other medical and public health officials as overly dramatic Chicken Littles.

Dear Editor,