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Ted Cruz told the truth about January 6 — until Fox News demanded a retraction

That’s not Texas courage, Ted Cruz

After calling the insurrectionists of Jan 6 “terrorists,” Sen. Ted Cruz publicly backtracked on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, apologizing to the Republican base. (Jan. 11, 7A, “Cruz made headlines, but other GOP cowardice is more worrying”) He won’t defend his wife, his children or even himself.

If Cruz had fought at the Alamo, he would have been the first to cross the line in the sand, tuck tail and run like the coward he is.

- John Cobarruvias, Houston

Just make the effort to vote

Have voting rights been restricted in Texas? As a disabled person, I cried foul at first. Voting is a right, not a privilege, but as with any right, you have to exercise effort to fulfill it.

That’s not to say the new state law doesn’t need revision when it comes to mail-in ballots. But early voting days and hours make it convenient for all to vote. And it’s easy to register. Put forth the effort to register and vote.

Edgar Henderson, Bedford

Remember them a different way

Driving on almost any road or highway, we see memorials set up from those who have lost loved ones in accidents. Some are so elaborate that they have metal crosses, teddy bears and flowers standing 3 or 4 feet tall. City workers have even mowed around them. Passengers can safely look at them, but drivers who look could cause the same kind of fatal accident that led to the memorials to begin with.

When do these displays become litter and need to be taken down? And is it legal to erect one on public property without a permit?

- Sue Mitchell, Fort Worth

Vaccines must be more widespread

In a short time, omicron has become the dominant COVID-19 variant, disrupting lives and livelihoods all over the country.

Billions of people around the world don’t have access to vaccines, and COVID-19 continues to thrive, resulting in more variants. While people living in wealthy countries have widespread access to vaccines, the vast majority in the world’s poorest countries haven’t had a single shot.

The only way to break this cycle of inequity and see a return to normal life is to beat this virus everywhere. If we want to protect our jobs, economy, families and those most in need, then we need to vaccinate the world to end the pandemic for good.

- Stephen Bunt, Irving

And which other letters are those?

Mayor Mattie Parker explained away her choice not to join other U.S. Conference of Mayors members in their support of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by saying, “I don’t sign onto every letter put out by the organizations of which I’m a member.” (Jan. 11, 1A, “Council member critical of mayor over voting rights letter”)

Did anyone think to ask her which other letters she didn’t support?

- Doris Gluck, Fort Worth

We don’t need new voting rights

What new voting rights do citizens need? Would someone please be specific on what is preventing citizens from voting rather than using a barrage of angry, meaningless words?

The only voting right I am interested in is for my vote to be accurately counted and not offset by a suspicious, unverifiable vote. That means any voter should show a photo ID or other approved identification to vote or request a ballot as proof he or she is a citizen.

The left has fought photo ID requirements for more than a decade by claiming that some people do not have time or the means to get one. Surely, 10 years should be enough time to obtain one.

If you are still against requiring photo IDs, please tell me: What services can you obtain today without one?

- Jim Nadeau, Colleyville

It doesn’t mean we’re lesser

I’ve had enough. As we head into our third year of the pandemic with the biggest surge in COVID-19 cases to date, please stop telling us every day how many of those who lost their lives had “underlying conditions.”

If the point is to reassure healthy people to carry on as usual, that message has been received. What is the message now, that some lives are not as important as others? It is an insidious message that has been used by authoritarian regimes for centuries to justify the genocide of the elderly, the disabled and the ill.

For a community and a state whose majority believes in the “right to life,” this is a sickening contradiction.

- Beth Llewellyn McLaughlin, Fort Worth