Here’s to Jerry Jones: Keep wrecking them Cowboys!

Recently I watched “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys,” the new Netflix special about Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the rise and breakup of the early 1990s dynasty. From the time Eagles fans are kids, they’re taught by their elders to despise the Dallas Cowboys. This documentary helps reinforce why those lessons are justified. For eight episodes, Jerry Jones wiped away tears, crying in reflective self-pity for allowing his ego to get in the way of his relationship with coach Jimmy Johnson. And then what happens this year? That same ego leads to the departure of one of the best defensive players on their roster in the Micah Parsons trade. I hope Jones lives another 50 years.

Go Birds.

Chris Lang

Bethlehem

It’s important to learn about the US Constitution

I was recently pleased to learn that Sept. 17 of each year is designated Constitution Day and Sept. 17-23 as Constitution Week to commemorate the Constitution’s signing in 1787. In 2004, changes to the law mandated “each educational institution that receives federal funds, Federal agency or department, provide educational and training materials concerning the United States Constitution.”

As George Washington said, “A primary object … should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what duty more pressing on its legislature than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”

Colleen Sutton

Lower Saucon Township

Trump is responsible for negative headlines

In response to a letter to the editor on news headlines being too negative regarding the current administration, on Day 2, Donald Trump eliminated the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and in April $1 billion from the Safer Communities Act, including funding for antiviolence programs and mental health programs at schools. Twelve million people will lose health insurance, and the administration plans a pilot program for patients to require prior approval from Medicare to cover the cost of an operation — talk about clogging up phone lines, and massive paperwork delaying those operations. The Department of Energy has withdrawn a $716 million loan guarantee for an offshore wind project in New Jersey, and canceled $679 million for other renewable energy contracts, resulting in losses of jobs, paychecks, health care and pensions. Energy prices have increased about 10% this year. Over 125,000 federal employees had their jobs eliminated this year. The Cato Institute reported about 65% of current immigrant detainees have no criminal background, as of June 14, and were assigned “no ICE Threat Level,” but they are still detained, and costing taxpayers $45 billion over the next four years. Maybe this is why there are so many negative headlines.

Debora Getz

Richland Township

RFK’s vaccine conspiracies driving out real science

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s vaccine conspiracy has any truth in it, why in God’s name does the military still require vaccination of our soldiers?

Thus far my elected representatives, in apparent obedience to a president who promised to let RFK Jr. “go wild,” have approved his nomination and haven’t yet called for his resignation despite his history of promoting antivaccine misinformation and recent actions in office that have led to a mass exodus of senior scientists and fierce criticism from major medical organizations.

For example, on Aug. 28, Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, the country’s largest registered nurse union, wrote: “Secretary Kennedy’s seven-month tenure at our nation’s highest public health agency has been characterized by one disaster after another, and it has dangerously eroded public trust in the institutions that are so critical for the health and safety of all Americans. It is time for him to go,”

Karl Schwartz

Upper Nazareth Township

Placement of guns ad was deeply insulting

In the Aug. 28 Morning Call, page 12, a gun sales advertisement ran just below an ad promoting “High School Game of the Week Challenge.” What a poor choice given the unconscionable number of mass shootings associated with our schools. For many readers, we regret that the paper even chooses to run ads promoting guns. It may seem like a small thing to you, but such choices are deeply insulting to all of us touched by gun violence.

Karen West

Lower Macungie Township

Sanctions on Putin, Russia are only way to get peace

President Trump is playing checkers and Vladimir Putin is playing chess. The Alaska meeting was a waste of time and money, and only served to embolden Putin. The only way to get Putin to agree to a fair peace deal is to cut off the revenue that fuels his war machine. The time is now to impose the severe sanctions that will squeeze Putin. Stop wasting time on retribution and autocracy creation; focus on national security, energy, growth and world stability.

Andrew Kahn

Salisbury Township

Trump should try gun control as anticrime measure

President Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops into Washington highlights the issue of crime in America.

Trump did correctly state that the homicide rate per 100,000 people is less in Bogota, Colombia, or Mexico City than in Washington.

But Trump did not explain why the murder rate is so much higher in the U.S. Is the police force better run in those cities? Is mental health a lesser issue? The answer is obviously no. The big difference is guns.

Colombia and Mexico have gun laws that are starkly different from the US:

Guns must be registered
Significant background checks are required before a purchase is approved
Purchases only through the government
No automatic weapons

Having near total control over Congress, Trump could demand they immediately pass a gun law like those in Colombia and Mexico. The murder rate could drop. That is certainly better than the short-term fix of sending in the National Guard.

President Trump likes to say that we must stop the killing in Ukraine. Now, he has the chance to do that in the U.S. A Nobel Peace Prize would surely await him.

Cliff Bridges

South Whitehall Township

The Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication.