Disturbing camper talk
The other day, my grandson (10 years old) had a disturbing experience at summer camp. After introducing himself, and mentioning his mother was from Mexico and his father from Boston, another child started calling him Juan and then Pedro.
Since these are not his name, which he had just given, my grandson was upset. The kid went further and said he was going to call ICE and have my grandson deported, and his parents, too. He bragged he could get $3,000 apiece for them all.
My grandson resembles his mother, who is from Mexico, but has been a U.S. citizen for years. His father’s family (mine also) have been citizens for generations, originally immigrating from Canada, Ireland, Poland and Russia.
Opinion
Are we a country where our children learn to identify people for deportation by their appearance? Where masked agents, showing no identification, arrest people because they look like they might be illegal?
That is not the country I fought for. I’m hoping this nonsense doesn’t last long.
Jack Perrin, Keller
Forget parking garage
Re: “Rethinking a remake — I wrote a book on Philip Johnson. His Dallas skyscraper does not need a tacked-on garage,” by Mark Lamster, online story and Sunday Arts & Life.
As one of the architects involved with the original build, I also have to agree with Lamster’s position. The banking hall was and is a significant part of the composition and a wonderful indoor space.
Every effort to repurpose this space must be made. The new Texas stock exchange immediately comes to mind or maybe it’s time for downtown to develop a high-end shopping experience like Chicago’s The Shops at North Bridge.
I applaud the repurposing of the Tower. Hospitality and residential could help activate the area. As for parking, isn’t Dallas reducing the number of parking places required in an effort to support mass transit? Start here.
Rex Carpenter, Dallas/Casa Linda
Parking plan out of date
I share Lamster’s concerns about the proposed redevelopment of the Comerica Building. While perhaps not an architectural masterwork, it is an articulate expression of the era in which it was built and, like most buildings, eventually becomes a fond element of the fabric of the city.
To replace its major public room which could support future adaptation for any number of public/private uses with a parking garage at a time when the entire question of urban parking is being rethought seems to already be well out of date.
Donald Gatzke, Arlington
No need for a wall now
Re: “Texas GOP’s New Issue — After years of putting border security first, Republicans now turn to political corruption,” Wednesday editorial.
This editorial references the fact that “Daily [border] crossings dropped from 1,500 per day to 30 per day, NPR reported.”
Assuming that is true, why do we need to spend $47 billion for the construction of a physical wall? Sounds like we already have all the tools we need to control border crossings.
David Shiring, Carrollton
Treat all with dignity
The editorial contrasts the heavy-handed tactics of ICE and the securing of the border. Then states, “Americans should welcome the latter and condemn the former.” How can we condemn the former if you don’t provide information describing firsthand what is taking place in our city?
On June 21, as we have for several weeks, we stood outside the Dallas ICE office holding signs calling for justice and adherence to our Constitution on immigration policy.
Toward the end of our vigil, a young woman exited the building with her friend. Tearfully, she told us her husband had come in for his scheduled appointment, only to be detained. Three days later, he is now being held in an un-airconditioned room with 23 other men, including elderly individuals, in stifling heat, with minimal access to food or water.
She explained that her husband has no criminal record, works hard and is the father of two young children. As we were leaving, a Dallas Fire-Rescue truck arrived, followed shortly by an ambulance. I was worried that someone inside that overcrowded, overheated room suffered a health emergency.
This is not the America I know. When did we become a country that punishes people for seeking due process and that imprisons fathers of young children in unsafe, inhumane conditions?
It’s time we came to our senses. We must treat every person — immigrant or not— with dignity, decency and basic humanity.
David A. Haymes, Dallas
The many and the few
Never in the field of political endeavor has so much been taken from so many and given to so few.
Scott Mashburn, Dallas/Merriman Park
It’s hard to be proud
I am proud to be an American. I served my country voluntarily, when that wasn’t very popular. In doing so, I went places I had never been, and places I would never want to go back. I have seen things I fondly remember and some I dearly wish I could forget, but can’t.
In those years I served with many like myself. Some didn’t come back. I am proud to be an American, but today, the way the country is being run, I am not proud of America.
Richard Boslow, Plano